With the hit adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 under his belt and a feature based on the Alan Moore comic Watchmen in the can, director Zack Snyder has become Hollywood’s latest wonderkind. Now the filmmaker wants to take on the video game industry as well. He has inked a deal to develop three original games for Electronic Arts (EA).
EA has been aggressively pursuing relationships with leading filmmakers, inking a similar deal with Steven Spielberg in 2005. The first title under that partnership, a Nintendo Wii puzzle game called Boom Blox, hit retail earlier this year and will be followed by at least two more games developed by Spielberg and the EA development teams at the EALA studio in Playa Vista, Calif.
The intellectual properties generated from the collaborations with both Snyder and Spielberg are owned by EA, and any filmed adaptations that may arise will be produced by the filmmakers. Snyder will spearhead any movie projects through his Cruel & Unusual Films. There are currently games based on Watchmen and 300 in development at Warner Bros. Interactive and Brash Ent., respectively.
The highly anticipated Watchmen movie is slated to hit theaters in May of 2009, but the release may be held up or suspended indefinitely due to a lawsuit filed by 20th Centry Fox, which claims to have film rights to the graphic novel. The case will go to trial on Jan. 6.
