LOTR director Jackson ready to quit films

11 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has revealed he "is getting a little bored with films."

Mr Jackson, whose third movie in the Rings trilogy won 11 Oscars, said: " I do not have to keep delivering stories as movies - there are other things I can do."

Exactly what those things are was revealed at a Xbox event in Barcelona, at which Microsoft revealed a deal with Jackson to create a series of games for the 360 games console and its online service Xbox Live.

Mr Jackson said: "More and more I'm looking forward to the release of games and not movies. I am more and more excited about games."

"Technology is at a point where we can blend a lot of film storytelling with interactive entertainment."

Mr Jackson's wife, screenwriter Fran Walsh is also on board the new venture.

The duo have set up an interactive firm Wingnut - their first project will be to create a Halo spin-off with creators Bungie Studios.

Halo is one of the most popular games on the console, boss of Xbox Peter Moore said: "We put the best platform in the hands of the best story-tellers."

However, it's expected their other series will not satisfy the traditional hard-core gamer.

The new games will include deeper plot lines and more interactive drama - appealing to a wider audience and in particular women.

Shane Kim, vice-president of Microsoft Game Studio, said: "I don't want to classify it as a game. I'm hoping to stretch the definition of interactive entertainment to go beyond the game."

Although he conceded he did not know exactly what these new "entertainments might be."

"I feel like we haven't figures it out, to be honest," he said.

Mr Kim said it its working to broaden video games with the aim of making them as mass market as literature, movies and music.

"Hopefully, we'll come up with the secret code to unlock all that potential."

Microsoft also announced its new high-definition DVD player, which will be available in November as an add-on the Xbox 360, would be bundled with a copy of Jackson's film King Kong and cost £130.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in