Hollywood is currently bent on turning games into movies – the quest for Myst being the latest example of this obsession – and movies into games.

On the small-screen side there’s also a lot of game-related to-ing and fro-ing from medium to medium. And some pretty high-profile Silicon Valley/Hollywood hybrids are gearing up to create truly interactive tv content.

With all manner of new-media opportunities opening doors to new revenue streams, it’s no surprise everyone is joining the convoluted fray – game-as-movie/tv-series-as-game; the order is reversible, but don’t forget to add the book, toys and t-shirts at some point.

Despite the dubious box office benefit (anyone remember Disney’s Super Mario Brothers pic?) of a game-premised film, and the poor hit-to-miss ratio of cds, many believe a one-medium project is too small to achieve global market visibility. To successfully launch a new property, the players want the attack to be on several fronts, and the quest for profile (be it ratings, box office or shelf space) has made for some strange bedfellows.

With the kind of production slates/budgets and international presence Canada’s public companies enjoy, the possibilities as to what, how and with whom they tackle the emerging markets are wide open.

Alliance: if the game fitsÉ

‘We’re already there,’ says Alliance Productions president Steve DeNure of the new wired circuit that includes cds. ‘Johnny Mnemonic is a big feature film that will be released with a major marketing push behind it. It’s based on a short story by a very well-known cyberpunk author, and on the Net there’s rumors about `Johnny’s coming’. And with ReBoot, we’re there as well.’

At this point in the game, Alliance is tackling things project-by-project as an offshoot of its existing production business.

First up was the sale of rights for production of the cd-rom game based on the Johnny Mnemonic feature to Sony Imagesoft; DeNure says Alliance will have a share in the Mnemonic game’s success, and is ‘paying attention to what they do along the way.’

Next is the computer-animated tv series ReBoot: Alliance is in discussions with a number of companies about how best to adapt the series for other media. Given the demographics, buzz, upcoming feature and basic premise – games are downloaded into the world of Mainframe each episode – the first 100% digitally animated series is perfect for game opportunities. ‘I can’t think of a better launching padÉit’s poised for takeoff,’ says DeNure.

As part of a restructuring of Alliance Productions, former Seattle-based Starwave executive Steven Mendelson was brought on board at the company’s l.a. office, part of his brief being new media.

At this point, DeNure says Alliance is using the strengths of some of the projects it currently has in production to get into the new-media game, but eventually, the company will develop projects specifically for the game market.

Paragon: virtual development

Last year, Paragon Entertainment entered the battle by shooting live-action footage for Fahrenheit, a game for Sega. Despite having been in the heat of things, Paragon chairman and ceo Jon Slan says the company’s strategy is ‘to delve cautiously into this new area.’

Slan and Gary Randall, president of Paragon Productions, have spent a fair bit of time getting up to speed in the new-media arena. They’ve visited the headquarters of various companies active in the field, in addition to conducting their own hands-on research. In Paragon’s l.a. office screening room, there’s an interactive lab setup with every new video game platform there for the testing. (A fringe benefit of conducting their own market research, says Slan, is his son enjoys visiting him at work.)

Currently, Slan is in the process of making a deal with a major software developer (name undisclosed pending signing) in the true video realm. Paragon is developing five original concepts for games, and Slan says the goal is to have one or two in the stores by next Christmas.

The intention is to develop to an advanced stage then license the games non-exclusively to the various platforms. Slan says Paragon wants to do games that are story-based so the concepts also have a shot at tv development, and is also looking to do two-hour tv movies based on some of the game premises.

One of the tv pics Paragon is currently developing could be said to have a game-based premise. Charm is about a virtual reality game with a glitch in it – players get lost there, and the hero (male), teamed with Bliss, a female vr cohort, go after the missing players. Slan says Charm, which has been submitted to the cbc and has reached the brass at all three u.s. networks, has series potential.

He says the cycle could also go the other way – looking at existing Paragon titles to see if any have game applications. Slan has already had an offer from an interactive company to make four cd-roms based on Paragon’s children’s series Kratt’s Creatures.

As to production strategies in the game world, Slan says they might look to coventure, and seek advances from various platforms.

Atlantis: a holistic approach

Atlantis Communications has devised a three-step process for new-media exploitation: coproduction, rights, and online.

After pitching its cd-rom ‘storyworld’ concept based on the play Tamara at milia in Cannes last month, Atlantis is now in discussions with major distributor/publishers.

Hewon Yang, director, special projects, says Atlantis would like to coproduce. ‘I think new media is going to be very much part and parcel of content over the next 10 years and we have to evolve.’

With cd-rom coproduction experience under its belt, Yang says the next step for Atlantis will be to ‘evolve to a point where we can think very cogently, with a sound business plan, about a new-media division underneath the Atlantis corporate umbrella.’

Yang says she doesn’t think Atlantis will produce games itself. ‘If you look at the bulk of our programming, I don’t think we’re into twitch games for boys eight to 18.’

Part of the strategy, however, is selling rights – a mass-market video game has become one of the foundations of a strong licensed program. Atlantis is looking at third-party licensing deals and feels certain titles and genres in its library could work perfectly for game platforms.

Yang says Atlantis will also get into buying rights over the next year – titles which can be developed for both the new and old (tv) mediums. ‘I think we have to start looking at things holistically – that’s our revised approach in looking at new properties. The marketplace is so competitive it’s difficult to send out just a television show on its own.’

As to spotting properties ripe for both markets, Yang says, ‘We’re making the efforts to educate all of the executive producers here to know what to look for.’

She believes it is feasible to simultaneously but separately develop a project for new media and tv under the overall supervision of the executive producer, with an allowance within the schedule to shoot for a new-media application.

Looking at numbers that project an installed base of pcs with cd-rom drives growing to about 57 million worldwide by next year, Yang expects new media will represent 10% of production revenue as early as ’96.

As to Atlantis’ online plans, it is establishing a server site within the company to examine the Internet as a marketing and sales tool. As part of Atlantis Releasing’s distribution activity, a home-page presence for Epitome Pictures Liberty Street tv series was recently launched on the World Wide Web.

And while it’s old hat for the company, Atlantis continues to be pitched by game companies to produce tv series (its Maniac Mansion series started life as a LucasArts video game).

Says Yang: ‘As retail shelf space becomes really competitive, the game companies realize that it (a spin-off tv series) arouses consumer awarenessÉtelevision still has the largest installed base in the world.’

Coscient: uncertain fit

At Montreal-based Coscient there is no designated development department working on new-media ventures. Francois St-Laurent, vice-president international affairs, explains: ‘We consider this output when we create product, however, there’s so little evidence to look at the economic results of adapting for cd-rom.’

Another concern for St-Laurent is the way in which programming, such as timely info mags, would need to be altered for the cd format – i