For this edition of Throwback Thursday I want to revisit one of my favorite video game themed films and how I was fortunate to be involved in making it the classic it is!
In 2005 while working as the VP of Development and Licensing at Majesco Entertainment, I had the honor of meeting and working with a number of A-List actors and talent agents. For about a year I worked very closely with the Interactive Division of Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help match their roster of A-List talent with video game projects. During that time CAA also represented me to a number of tabletop game publishers.
Through various relationships I had then in the entertainment industry, I met and became friends with Kang Ng, who oversaw the IT department for Happy Madison. One afternoon I received a call from Kane and a producer, Mark Johnson, regarding a new film they were working on entitled Grandma's Boy. Mark was seeking two games for the film, one that looked fairly far along, and a second one that needed to appear partially developed. They also wanted me to help them acquire various arcade machines such as Dance Dance Revolution and other props to help them dress up the video game lab set for the film. After reading through the script, I flew out to the West Coast to met with Mark and Kane at Happy Madison's offices on the Sony Pictures back-lot.
I proposed that they use a game we had in development at that time called DEMONIK. This was being developed by Terminal Reality, a Dallas based development studio who was responsible for Majesco's BloodRayne series of games. The game seem perfect for their needs. We also discussed what the second title needed to look like. That game was eventually entitled ETERNAL DEATH SLAYER 3.
After we delivered the games, I was brought on as a set designer to help make the lab look as realistic as possible by decorating it with various game posters, video games systems, action figures, etc. In some lab scenes you can see that a few of the game posters are showing Majesco games. I spent a lot of time on set and became friendly with all the actors, especially Alan Covert, the star of the film. I even had a walk on speaking part, which of course, ended up on the cutting room floor. (Doh!)
Overall it was an incredible experience and still remains one of my favorite films. Oh, and by the way - "Don't judge me, monkey".