EA contracts UTA

The gaming and film industries have been close collaborators for quite some time, but recently the line separating the two industries has begun to blur. Shortly before last week's E3 Media & Business Summit, France-based gamemaker Ubisoft purchased 300 digital effects house Hybride Technologies in an effort to augment its own filmmaking ambitions and aid in the migration of Tom Clancy-inspired war games to celluloid.

Now, one more player in the gaming industry is getting an agent--in a very literal way. Electronic Arts announced today that it has signed with United Talent Agency for representation in the film and television space. EA did not indicate any particular title slated to make the transition to the silver screen, but did call out a number of its original franchises, including Army of Two, Need for Speed, Dead Space, and Mirror's Edge.

"UTA is an ideal partner for us to bring the richness and story telling nuance of our popular games into other forms of media that give consumers more ways to experience these creative concepts," said vice president of EA Entertainment Patrick O'Brien. "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."

EA isn't an entirely new entrant into the film medium. In 2007, 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to make a film based on the publisher's massively popular Sims franchise. While details on The Sims are sparse, it will reportedly be a live-action film, produced by John Davis (Predator, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) and written by Brian Lynch (who is also working on the Shrek spin-off, Puss in Boots). EA also revealed earlier this year that it would be partnering with Starz's internal studio Film Roman on an animated, straight-to-DVD adaptation of its forthcoming Dead Space survival horror action game.