The Movies

Along with the Xbox-only Fable, The Movies is the other original concept from Black & White developers Lionhead. Published by Activision, The Movies was still in pre-alpha at the show (ie, it wasn’t feature locked), yet it still managed to attract a favorable crowd despite the allures of the huge Rome: Total War booth that Activision placed right by it.

The Movies puts the player in charge of a movie studio, letting him run it from the year 1900 all the way to 2010 (and beyond, but there will be no technology updates or scripted events to make a difference in the years thereafter). At the start of course, films will be recorded by hand-cranked cameras, with no sound and grainy black and white images. As the game progresses, the player has to research technology to keep up with the other studios (or even stay ahead of the game).

The Movies can create its own movies and let the player deal with the business side, or the player can make his own films. According to the developers, a movie can be six scenes or one hundred. The scenes are filmed on a variety of sets and are scripted to follow certain archetypes. The action plays on as dictated by the script, but there are sliders that control the outcomes of each scene.

An example the developers showed us was the end scene of a film, with the male and female leads coming out of an elevator onto the bridge of a starship. There, the movie’s director automatically chose a happy ending, with the main characters in a passionate embrace. The scene, like most, had a slider with three positions. The default was happy, but there was also an angry selection, and an unhappy one, where the male lead came aboard the bridge holding the body of his beloved. This slider appears in every scene, dictating the main theme of that scene. A driving scene will have a slider determining the amount of action, for example.

The main part of the game seems to involve the management of your movie stars. Each star is rated on a variety of scales – his list, his vices (overeating, sexual activity, etc.) They all start off as fresh, grateful actors who need training and coaching, but it doesn’t take long before they grow egos and start walking around with an entourage which constantly tells them how great they are. A star will make demands for items like their salary and their trailer, and if these demands are not met, the character might get angry enough to leave the studio.


As might be expected, these stars have lifespans – so they’re good for certain roles at certain points in their life. A 60 year old male doesn’t make a good romantic lead, any more than a 20 year old can be a father figure. Stars are also suited to some kinds of roles more naturally than others, and they can be conditioned for these. Action movies demand fit, healthy actors. Morose dramas are no place for super models. Dramatic actors will take exception to being cast in silly comedies. For their roles, characters need costumes and there are thousands of combinations – it’s impossible to describe them all.

The game’s producer mentioned that the game should be in alpha in two months or so, and hopefully will make it out on PC, the only platform, this year.