The British trailer for the upcoming Prince of Persia movie is quite different to the American one. Theirs comes complete with not just new footage, but a handy voice-over as well.

The festival is happening in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Philippines and this looks like the first year they’ve ever had a machinima category in the 11 years the festival’s been around. Voting for machinima films is happening now and you can cast your vote here.

The results will be made public October 20.

Thanks for the heads-up, Joshua!

Sure, there are lasers and aliens and intergalactic fighting. If you were born with a penis and played with action figures as a kid, that kind of thing appeals if you’re looking to make an expensive popcorn flick. But there’s also something a little deeper than that.

Here’s Blomkamp speaking with movie site Rotten Tomatoes:

I totally love the universe of Halo on every level. Not only is it this epic space saga but Master Chief is such an awesome character. This guy – whether he knows it or not – is a victim of this military-industrial complex. It’s a totally compelling world to be involved in.

You know, I never thought of him as that. A victim. You’re so busy kicking arse during the games that you never stop and wonder whether Master Chief actually enjoys his job, or how he came to get stuck in a robot suit saving the galaxy from purple aliens (OK, so the latter you might if you’re the type to read up on expanded universe material).

Neil Blomkamp Talks District 9 [Rotten Tomatoes]

He seems to think the movie is still all stations go, posting on his Twitter account “Prison Break may be ending, but I’ve got things in the works. Hint… one word: Bioshock.”

While the movie is stalled in pre-production, that doesn’t mean the team aren’t looking at actors. Will they have already hired him? Doubtful, but he’s obviously been speaking with somebody involved with the flick.

Wonder if he’s already running around his house, in his jammies, shouting “BBZZZZZ” at the postman as he pretends to shoot bees out of his arms…

‘Prison Break’ Star Teases Appearance In ‘BioShock’ Film [G4]

The Street Fighter movie poster we’ve seen so far? Bit rubbish. This is the “international” version. Does the addition of some hot Vega claw = improvement?

Other changes: gone is the confusing montage-on-white motif of the US poster, replaced by one that looks more like the poster to a movie about martial arts. Also helps that the international design doesn’t make it look like an ad for The Transporter.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li international movie poster [Capcom]

The video game industry is exploding in Australia, with new figures released yesterday showing games revenue double that of box office revenue and 40% larger than the DVD market.

The figures were released by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, so they of course are a bit biased, but the numbers certainly look good. The games industry brought in $1.96 billion Australian in calendar year 2008, increasing 47 percent over the previous year. For the same period, box office revenues were $946 million and movies on disc took in $1.4 billion.

What’s the reason behind the jump in gaming? Casual family gaming.

Ron Curry, chief executive officer of the IEAA, said gaming had evolved from “the guy sitting in his bedroom with his PC being anti-social” to a “much more social and a whole family event”.

He cited recent research from Bond University showing that 68 per cent of Australians played video games and 88 per cent of houses had a gaming machine.

“We’ve seen a 137 per cent increase in family games – things like music and dance games, party games, puzzle games, that sort of stuff is really making up the bulk of the dollars,” he said.

Another triumph for the casual and social gaming sectors! Once we’ve got them all hooked we’ll slowly begin scooting the towards more traditional genres. Perhaps a 3D first-person game where you pet puppies.

Video games thrash movies and DVDs [The Age]

Written and directed by the guys behind cult classic Usual Suspects, the WWII drama recounts the July 20, 1944 plot by high-ranking German officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Described by Nick over at Giz as something between Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbour, the film features an all-star cast, including Cruise, Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy.

Yeah, ok, so the ending is a foregone conclusion, but it is an interesting look into one of the (relatively) more successful attempts on the Nazi leader’s life.

It’s just a shame the officers- and Cruise- didn’t have this to help them practice beforehand…

Hit the jump for the film trailer.

News from Hollywood here, kids, and the news is good. In an interview with IGN, movie producer Paul W.S. Anderson has revealed that not only is the Castlevania movie stalled, but Spyhunter is stalled and then some.

On Castelvania:

We still want to make the movie, but I can’t say we’re going into production in January or anything like that. It’s a project that everybody likes. I love the videogame. I think the script is really strong. Everyone is really enthusiastic about it, but we’re still in the process of deciding when the movie gets shot.

If it was so great, Paul, “now” would be the time the movie gets shot. Pleasantries can’t mask the fact the movie is, for now at least, going nowhere.

And on Spyhunter, he says the script “wasn’t strong enough”, so he’s removed himself from the project. Without a producer attached, that movie is not only going nowhere, it’s going nowhere fast.

Castlevania in Limbo [IGN Movies, via MTV] [Image]

Seems filming has already begun in Canada, and the movie will star Maggie Q, Sean Faris, Will Yun Lee and Darth Maul himself, Ray Park. Those guys all have movie martial arts experience, that’s the good news.

The bad news is this:

It also looks like the King of Fighters movie will introduce a new science fiction spin into the setting established in the games’ universe by following the surviving members of three legendary fighting clans who are continually whisked away to other dimensions by an evil power. As the fighters enter each new world they battle that universe’s native defenders, while the force that brought them seeks to find a way to invade and infect our world.

Huh? Wha?

You have until 2010 to prepare yourself for disappointment.

Exclusive: King of Fighters details revealed [Movieset]

This week saw a thought-provoking post on the issue of escapism and games by Simon Ferrari — do games really qualify as escapist? What, exactly, are we escaping from? Compared to the classic example of big budget 1930s musical spectacles, which allowed audiences to ‘escape’ from daily life. But as Ferrari points out, this is not what most games wind up doing:

… Escapism works, quite literally, as an escape from real world ills. Video games don’t necessarily do this. If we sought an escape from violence and terrorism, then we wouldn’t have so many video games on the market focusing on just these two issues. Rather, many video games seek to provide catharsis for the mental ills that plague us all. We don’t see games about Iraq, but there are plenty of games that attempt to deal with the same “forces of evil” that fearmongering pundits fill our heads with through metaphor or displacement.

Even Mario wages battle against the totalitarian, (literally) draconian Bowser.

It’s not a very long essay but definitely worth a read — as are a lot of pieces on the new blog.

Model Propaganda [Georgia Tech Journalism & Games Project]