‘Blacklight’ Is A Movie, A Game, And A Comic Book?

[UPDATE: We've got the very first screen shot of Blacklight, courtesy of First Showing and Zombie Studios.]

Blacklight is the title of a multi-media-spanning project currently being developed by Fox Atomic, Union Entertainment and game-developer Zombie Studios. The central story involves a special-ops squad sent to a war-torn region in the near future where, of course, things hit the fan.

At first glance Blacklight might seem like Call Of Duty’s illegitimate cousin, but don’t be fooled: there’s something very unique about this project. Blacklight is being developed as a multi-media experience made of equal parts video game, comic book and feature film. Provided that the venture results in a kick-ass product (products?), Blacklight might change the way developers approach multi-media.

Up until now the term “multi-media experience” has been mostly a joke. A project is usually conceived as being one thing– a game, a comic, a movie–and then that main concept gets 95% of the time, effort, and budget thrown at it, while any other media or merchandise get half-assed developed and pushed out at the eleventh hour. Capitalism at its suckiest, baby.

Well apparently Blacklight is looking to do away with the old trend by bringing all parties to the table at the onset, working in unison to conceive and develop the project. So far the word is that Fox Atomic is moving ahead with the Blacklight feature film, hiring screenwriter Jason Dean Hall to both handle the script, as well as the over-arching “world concept” of the Blacklight continuum. Big job.

Zombie studios, which is responsible for the Blacklight video game, is currently trying to leverage the movie deal with Fox Atomic into a publishing deal for the game. Union Entertainment, which specializes in developing and producing movie/comic/video game projects, is keeping all parties coordinated while also handling some of the production duties on the movie and game aspects of the project.

No word yet on how far along (or not) the Blacklight comic book is into development, who will publish it, or what it will entail. I’m sure we’ll get those details as soon as the developers think them up.

The near-future dystopia of Blacklight.

Blacklight: the future of warfare on three fronts.

An actual screen shot from Blacklight

As I mentioned earlier, Blacklight (the video game) has been described by Zombie Studios co-CEO and Blacklight creator Mark Long, as “a team tactical shooter set in the near future. A near enough future that it could be based on science fact, not fiction.” You can expect that the movie and comic book will probably build upon that theme.

If you want to learn more about everything that Blacklight will offer, you can check out this interview Variety conducted with the Blacklight’s head developers.

How do you feel about the prospects of a multi-media project like Blacklight? Think it will change the way multi-media gets done, or will it be another case of fans getting the good, the bad and the ugly from a “multi-media experience?”

Source: Variety & First Showing