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Peter Jackson Not Pleased EA Experience

Posted by Zonk on from the could-have-been-better dept.

The New York Times reports in an article about the King Kong movie based game that director Peter Jackson wasn't entirely happy with his EA dealings. From the article: "Mr. Jackson, said close associates, chafed at his dealings with the industry heavyweight, Electronic Arts, during the making of the Lord of the Rings games. 'Electronic Arts was not interested in input from the filmmaker,' but later marketed the games as if he were closely involved, said Ken Kamins, Mr. Jackson's manager."

14 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. What's with the misleading headline? by volpone · · Score: 4, Informative
    The article has nothing to do with Electronic Arts. It briefly mentions it in a couple of sentences (conveniently copied above) as an aside. That's all.

    It's a good article, but come on, enough with the obligatory EA bashing.

    1. Re:What's with the misleading headline? by sgant · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, no kidding. I clicked on the article thinking it would be a whole story about this, but come on...it's mentioned in a few times in an article that has nothing to do with this issue.

      The summary that the main poster made was ALL of the EA stuff mentioned in the article!

      --

      "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
    2. Re:What's with the misleading headline? by MoaDweeb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Interesting to see the changes that PC/ console gaming has wrought upon the film industry. It has given them a new line up of tired ideas to create pretty, but dull, movies. Especially in the action genre are we far from where the films are basically promos for the game? After all it allows the financiers able to cash in not only on the movie (NZ$15) but also the game as well. The games (NZ$100) are always much longer and give a more immersive feel than the movies and keep interest alive until the inevitable sequel.

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    3. Re:What's with the misleading headline? by Delphiki · · Score: 2, Funny

      This is a good technique for slashdot. Now people don't need to RTFA too know all that the article has to say about the topic at hand.

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  2. Forget Peter Jackson by chriso11 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm sorry, but I can't get really bent about that. After Jackson basically chopped the LOTR, I don't give him much credit. If JRR had complained about EA not working with him, then OK, then there is someone who has a valid criticism.

    But where does Jackson get the "Only Official way to interpet LOTR" badge? If he wasn't happy with how EA made the game, and didn't want his name attached, he could have easily sent lawyers.

    --
    No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
    1. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by sgant · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Jackson doesn't get that badge...but he DOES get the badge for that particular vision of LOTR. It was HIS images and look and feel EA was using. If they didn't want his input, they should have brought in their own art directors and designers. It's not something he could have just taken his name off of when the entire thing looks like his movies.

      Something to think about perhaps?

      --

      "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
    2. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by tiraid · · Score: 2, Funny

      There were no Elves at Helms Deep! Where does that no good hack Tolkien get off writting a crappy book about Peter Jackson's movie!

    3. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by Kelson · · Score: 5, Interesting

      But where does Jackson get the "Only Official way to interpet LOTR" badge?

      If they were making games based directly on the books, then yeah, there'd be no reason to get Peter Jackson involved unless they wanted to. But they made games based on his movies.

      As for "he could have easily sent lawyers" -- he just as easily chose to pick his battles and vote with his wallet instead (by choosing another company the next time). Seriously, do *you* sue every business that does something you don't like? Or do you just file a complaint and take your business elsewhere?

    4. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by Ayaress · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So 10 minutes of some stupid video game excerpt was more important than explaining how Isildur died.

      Stuff like that was what worried me years ago when I first heard about the LOTR movies.

      Not that they would do this, but that they' WOULDN'T. LOTR, as it's set in the books, isn't very theatrical. There's a lot of walking. A lot of discussion and revisiting of old topics, lots historical background, lots of closure to plot lines lines that didn't actually play a part in the trilogy, some of which don't make complete sense unless you also read the Silmarillion or the Hobbit. There were lots of bits of minor excitement leading to entire chapters - and Tolkein seems to have liked long chapters - of talking and singing and carrying on (The Tom Bombadil stretch is a good example), which could be skipped without damaging the major plot thread.

