Those Redbox kiosks you see scattered all over the place are proving immensely popular, as evidenced by Redbox recently serving up its one billionth movie rental. It took six years for Redbox to reach the billion rental milestone.

“One billion rentals is an incredible milestone as Redbox has quickly become the local video store for millions of consumers nationwide,” said Mitch Lowe, president, Redbox. “Our popularity is a testament to our customers’ loyalty and our steadfast commitment to making movie rentals affordable and convenient for our consumers.”

To celebrate the occasion, Redbox is giving its renters a free one-night movie rental throughout the month of September. All they have to do is enter their unique DVD code found on their Redbox rental at redbox.com/thanks to get the promo code.

There are now over 24,000 Redbox kiosks in the U.S. serving up more than 9.5 million rentals a week, including Blu-ray titles,.

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These days, it seems like every videogame and its Atari 2600 grandmother is getting a movie tie-in. But hey, games are awesome and so are movies, so where’s the problem? Well, see, as it turns out, game movies are not awesome. Not in the slightest. So, is it Game Over for gaming’s star on the Hollywood walk of fame? Not necessarily, says Valve’s Gabe Newell. We just need to change up our approach, is all.

“Where we got into this direction was after Half-Life 1 had shipped. There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of,” he explained to PC Gamer.

“That’s when we started saying ‘Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we’d have to make it ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Make it ourselves? Well that’s impossible.’ But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that.”

And so, on this day, our dream of Jason Statham playing an illogically acrobatic, crowbar-kung-fu master Gordon Freeman – while wearing a phony beard, of course – died a quick death. We’re not sure whether to be happy or incredibly depressed about that, honestly.  

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“Yes, Mr. Cameron? If you’re not too busy back-stroking in your private water park wave pool filled with half the world’s money, we’ve got someone on the line who might be able to help you scoop up the other half.”

Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, Blizzard EVP of game design Rob Pardo was all for a StarCraft movie – but on one condition: the “right partners” need to come out of the woodwork first.

“We’ve always had an interest in seeing our stuff on film or TV. It’s just tricky to find the right partners. We probably could have made a ['StarCraft'] movie or something on TV years and years ago, but it’s really important to us that we find creative people that are really talented but also really excited about our properties. That’s always been the challenge for us. I think if [James] Cameron came to us tomorrow and said, ‘You want to make a ‘StarCraft’ movie?’ we’d probably sign that,” he explained.

According to Pardo, the stars aligned in just such a way for the Warcraft movie, which is why it’s now more than just a twinkle in Blizzard’s eye.

“That’s why we did the ‘WoW’ movie. We were really excited about being involved with Legendary Pictures, who we thought had a really good track record with these sorts of movies that would make sense for our franchises,” he said, also noting that the Warcraft movie’s still in the “story-development” phase.

Perhaps the writers need someone breathing down their neck, constantly reminding them to CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS WORDS to speed up the process. It definitely helps us, and is totally not irritating to the point that we advise Blizzard to beef up security at BlizzCon to at least make things interesting for us.

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Despite being courted by Hollywood directors and writers, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell insists that if a Half-Life movie ever happens, it would be created by Valve instead of outside talent.

"There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood," Newell said in an interview with PC Gamer. "Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst."

We've all seen a bad video game movie or two, and Newell didn't want the same fate for the beloved Half-Life brand.In the interview, he continues: "[W]e started saying ‘Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we’d have to make it ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Make it ourselves? Well that’s impossible.’ But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that.”

If you don't remember the Meet the Team shorts, a quick YouTube search can bring you up to speed. I'm happy that Valve isn't content to just sell the Half-Life license to the first Hollywood fat cat that strolls up to its door. Someday, Valve may not just make awesome games…they may make awesome movies, too.

(Source: PC Gamer via 1up)

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Why are movie adaptations of games so terrible? Because the people who made the adapted games weren’t part of the filmmaking process, right? That’s what Gabe Newell says. Here’s what he told PC Gamer about possible Half-Life adaptations:

“Where we got into this direction was after Half-Life 1 had shipped. There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of.

“That’s when we started saying ‘Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we’d have to make it ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Make it ourselves? Well that’s impossible.’ But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that.”

I’d like to point something out, Mr. Gabe. The Prince of Persia movie’s story was written by Jordan Mechner, who also wrote three Prince of Persia games. And it was still terrible. You’re on the right track, though, because it’s all about who makes it. And so, yes, you should produce the Half-Life movie when and if it happens, but you should only do that so you can put it in the most capable hands available. And by that, I mean you should have Frank Darabont do it. Let that simmer for a minute.

See, the problem is not simply that Hollywood has been making the movies. No, the problem is that Hollywood then turns them over to people like Andrzej Bartkowiak. Good filmmakers make good movies, Gabe. All you have to do to ensure the Half-Life movie doesn’t suck is to make sure good filmmakers are making it. That’s all.

Gaming Today

Quick, what’s the best movie of the last decade? This is really easy, bros. The answer:

Since we all agree that, at the very least, that this movie is an instant classic (shut the f**k up, Ross Lincoln) and that Brad Pitt totally owns as an Old West badass, we can also all agree, then, that the Pittster would make a good John Marston in the Red Dead Redemption movie.

The word coming down the grapevine via a secret source is that the man has been given right of first refusal to play John Marston. Which is great, as we already established. Yeah, this is rumor and speculation, but I’m going to assume it’s true because I’d like it to be true. But we’ll have to wait and see, because we don’t actually know anything about the alleged movie or if it will ever actually happen.

Gaming Today

For more information please check out: Facebook – www.facebook.com To watch the movie see the below cinema’s showing: WEST END RELEASE 5th February 2010 Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus (one evening show) 5th February 2010 London Release Showcase – Newham Showcase – Reading HTV Area Release 5th February 2010 Showcase – Bristol Reel – Plymouth Midlands Area Release 5th February 2010 Showcase – Dudley Granada Area Release 5th February 2010 Plaza – Crosby Showcase – