GEARS OF WAR Art Director Turns To Features With SAMURAI!

Remember the days when describing a film as looking like a video game was a negative thing? Well, Jerry O'Flaherty is about to change that forever. O'Flaherty rose to fame directing the cinematics and handling art direction on the hit video game Gears of War and he's now using that experience on his feature film debut Samurai - a film that is being shot 300 style with the backgrounds generated by the Unreal video game engine. Yes, you read that right. Instead of Hollywood using video games as source material for shoddy remakes they are now using video games to create original films. Here's the full story:

This proof of concept trailer was created by Jerry O'Flaherty, the Gears of War art director.  We're developing a samurai vs ninja action movie in a 300 style using the Unreal 3 game engine to render the props and environments.   This was a no-budget piece shot in two days with a volunteer cast of five people against a white background. The background plates were created in Unreal with the intent of sharing all of the environment assets (rendered at higher res for the film) between the movie and the game. The project is being produced by Blacklight Transmedia and State Street Pictures.

So, salient points here. What you're about to see is not finalized but is a video shot quick and cheap - I'm told for under a thousand dollars - simply to prove it can be done. Can it? Hell yes. This looks far, far better that scores of trailers I've seen created for far, far more money. Check it below.