Director Peter Jackson Considers Developing Original Games

Peter Jackson is considering creative ideas that he might develop as original games, not films, the director revealed in a recent media interview. Jackson, who recently completed the The Lovely Bones and is best known for directing the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, told Ain't It Cool News he is "enjoying these games more than I am enjoying films at the moment," particularly as games are increasingly "using a lot of the film techniques now, especially the cinematic areas." His immediate game development projects are comprised of unspecified levels of involvement with game tie-ins to the upcoming Tintin -- to be published by Ubisoft -- and a game -- likely to be published by Warner Bros. -- based on The Hobbit films, which he is producing (but not directing). Jackson specifically said that "I am kind of involved with a Tintin game and obviously the beginning of The Hobbit game." He also implied there will be game adaptations of "all of the other scripts we are working on at the moment." But Jackson stated his intention to work on projects that are conceived first as games, not movies. "I think some of the ideas I've got, I'd rather do them as a standalone game," he said, "because that world is getting more and more interesting." Previously, Jackson was known to be involved with Wingnut Interactive, a studio co-founded with Microsoft. It was established in 2007 to work on the episodic Halo: Chronicles, which Jackson himself confirmed last July had been canceled. The state of that studio is not known.