With today's release of the Tomb Raider videogame reboot all attention will be on anything Lara Croft related.

And with that it comes as only a small surprise that developer Crystal Dynamics are to work alongside GK Films on rebooting the movie franchise.



As you're no doubt aware, Angelina Jolie previously played Lara Croft in two films. However poor critical and commercial reaction to Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, plus Jolie becoming a much bigger star than she had been prior to signing on for the first film, seemed to have put a nail in the coffin of any further movies.

Key to this new movie deal is that Crystal Dynamics have insisted on some element of creative control, particularly important considering the apparently "brave" direction they're trying to take the videogame series in.

GK Films have previously been responsible for producing Academy Award "Best Picture" winner Argo aswell as the upcoming World War Z.

In the words of the film makers

The intention of making this film was for it to be a spec film, with the primary purpose being to show how a Sonic the Hedgehog film, in a live action environment, can be executed.

The thing to take from that is that it's rubbish, cheap, and rubbish. Really rubbish in fact, with rubbish acting, but given that it's only intended as a proof of concept it is unreasonable to expect more

Should you feel the need to watch it the film is below

Show/hide video

After Persona 4 got a TV series which might/might not still be viewable at Anime On Demand, the animated film producers of Japan have turned their attention to the third game in the series.

Japanator- who also have a trailer- reports that the game will be adapted into multiple films, the first of which is due out in Japan this year.

Aniplex, who seem to be behind the film, have set up a website which features the protagonist and little else.

I don't know anything about the Company of Heroes games other than they're in the controversial THQ Humble Bundle at the minute.

Company of Heroes could be great, it could even be the most popular gaming franchise in the world for all I know. So maybe it is due to my own ignorance that Company of Heroes getting a movie adaptation is so surprising to me

I don't just mean 'has been signed up to one day possibly, not almost certainly not, get a movie adaptation', I mean there's a trailer below, and actual trailer with Vinny Jones and some block from Saving Private Ryan in. Madness.

The plot is that the Battle of the Bulge has left a small company of soldiers (or Heroes if you're a Sun reader) cut off from the rest of the Allied forces. They discover the Nazi's are testing a new weapon, and rather than return home to safety they go and investigate.

I'll leave you to judge the trailer for yourself, but it looks a bit cheap to me, although they have nailed the war-film music Show/hide video

After yesterday's movie news that might actually happen, here's some that very probably wont.

Scott Derrickson, who directed the 50% good Sinister but also Hellraiser: Inferno has been lined up to write and direct a film based on the excellent Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Human Revolution is one of those games that has no hope whatsoever of working as a film (imho). The world is great, I can see the appeal of that, but if you aren't involved, and if you don't spend the time building the plot, it's just a bad Bladerunner waiting to happen

I'll be honest I didn't think the Assassin's Creed movie would get off the ground. Yeah so the Prince of Persia film did well, and yes Michael Fassbender is set on making it, but it still looked unlikely.

Well Geoffroy Sardin, chief sales and marketing officer at Ubisoft told Gamesindustry.biz

“Another thing that is very important for the lifecycle is the transmedia offer. All the figurines, the books, the publishing, and we have a movie in the next coming year. So it's not only about games, we are talking about a global brand, and this is the life cycle management we want to set up now.”

By next year we can probably assume 2013, but as we've heard nothing about filming commencing I suspect it may be that production is starting in 2013.

Or perhaps we aren't talking about a live action film, maybe it's a CG or anime style film, which generally just seem to appear without much build up

Jamie Russell has written a book about the suite of videogame-based films, and it's called Generation Xbox: How Videogames Invaded Hollywood.

This apparently joyous occasion has lead to websites larger than us carrying what are either extended columns from the game's author, or excerpts from the book itself.

Wired US' Game|Life has what is definitely an excerpt, charting Microsoft's attempt at getting that Halo moie off the ground.

CVG, by way of PSM3, has another piece, which might be an extended column, rather than a piece from the book, being as it does cover the form more broadly than the Wired article.

The book was released on Monday.

According to a Variety article that apparently took three people to write, Electronic Arts are looking to take the NFS brand to the silver screen.

Seemingly taking The Fast And The Furious as its main inspiration, writers George and John Gatins have been hired to put the script together. Details of the plot is being kept secret, but I'm guessing that it'll involve driving expensive cars really fast.

It appears that the only studio not interested seems to be The Fast And The Furious owners Universal, with Paramount pictures looking to be the most likely to pick the franchise up.

Considering that it's a Grasshopper Manufacture title, we've given Lollipop Chainsaw a surprising lack of attention. But all that changes, as we find a way to shoehorn it into Loading Screen!

Talking to Edge at this year's Game Developers Conference, writer James Gunn let slip that publisher Warner Brothers "already approached me about [a film adaptation] early on"

Slightly ominously, it seems to be tied in to the game itself succeeding- Gunn goes on to mention that his prior films have had mixed results commercially, but working with an existing IP changes things-

if it's a product people are familiar with, it's a different story, If Lollipop Chainsaw has a big enough audience, which we hope it does, then I think a movie would be a great thing.

This is probably just Warner Brothers doing what it does. Since, unlike most games publishers, they've got a film studio knocking about, they're putting their feelers out to see if they can use it to make a few more bob off the Lollipop Chainsaw concept, than because they think it's worth being a film in its own right.

The game's due out in June.

The Americans have gone on and on about it for years, but finally the Uk and Ireland will be able to try Netflix for themselves next week.

Reportedly Nitflix have already signed deals with the likes of MGM, Lionsgate, and the BBC (why when iPlayer exists?), with the likes of Sony Pictures, Disney and Paramount likely to be announced soon.

According to this post on neogaf, the video streaming service is set to cost £5.99 a month, with a free trial on offer. It's also looking to come to PS3 (where the app is already available but doesn't do much), Wii and 360 (perhaps this explains the BBC link?).

We won't get anything like the same amount of content as the Americans, and Lovefilm looks to be the better bet if you want games, but £6 for unlimited streaming, depending on what's available, doesn't seem too shabby