Paramount, Midway Deal Changes Entertainment Landscape

It's been all over the trades for the last 24 hours, but it's still worth mentioning that Paramount inked a deal with Midway Games for the rights to the game developers upcoming science-fiction action thriller Area 51, according to this Business Wire release.

The game returns X-Files star David Duchovney to his alien-hunting roots, as he voices Cole, a Hazardous Materials Division specialist called to the secret Air Force base Area 51 after a viral outbreak forces the base into automatic lockdown.

What's interesting here is that Christine-Forsyth Peters, one of the producers on How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, will now be working with Midway Games – presumably to develop a storyline from that game that would be appropriate for the big screen.

It's a great – if not slightly odd – move, getting a movie company involved in the mid to late stages of development; however, it does create the opportunity for two events to happen: it will help Paramount release a movie within a year of the game coming out (Area 51 is slated to hit stores next summer), and it allows filmmakers to get a first-hand view of what the actual game is about.

Of course, the deal could also end in unmitigated disaster. As with the AOL and Time Warner merger a few years back, it's going to be interesting to see which side ends up controlling the creative process from here on out. The two mediums rely on different components to make them great – games with interactivity and movies with drama – and keeping that straight has been an issue.

Money is always an issue with game development though, and Hollywood has proven better at deferring its costs with licensing deals and product sponsorships. If this partnership works, it's likely we'll see more movie companies moving to strike deals with big name game developers in the early stages of creation.