"Godfather" game lawsuit, "Gears" director, and other news from last week

I'm back and catching up. Here's some of the big videogame news last week that I missed...

-Mario Puzo's grandson is suing Paramount to get a cut of the profits from the "Godfather" game.

-"Underworld" director Len Wiseman is now attached to direct "Gears of War" at New Line. This is good news, at least for those who want to see the "Gears" movie happen, since once New Line was downsized and folded into Warner Bros, there was reason to worry whether the project would survive. Apparently it is and by attaching a fairly big director, the new New Line is signalling it's still a priority.

-After the rather dismal showing exhibitor- and fan-wise at last year's E for All, IDG had some good news by announcing that Microsoft has signed on. With "Gears of War 2" coming this holiday season, that'll be at least one really big draw for gamers. And it's probably the reason why the show's October timing works well for Microsoft.

-EA's bid for Take-Two got extended for a fourth time and the latter company has finally reached a deal to turn over all the material the FTC wants to investigate the proposed agreement. And Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick continues to be uninterested. What exactly does EA think is the endgame in all this? Fascinating.

-Longtime EALA chief Neil Young, who has recently been heading up the mysterious new Blueprint group focused on developing new content in new ways, has left EA to work at his own company. I had been hearing he was unhappy and trying to land a new job for the past few months. Company vet Louis Castle is taking over Blueprint, which is in charge of the Steven Spielberg games, amongst other things.