GameDaily BIZ sat down with Epic Games’ CliffyB and chatted up the upcoming Gears of War movie. The range of questions discussed includes CliffyB’s thoughts on the Halo movie, his impressions about film studio New Line and his opinions on green screens.
First, with the Halo movie still on hiatus, CliffyB proudly exclaimed that the Gears movie is moving along but that he would ultimately like to see the Halo movie done as well. He admits that even though Halo clearly has the #1 recognizable presence in gaming now, people would like to see the Gears movie because of its story and characters.
"I would love to see a Halo movie. You have the number one most recognizable character right now for gamers, which is Master Chief. I think in some ways Gears excites me as a movie because you have these actual characters and faces and they have their own personalities."
Next, regarding Epic Games’ decision to partner up with New Line for the Gears movie, CliffyB said the partnership was clearly going to happen. My guess is that New Line sees lots of potential moneybags for the movie.
"Partnering with New Line on the movie is like partnering with Microsoft on Gears…New Line, having done Lord of the Rings, they know how to back a very risky but also a potentially very lucrative franchise and make sure it’s treated with the respect it deserves."
Lastly, CliffyB talked about his opinions about the use of green screens in films and Hollywood’s aversion to "R" rated movies. He quickly discloses that fans won’t have to worry about a less than a R rating for the Gears movie.
"That’s a budget concern that they did 300 for $60 million in front of green screens in Montreal and it was a huge success. My concern is that Hollywood has this love-hate relationship with rated R movies… The fact that Gears is an M-rated franchise and involves people getting chainsawed in half, it’s got to be a pretty f***ing hardcore movie."
