Interplay Forms Partnership to Expand Into TV, Film Markets

Interplay Productions, one of the nation’s largest publishers of computer games, said it has formed a partnership that will seek to develop television shows and movies based on Interplay’s games and characters.

The Irvine-based company said it has formed a division called Interplay Pictures through a partnership with MediaFour, a Culver City-based production and talent management company.

“I’ve always considered Interplay to be a media company,” said Brian Fargo, founder and chief executive of Interplay. “We feel that now is the time to [develop] both our titles and new and original content for film and television.”

MediaFour was formed last September by a team of producers, agents and executives from such Hollywood powerhouses as Columbia Pictures and Creative Artists Agency.

Steve Sauer, a partner in MediaFour, said the firm will be in charge of securing financing for the projects with Interplay, as well as lining up writers, producers and other “talent” to work on them.

“CD-ROMs, games and interactive software are not dissimilar to what we grew up with in the way of comic books and the Hardy Boys,” Sauer said. “Look at the outgrowth of Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Dennis the Menace.”

Sauer said that the character in Interplay’s popular Boogerman game could be similarly exploited and that action games such as Descent could be made into movies the way the popular arcade game Mortal Kombat was last year.

Sauer said that no specific plans are in place yet and that it will probably be at least two years before the first projects are completed. MediaFour and Interplay will share in any profits from the venture, he said.

Unlike other computer game development deals in recent years, Sauer said, “Interplay will be active in production and not just be licensing their characters and stories to some third party.”