E3 06: Reservoir Dogs, Michael Madsen to grab E3's ear

Reservoir Dogs has one of the highest cast mortality rates in recent memory. Lawrence Tierney, the gruff character actor who played crime boss Joe Cabot, died in 2002 of pneumonia. Edward Bunker, the ex-con-turned-cult-author who played Mr. Blue, died in early 2005 of complications from cancer surgery. Chris Penn, the beefy brother of Sean Penn who played Joe's son "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, was found dead in his apartment just this past January.

One Reservoir Dogs star who is still among us is Michael Madsen. Madsen played the psychotic Mr. Blonde in the film and famously sliced the ear off a bound-and-gagged cop to the sounds of "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel.

Next week, Madsen will find himself stuck in the middle of gaming's biggest event. Eidos Interactive announced today that the actor will be on hand at its E3 booth to promote the game adaptation of Reservoir Dogs for the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. He'll be joined at the venue by Karima Adebibe, the latest model to play Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft.

Today's Eidos announcement is just the latest turn in Reservoir Dogs' convoluted road to release. In 2003, British publisher SCi Games announced it had acquired game rights to the film from its distributor, Artisan Entertainment. Then, in February 2005, it announced it had struck a deal with Take-Two Interactive to distribute the game in North America. Now, it seems the game is back in SCi's hand--or that of its now wholly own subsidiary, Eidos.

Reservoir Dogs is set for release this fall on all platforms. GameSpot will have more on the game from the E3 show floor.