Ubisoft gains rights to James Cameron’s Avatar

In an official announcement heralded via press wire, Ubisoft proudly touted their agreement with Twentieth Century Fox on developing a video game adaptation of James Cameron‘s “Avatar,” a feature film that would realign the filmmaker firmly within the Hollywood blockbuster types.

Cameron, known for his renderings of “Titanic,” “True Lies,” “The Abyss,” “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” and “Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” is now recreating a new, surreal world on the Earth-like paradise of Alpha Centauri. The stories plot places an ex-Marine between physical conflicts occurring among life forms, called the Na’Vi, and emotional conflicts stirring within himself, as he struggles to conform his human mind inside an alien body.

And with special effects veterans WETA Digital (“The Lord of the Rings,” “King Kong”) contracted by Cameron to create a captivating alien world complete with photo-realistic sceneries, life and cultural detail into the highly-anticipated motion picture, he is giving Ubisoft complete freedom to develop the game independent of the movie experience. Cameron himself stated:

I told the Ubisoft team I wanted them to be free to do their very best work, and not think of this as a movie-based game. They responded with a fully realized presentation which captured the soul of the world and the characters, while promising to be a knockout game on its own terms. Their passion inspired my confidence that they are going to do something transcendental.

With more than six months to go, Ubisoft plans to release the game simultaneously with the motion picture’s premier on May 2009. But on which platform the game will be released has not been stated officially, beckoning us to reconsider a multi-platform release as with all other movie-based game releases. More on the genre and other details of the game as they roll in.

In an official announcement heralded via press wire, Ubisoft proudly touted their agreement with Twentieth Century Fox on developing a video game adaptation of James Cameron‘s “Avatar,” a feature film that would realign the filmmaker firmly within the Hollywood blockbuster types.

Cameron, known for his renderings of “Titanic,” “True Lies,” “The Abyss,” “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” and “Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” is now recreating a new, surreal world on the Earth-like paradise of Alpha Centauri. The stories plot places an ex-Marine between physical conflicts occurring among life forms, called the Na’Vi, and emotional conflicts stirring within himself, as he struggles to conform his human mind inside an alien body.

And with special effects veterans WETA Digital (“The Lord of the Rings,” “King Kong”) contracted by Cameron to create a captivating alien world complete with photo-realistic sceneries, life and cultural detail into the highly-anticipated motion picture, he is giving Ubisoft complete freedom to develop the game independent of the movie experience. Cameron himself stated:

I told the Ubisoft team I wanted them to be free to do their very best work, and not think of this as a movie-based game. They responded with a fully realized presentation which captured the soul of the world and the characters, while promising to be a knockout game on its own terms. Their passion inspired my confidence that they are going to do something transcendental.

With more than six months to go, Ubisoft plans to release the game simultaneously with the motion picture’s premier on May 2009. But on which platform the game will be released has not been stated officially, beckoning us to reconsider a multi-platform release as with all other movie-based game releases. More on the genre and other details of the game as they roll in.