Lorne Lanning Talks Citizen Siege
Posted on Monday, October 30 @ 01:37:43 Eastern
Lorne Lanning and partner Sherry McKenna formed Oddworld Inhabitants in San Luis Obispo in 1994 to create the Oddworld videogame franchise. Over the span of a decade, those games sold over 5 million copies and received international kudos with over 100 industry awards. Last year, Lanning and McKenna shuttered their internal game development studio and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to focus on a broader palette of storytelling.
Over the weekend, the first project under this new direction was announced. Lanning will make his feature film debut with the sci-fi action CGI movie, Citizen Siege. McKenna will executive produce the feature for Vanguard Animation. Vanguard founder John Williams, who will produce the movie, is best known as the executive who optioned, developed and produced the Oscar-winning Shrek for Dreamworks. Since founding Vanguard Animation in 2002, the studio has released the Valiant and is currently developing Happily Never After, Space Chimps and Ribbit.
"With John Williams producing the project benefits greatly from his experience of having already brought one of the most successful CG animated properties to the big screen," said Lanning. "This is an enormous advantage in helping us to stay [on] target after the release date has been locked down."
Lanning said a final script for the film is currently in the works. Citizen Siege, an original story that will team the creators of Oddworld and Shrek, is set in a near-future where corporate giants literally rule the world. The film, which is in active development, will introduce a new hero, an ex-patriot, who becomes involved in a credit racket that will change his life forever.
Beyond the colorful characters of the Oddworld games, Lanning layered messages that were relevant to the present day world. From the limited amount of information on this new project, it sounds like Lanning's directorial debut will also be robust with messages that can be applied to the current state of the world.
Gamers will be able to interact with Citizen Siege, as well as experience the film. Lanning said that now that the film has found a partner, he's focusing on the videogame, which Oddworld has retained the rights for. He expects the game and film to launch together.
Lanning believes that Hollywood will see more game creators make the jump to linear entertainment moving forward.
"Game audiences are looking for more intense experiences with more engaging narrative, and game designers and directors are having to understand these appetites more each day," said Lanning. "Historically, we see that commercials where the jumping stone for talents like Ridley Scott, and music videos were the transition medium for talents like David Fincher; now video games are ready to be the new transition medium for a new generation of film makers and storytellers."
One reason he foresees more synergy between the interactive and linear entertainment mediums is the advances in next generation game development.
"Today, game production has evolved in scale and complexity to utilize many of the same skill sets that animated films require," said Lanning. "We share the same production designers, the same artists, the same tools and software, and even similar pipelines. The primary difference is that gameplay is the predominant concern in interactive design, while compelling story with convincing and emotive characters are the killer apps for film."
Lanning said he and McKenna ultimately founded Oddworld to tell stories, which makes this transition from games to films more seamless, especially considering the Hollywood background that both creators had at special effects house Rhythm & Hues.
"We see it as storytelling independent of the medium we're delivering it on," said Lanning. "Various mediums need to embrace different elements to be prime for their specific audience, but in the end it's all about great stories and creating characters that are emotionally engaging. That our careers began in film, and Sherry's experience in film far exceeds my own, is a great advantage, but our interactive experience has enabled us insight into how the public's appetite for digital entertainment is evolving - and that is something we value tremendously."
In addition to Citizen Siege, Lanning said he and McKenna are still in early development in taking their Oddworld characters from interactive to linear entertainment. Lanning said Oddworld will eventually be turned into a CG TV series with the possibility of a film franchise down the line. By the time that happens, Lanning will have experience as a Hollywood director, courtesy of Citizen Siege.
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