EA Plans For Hollywood Expansion

Officials from Electronic Arts have announced that the company has signed with Hollywood talent and literary agency UTA, in an attempt to turn a number of its intellectual properties into large budget motion pictures and television series. Although no specific deals ware mentioned, the press release singles out titles Army of Two, Need for Speed, Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge from the company’s broad portfolio. The company is already planning a movie adaptation of the The Sims franchise, with a script currently in development at 20th Century Fox. An animated television series based on MySims is also in development at Film Roman, while an animated DVD based on the forthcoming Dead Space is also planned to coincide with the launch of the game. “UTA is an ideal partner for us to bring the richness and storytelling nuance of our popular games into other forms of media that give consumers more ways to experience these creative concepts,” said Patrick O’Brien, vice president of EA Entertainment. “Some of our teams have already made steps to expand our games into other forms of media like online, social networks and print publication. This partnership will help us take these efforts to the next level and match each of our titles with the right artists, producers and financiers,” he added. “We view EA as an emerging entertainment force, not just because they are a great untapped IP rights holder, but because at their core they care most about how viewers respond to their stories and creative vision,” said UTA partner Richard Klubeck.