April 13, 2006
Ubisoft
Takes a Walk on the Wild Side with Open Season
Sony Pictures Animation’s First Feature-Length
CG Animated Film to Become an Interactive Gaming Experience
Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video
game publishers, announced that the Open Season™ video game, based on Sony
Pictures Animation’s first feature-length CG animated film, will be shipping
mid- September 2006 on all available video game platforms, two weeks prior to
the movie’s September 29 release. Developed by Ubisoft’s award-winning Montreal
studio, Open Season will allow gamers to relive the humor and adventure of the
movie by creating a fun and immersive interactive world that conveys the same
comedic storyline, zany characters and artistic images projected in the animated
film.
“We have been working hand-in-hand with Ubisoft’s
team to create a game that captures all the fun of Open Season,” said Mark
Caplan, executive director, interactive at Sony Pictures Consumer Products.
“Sony Pictures’ leadership in digital entertainment coupled with Ubisoft’s
award-winning development team is a great partnership that brings innovation to
both the film and video game businesses.”
Click here to see more Open Season screenshots.
“Ubisoft is thrilled to be collaborating with the
movie production team of Open Season to bring the humorous adventures of Boog
and Elliot to the interactive world,” said Tony Key, vice president of marketing
at Ubisoft. "Ubisoft is committed to making the best movie-based video games in
the industry. We do this by partnering closely with our licensing partners and
movie makers to create an experience that remains true to the spirit of the film
but expands it far beyond the theater.”
Open Season is a riotous romp in the great
outdoors, where the rowdy brood of forest animals turns the tables on a bunch of
unsuspecting hunters. When a domesticated grizzly named Boog gets lured into
leaving the creature comforts of home by a fast-talking mule deer named Elliot,
he finds himself lost in the woods just three days before hunting season. Forced
to “rough it” in the great outdoors, Boog goes native, rallying all the forest
animals to take back their home and send the hunters packing. The Open Season
video game will allow player to relive the movie experience by playing as Boog
and Elliot. Game features include:
- Interaction with Beth, Shaw and all of the
animal favorites from the Open Season film. - Throwing skunk bombs, hurling rabbits, using
acorn-firing squirrels and pulling outrageous woodland pranks to scare the
pants off the hunters. - Rolling in a giant snowball, riding the rapids
on a floating outhouse, zipping through tunnels in a crazy mine cart ride and
taking on more madcap adventures as Boog discovers how to go from mild to
wild. - Ability to challenge friends or team up in
hilarious four-player mini-games.
About Open Season the Movie:
In Columbia Pictures’ new action-adventure comedy OPEN SEASON, the first
feature-length animated film from Sony Pictures Animation, Boog (Martin
Lawrence), a grizzly bear with no survival skills, has his perfect world in the
tranquil town of Timberline turned upside-down when he meets Elliot (Ashton
Kutcher), a scrawny, fast-talking wild mule deer. Open Season is based on the
humor of cartoonist Steve Moore (In The Bleachers), who also serves as Executive
Producer with John Carls. The film is being directed by Roger Allers (director
of The Lion King) and Jill Culton (credits include Monsters, Inc., and Toy Story
2). The co-director is Anthony Stacchi (credits include Antz). The producer is
Michelle Murdocca (credits include Stuart Little and Stuart Little 2). OPEN
SEASON is scheduled for theatrical release on September 29, 2006.
