Convergence

The Matrix is an apt metaphor for itself as two new Matrix sequels films are being prepared for release this year, inextricably bound to a new video game premiered on Tuesday night:

A movie about machines creating an alternate reality for enslaved humanity is turned into a video game that draws the pretty and the powerful from the movie business to a lavish party to be amused by machines.

….”Enter the Matrix,” the most ambitious effort yet to marry high-powered Tinseltown talent with high-tech video game production …. and the next two “Matrix” films — “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions” — are virtually one and the same, since Larry and Andy Wachowski, who wrote and directed the movies, also wrote the game and shot an hour of original footage with the cast of the films just for it.

The offerings need each other to be successful: a big-ticket “Matrix” sequel will draw attention to the video game, while a popular Matrix video game will make people want to see the “The Matrix Reloaded,” due out in May, and “The Matrix Revolutions,” set for a November release.

“Entertainment is not about storytelling anymore, it’s about building universes where people can express themselves,” Bruno Bonnell, the chief executive of Infogrames, which will publish the game this spring, told Reuters at the launch party.

Does he mean, like, yelling at the movie screen? I think movies are still about storytelling, games may be about expressive universes.

“The way that (Shiny Entertainment President) Dave (Perry) worked with the Wachowskis, Warner and the producers is unprecedented and I think it’s an indicator of where things are going and where they should be going,” said Keith Boesky, an agent at Hollywood talent agency International Creative Management.

Boesky, who once served as president of British publisher Eidos Plc, joined ICM in the fall with a mandate to help bring Hollywood and the game industry together.

….Despite the increasingly close ties between the two industries, even some backers concede that the technology is still not far enough along for games to inspire the same range and depth of emotions for an audience as film.

“I think we’re five to 10 years away from complete acceptance,” Shiny’s Perry said. “The Holy Grail is that you burst into tears at some point.”

Now THAT’s a game I would play.