Harryhausen puts game plan into motion

Clash of the Titans effects wizard working on new films and game tie-ins.

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David Jaffe has cited mythologically minded films such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans as major influences on the development of the hit PlayStation 2 actioner God of War. Now it looks like Jaffe's future titles might have to compete with efforts from Ray Harryhausen, the big-screen, stop-motion special-effects expert responsible for those seminal films.

According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, Harryhausen is working with Mindfire Entertainment to create new films, TV features, games, and more under the "Ray Harryhausen Presents" banner. The first announced projects in the deal are a pair of films: one in Harryhausen's familiar setting of Greek mythology and another dealing with alien invaders. The special effects will be done with computers but will attempt to retain the spirit of Harryhausen's stop-motion work.

As far as the games go, Mindfire CEO Mark Altman told GameSpot that it was very early in the process, but there are still some definites. "They'll be very action-oriented and creature-centric, and the feeling is that this is a broader universe than just new films," Altman said. "It's particularly important for all of us who are Harryhausen fans to expose him to a new generation and a new audience beyond just those who grew up with pictures he was involved with...It hearkens back to when we were growing up to put yourself in these movies--I don't know if I want to be Harry Hamlin in Clash of the Titans, but if you could be the protagonist and fight these creatures, there's a visceral thrill."

As for why now is the time to introduce the gaming world to Harryhausen, whose special effects haven't been seen in a new film since Clash of the Titans opened in 1981, Altman said the technology wasn't there before.

"Maybe back in the day, the Atari 2600 wouldn't have done justice to what he was doing, but now where gaming is, it's such a natural fit. There's such a great synergy between the movies and games, given the genres that he's renowned for."

Altman said the company would begin looking for an external development house "once the material is more finely honed." Mindfire has never made a game based on a film before, but it does have experience bringing several game properties into the world of film. It played a role in creating House of the Dead and House of the Dead II, and is currently at work on DOA: Dead or Alive. The first films from the Mindfire-Harryhausen collaboration are expected to arrive in spring of 2007.

27 Comments

  • flarisek

    Posted May 25, 2006 2:21 pm PT

    Wow...could be really fun.

  • lonesn1per

    Posted May 25, 2006 9:31 am PT

    those 2 movies were flippin sweet!

    that golden owl! and that scary medusa!

    i wouldnt mind seeing stop motion with cgi if its done right.

    i hope one of those games are clash of the titans.....

    or he should do a story book style game where the chapters are based off different mythologies because there are too many to not make a game off of especially with harryhaseun's ideas!

  • Chebwa

    Posted May 25, 2006 8:53 am PT

    Any game remotely resembling Jason and the Argonauts will siphon $50 from my pocket.

  • bunty_007

    Posted May 25, 2006 7:47 am PT

    ...

  • chrisdojo

    Posted May 25, 2006 5:09 am PT

    ok

  • Georgefp

    Posted May 25, 2006 3:00 am PT

    This is good news. Harryhausen films are great. Looking forward to the films as much as the games.

  • daveg1

    Posted May 25, 2006 2:57 am PT

    a game with that animation could look pretty great especialy if its cell shaded!

  • Fallout_red

    Posted May 25, 2006 12:24 am PT

    I love his Jason and the Argonauts.

  • Stiler

    Posted May 24, 2006 9:37 pm PT

    Harryhausen is by far one of the people I most respect in the film and graphics industry. I grew up with Clash of the titans, jason and the argonauts, sinbad, etc and even today I prefer those films to modern "cgi" effects and such.

    There's just something about the style and such of his stop motion that cgi has yet to even come close to, everything always looks "out of place" to me in most cgi based films I've seen.

    I hope what he does both film and game wise does well and opens new people up to his older films and stop motion.

  • Cunder

    Posted May 24, 2006 9:28 pm PT

    with his style and the rendering the models graphics you can go far with the texture. this should come out, I have always loved Clash of the Titans.

  • LordGamer0001

    Posted May 24, 2006 6:56 pm PT

    sounds like we could have some pretty good games on our hands.

  • mgsseries4life

    Posted May 24, 2006 6:22 pm PT

    fanboy999... it's people like him that advance the industry so plz respect him.

  • fanboy999

    Posted May 24, 2006 6:17 pm PT

    I thought that guy died a while ago! He's a legend but making CGI look like stop-motion sounds pretty stupid. What does a 100 year old know about games anyways?

  • comthitnuong

    Posted May 24, 2006 5:52 pm PT

    its not gonna be good

  • rusty_ghia

    Posted May 24, 2006 5:18 pm PT

    I love Ray Harryhausen's work. I just assumed that he was dead, what with not hearing anything from him for a long time and his being really old, and all.

  • hadbavny

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:46 pm PT

    Ray Harryhausen worked on far more than just 2 movies - he also worked on several of the (excellent) Sinbad movies, One Million B.C. and more than a dozen other projects. You should IMDB him. A video game based on his style of animation could be amazing - though some might say that we already have that in God of War.

  • blackIceJoe

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:42 pm PT

    Sweet I can't wait to see what comes out of this.

  • NeoJedi

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:26 pm PT

    Clash of the Titans... man do I remember that movie. It was awesome. I hope the games are as good as his 2 movies were.

  • BurningWreck

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:10 pm PT

    Amazing...he quit years ago, I guess he's still got enough time to make a comeback.

  • spazzx625 Site moderator

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:03 pm PT

    Wow...this is a real shocker. I didn't even know he was still alive. I absolutely love what he's done for cinema, so hopefully these games will carry the same charm.

  • alrector81

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:01 pm PT

    Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts are GREAT movies!! I still prefer some of the old stop-motion special effects to today's computer animated junk. I'm excited to see how this turns out.

  • FuguNabe

    Posted May 24, 2006 4:01 pm PT

    Much respect to this guy but personally he should just stick to film. It may be interesting though... Just never know.

  • SaintSadistic

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:58 pm PT

    The video game-to-movies titles Mindfire has worked with make this article smell like poopie diapers.

  • MovieMan200x

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:58 pm PT

    The DOA movie will be aweful... anybody seen the trailer? It's just... I mean... come on!

  • timmy789

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:53 pm PT

    HMMM..... I wonder if the DOA movie will be any good.

  • youwillbesorry

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:53 pm PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

  • Yagami-Iori

    Posted May 24, 2006 3:51 pm PT

    I'd love to play a game with the same animation as Clash :-P

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