      That works in books. It works very well in books, in fact. Just not in movies. With a movie, you have that invisible clock ticking - the LOTR movies were pushing the limits of how long I wanted to sit in a cramped, poorly cleaned theater chair pondering what caused the strange discoloration on the back of the seat in front of me.

      A lot of the backstory had to get dropped. Look at Serenity: One of it's main weaknesses is that it's an ending, not a beginning. People who didn't watch Firefly tend to be lost. LOTR had to be a beginning. It was pulling the series off the shelves of nerds and putting it in front of the entire world.

      Movies also have to end on a BIG finish. I liked the Scouring of the Shire, it was an important part of the books, but it wasn't that exciting compared to the apocalyptic battle that just finished. I've seen movies that end like that, and I find myself wondering more when it'll be done so I can go pee than what's actually happening.

    5. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by GaryPatterson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      He sure did "chop the LOTR."

      All the way from an unfilmable series of good books to a series of great films.

      The pieces of the book that were chopped were sometimes good (Glorfindel), sometimes bad (Bombadil) but in the end not central to the story. I'd have loved the Scouring of the Shire as well, but that's the way it is.

      It wasn't the absolutely perfect film trilogy it could have been, but it was pretty damn close. Using the books as screenplays would have turned out a horrible, unwatchable but incredibly accurate series of about six films. And the handful of fans that watched the final film would have wondered why the cinemas were so empty.

      This may be one of those times when you have to just accept that a director like Jackson knows what he's doing better than some random guy somewhere on the Internet.

    6. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by Grab · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It depends on whether you think the movie is all about Aragorn, or all about Frodo. It very much plays out JRR's experiences in WWI.

      Aragorn is your typical uber-hero. He's spent his whole life fighting. He gets through it OK, gets the girl, gets the kingdom and starts the rule of Men in Middle Earth. Merry and Pippin don't start that way, but they are clearly natural rebels to start with, and have extensive support structures in the armies they join.

      Frodo though is your typical "normal" person, put in a position where he has to do things totally outside his nature, left pretty much on his own, and fighting against horrors his life hasn't prepared him to deal with. He's the one who wins the battle, but he's completely spiritually broken by the experience, can never get over it, and in the end chooses to opt out of the world because he can't keep living with his experiences in a world that pretends nothing's happened.

      Half an hour of gayness? I guess The Deer Hunter was all gayness as well then?

      Yes, it could have been done better in the movie - and replacing Elijah Wood with a decent actor would have been a good start. The idea that LotR is all about people with big swords chopping each other up though is very far from the truth. If that's what you went to see, check out Arnie instead - you don't need a film with a plot or any kind of characterisation or character development.

      Grab.

    7. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by stevey · · Score: 2, Interesting
      He's the one who wins the battle, but he's completely spiritually broken by the experience, can never get over it, and in the end chooses to opt out of the world because he can't keep living with his experiences in a world that pretends nothing's happened.

      Not to mention of course that he failed his task.

      The fact that the ring was destroyed was due to Gollum. Frodo himself failed (though he did a damn good job up until the moment inside Mount Doom).

      I've always thought that was a large part of the reason Frodo was allowed to leave Middle-Earth (that and the wound of the Nazgul.)

    8. Re:Forget Peter Jackson by superpulpsicle · · Score: 3, Funny

      EA manager: We are making a fighting game.

      EA marketing: Let's use Peter Jackson's name and the LOTR name.

      EA dev: We have this D quality fighting game for 2 years, we just need to slap on a label.

      EA marketing: Mr Jackson please sign here for $$$ and direct credit to the game.

      Peter Jackson: Great. Now I think the environment should....

      EA manager: STFU. Let's put this game on the shelf asap.

  3. King Kong (the game) was made by Ubisoft by core · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The King Kong game was created by Ubi pictures (a division of Ubisoft located in South France), makers of Ray Man, Tonic Trouble, and Beyond Good & Evil. Not sure what that all has to do with EA except they may be distributing. They had a ton of news coverage here with Peter Jackson visiting the developers and whatnot. Would journalists be guilty of hyping an empty story? .. Nah..

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