John Singleton is helping Midway games develop a new gangster shoot-em up game:

Fear & Respect is a cutting-edge third-person action game that realistically depicts life in a South Central Los Angeles gang. You will step onto the streets fresh from prison as a “retired” OG who is reluctantly brought back into the life. You will shoot and brawl your way through multiple levels of gameplay, in an attempt to help your crew against the backdrop of a sweltering South Central summer. On these streets, it’s all about your rep, and only you can decide if want your enemies to look at you with fear—or with respect.[cite]

That's from the PR for the game. The next day, we are told that Paramount Pictures is making a movie based on the video game, although it doesn't tell us who will direct the resulting movie:

Paramount Pictures has reached an agreement to acquire the worldwide film rights to Midway Games' "Fear & Respect," a state-of-the-art videogame based in the intense urban environment of South Central Los Angeles.

Currently being developed in collaboration with writer/director John Singleton ("Boyz N the Hood," "Baby Boy," "2 Fast 2 Furious," "Shaft"), the exciting urban/action adventure game is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 2005 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft. Christine Peters ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days") will be collaborating with the game developer to produce the film.

Makes you wish for the simpler days of Super Mario Brothers, doesn't it? [via Omar Bilal]

Ennis posted this on December 23, 2004
It is filed under Computers & Internet, Culture

It is also indexed with the following tags: Video Games | John Singleton |