WB Revives Terminator Salvation in Machinima Series
By amoody
Created 05/19/2009 - 00:00
Press Release from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution
Burbank, Calif., May 19, 2009 -- Halcyon Games, a division of The Halcyon Company along with Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution today announced the first full length Machinima series titled TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE MACHINIMA SERIES.
Produced in association with McG, director of TERMINATOR SALVATION, and Machinima Inc., this six part series utilizes real time computer animation generated from the TERMINATOR SALVATION video game and is set against an original story written by Andy Shapiro and directed by Tor Helmstein. Fans follow Blair Williams (voiced by Moon Bloodgood) on an action-packed journey that reveals the genesis of Blair William's involvement with John Connor's resistance unit two and a half years before the movie begins.
TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE MACHINIMA SERIES is now available on iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, Xbox Live and the Sony PlayStation Network. The cost per episode is $2.99 for HD and $1.99 for SD (where available). Fans can also sign up for a season pass and automatically receive future episodes every week for $14.99 in HD or $9.99 in SD (where available).
"From a film maker's point of view, Machinima provides an incredibly dynamic way to explore live worlds and tell compelling new stories," said McG. "The process allows the writer and director to think cinematically, while at the same time executing certain things that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive or even impossible on a set."
Machinima, a word derived from the combination of machine and cinema, describes computer-generated animation created in real-time by leveraging video game engines and environments. Revolutionizing the digital content creation process, Machinima.com is pioneering a cost effective way to produce high quality video content for multi-platform distribution. TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE MACHINIMA SERIES was entirely produced by leveraging Machinima techniques utilizing assets from TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE VIDEOGAME.
"Working with The Halcyon Company's motion picture development team and having produced a high-octane, story driven action shooter videogame using Grin AB's cutting edge 'Diesel' engine, we had an incredible basis to further explore stories set in the Terminator universe," said Cos Lazouras, president of Halcyon Games, creator of the TERMINATOR SALVATION videogame. "Re-purposing our game to produce the very first dramatic series in this medium is a fantastic innovation and will become the norm for game makers in the future."
"Machinima is the next generation of storytelling," said Diane Nelson, president of Warner Premiere. "After meeting with McG and Halcyon's creative teams we could easily see the power and potential of this type of content. The combination of McG and the Game maker's creative talent and the inherent essence of the man vs. machine concept made for a natural feature-length story."
About TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE MACHINIMA SERIES
The year is 2016. It has been thirteen years since Judgment Day, when the machines rose under the order of a self-aware artificial intelligence called Skynet. The human race is on the brink as Terminators hunt and destroy all remaining life.
The Resistance is the last hope for survival. Commanded by the remnants of a decimated military system, resistance fighters battle the machines of Skynet day and night without quitting. Blair Williams is one of these fighters. Blair is in her early 30's and is old enough to remember a normal life but vital enough to learn how to fight. She is highly skilled and superbly courageous - traits that often get her some of the hardest missions.
We meet Blair at the beginning of one of these missions. She has been sent into the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a known hot zone, to seek out and destroy something called "The Ghost" - a code name designated to a machine designed to interfere with Command's communications. The resistance knows that Skynet is ever evolving and this must be just another tactic to bring down the leadership. Without the ability to talk to each other, the Resistance would simply fracture and collapse. It was already starting to happen.
About TERMINATOR SALVATION
The Halcyon Company presents a Moritz Borman Production, in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, a McG Film, TERMINATOR SALVATION. McG (CHARLIE'S ANGELS, WE ARE MARSHALL) directed the film from a screenplay by John Brancato & Michael Ferris (TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES). TERMINATOR SALVATION was produced by Moritz Borman, Jeffrey Silver, Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson. Peter D. Graves, Dan Lin, Jeanne Allgood, Joel B. Michaels, Mario F. Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna served as executive producers.
Chantal Feghali co-produced the film and James Middleton was associate producer. The film stars Christian Bale (THE DARK KNIGHT), Sam Worthington (AVATAR), Anton Yelchin (STAR TREK), Moon Bloodgood (WHAT JUST HAPPENED), Bryce Dallas Howard (SPIDER-MAN 3), Common (WANTED), Jane Alexander (THE UNBORN) and Helena Bonham Carter (HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE).
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes cinematographer Shane Hurlbut (WE ARE MARSHALL), production designer Martin Laing (PEARL HARBOR), Oscar-winning editor Conrad Buff (TITANIC), costume designer Michael Wilkinson (WATCHMEN), Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Charles Gibson (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST), and animatronics supervisor John Rosengrant of Stan Winston Studio. The music is by four-time Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman (MILK,BIG FISH, GOOD WILL HUNTING, MEN IN BLACK). TERMINATOR SALVATION is being distributed domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures. Columbia Pictures is distributing the film in most international territories (excluding South Korea and select Middle East territories).
The film has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.
