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Studios Battling Over Unannounced Video Game Rights

by Alex Billington
October 31, 2008

Maybe video game movies are the next big thing? Four major Hollywood studios, comprised of Universal, Paramount, New Regency, and MGM, are in a "high-stakes bidding battle" for the rights to an EA Games video game that hasn't even been publicly announced yet. The only details that have been revealed are that it will involve a journey through the depths of hell. Tentatively titled Dante's Inferno, the game is a modern interpretation of the epic poem from Dante's The Divine Comedy. The game is scheduled for release late next year, but hasn't even been mentioned or shown publicly to anyone yet, which makes this whole bidding battle quite interesting. At least it will be gaining a lot of early buzz based on this news.

The only other video game that I can recall that had its rights bought up in a similar pre-release purchase was Kane & Lynch. Lionsgate picked up the rights to adapt that game roughly five months ahead of its release date last June, but hasn't actually started production on the film just yet. Obviously something about Dante's Inferno is causing these studios to take a big interest in it - as in, something is up with this game. Although this is a shot in the dark, I'm curious whether it's similar to BioShock but set in the "depths of hell," or something else along those lines, with the atmosphere and story being the biggest selling points. We'll be sure to update everyone once we do find out more details about the game.

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