Watch: Trailer For New Sci-Fi Web Series (Soon To Be Feature Film) 'Hawken' Starring Edi Gathegi
NEWS BY COURTNEY
An upcoming new live-action web series based on the video game called Hawken was announced by at Comic-Con earlier this month by Warner Premiere (a division of Warner Bros.).
I am not a game-player, so I looked up Hawken, the video game to find out what it's about:
Hawken is a mech-based first-person shooter. The game takes place in a dystopian human-colonized planet industrialized to the point of collapse, in which the hunt for resources has become a battle for survival. The player assumes the role of a battle mech pilot, armed with cannon-like weaponry. Unlike many other first-person shooters, weapons will not require ammunition but are prone to overheat. Overheating will shut down all weapons of the mech, forcing the player to find a safe place to recover.
So I think that gives us the gist of it - survival of the fittest in a dystopian universe, essentially. S&A game players can fill us in on the rest of the story.
The game doesn't actually debut until December, this year; while the web series is scheduled to premiere on Machinima's YouTube channel in 2013, probably soon after the game is release, if only to act as a marketig strategy for the game.
Edi Gathegi stars in the web series, playing a character named Mitchell. He joins Gonzalo Menendez, Dameon Clark, and Hannah Hall, in a series directed by Jeremiah O'Flaherty, his first live-action credit.
And with news that Warner Bros. sees Hawken as a gaming franchise that lends itself to multiple platforms, you can expect a big screen version to eventually be considered by the studio. In fact, last summer, when the video game was still in development, it was reported that DJ2 Entertainment, an independent production company, obtained the rights for a film adaptation. I should add that DJ2 Entertainmet is a co-producer on the web series, along with Warner.
It was reported at the time of the rights acquisition that "big names were chasing" the rights to the project, including “A-list directors and big hit agencies.”
The story for the feature film adaption would reportedly follow:
... two young pilots from separate clans pitted against one another after a devastating virus has covered most of the heavily industrialized planet surface in toxic crystal.
There have been no official announcements regarding writers or lead actors for the film just yet, but during a panel at Comic-Con earlier this month, Act of Valor director Scott Waugh was announced as director.
Whether Edi Gathegi (or any of the other stars of the upcoming web series) will be considered for the feature film adapation remains to be seen.
There's apparently a lot of excitement already for Hawken, the video game, with more than 300,000 users already registered for a closed beta testing scheduled for this fall.
Watch the trailer for the web series with star of stage and screen Edi Gathegi (who you'll next see on TV
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