Like everyone else, Elverdam had been "super-enthusiastic" about the arrival of Daniel Craig in the role 17 (how many?!) years ago. What really appealed to Elverdam and IO about the licence, and what gave them hope about the idea of creating their own James Bond, was how often Bond had been reinvented over the years for new audiences. I loved hearing about Hitman and Bond, but also about their love of games and how they came to be involved with them at all. Here's the full podcast interview I did with IO co-owners Christian Elverdam and Hakan Abrak. "And obviously there's a big part of, like, what does it mean to do a real Bond game? What would it be about? And then we started getting an idea that 'oh maybe we should try to talk to them about what it is we're doing and what they doing with their franchise." "And then I can't recall the exact date but at some point it obviously became an interesting discussion of 'What if.?' Because at that point in time, obviously, there hadn't been a Bond game for ages. "And already then, IO was on a path where we were interested in that exotic, mysterious kind of intriguing universe," he added. "So in 2013 we're talking about this World of Assassination pitch, this idea that we wanted to elevate Hitman, and I recall, in some of the talks I had with the studio, I thought it was a little odd at that point in time that you didn't have any strong agent fantasies and this celebration of the spy genre. It's a remarkable achievement.īut with management buyouts and so much going on, where was the time to pitch Eon and MGM to make a James Bond game? Funnily enough, I discovered it happened at the same time IO fundamentally redesigned Hitman - way back in 2013. But today, Hitman has never been more popular. It wasn't long ago that the entire future of the studio, and Hitman, was in doubt. IO has staged a complete turnaround with Hitman in recent years. I think we can safely say we're very good at agent fantasy and everything we've learned with our Hitman franchise, and now we're rediscovering new sides of the agent fantasy with James Bond." "When we commit to something we commit with everything." -Hakan Abrak, CEO "So that's the journey we're on: trying to understand. "And you feel extremely humbled and you understand the gravity of what James Bond actually is. "And I recall Hakan and I, and part of the crew, walking around in what we later found out was the streets of Havana in No Time to Die, and getting to M's office," he said. Watch on YouTube But what will IO's James Bond look like?! Agent 47 in a wig?Įlverdam recalled a trip the team took to Pinewood Studios, to the set of James Bond - a trip he couldn't talk about until now, it seems. "And getting to earn that trust has been very, very, humbling, and we feel honoured." "And as we've talked about," he added, "we're doing an origin, because one thing, to show the trust they've instilled in us, is that we're allowed to build a James Bond for the games, which I think is a profound homage to where our industry is and where the medium is, in the sense that yes, it's time to have a James Bond character who was not a movie character but who's comfortably just his own game character. So for us it's been about finding a mutual understanding of 'what is James Bond about?' "And obviously for them, that is their role in the Bond franchise. (Did you ever see the Hitman film with Timothy Olyphant? Right.) "It's odd because from my perspective, I've been used to defending Agent 47 people want to do things with our franchise and you feel that stewardship." "First of all, it's extremely awe-inspiring and literally just inspiring to work with the team at Eon, the people who are behind everything Bond," he said. "I think we can say a few things." Elverdam began. I had a chance to talk to IO co-owners Christian Elverdam and Hakan Abrak recently, though, so I thought I'd ask and see if there was anything more they could say. It was announced two years ago and IO hasn't said anything since. If you didn't know, IO is making a James Bond game and it's called Project 007. As word arrives that the Hitman series is on "hiatus", in terms of developing new games, IO Interactive's attention turns to James Bond instead.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |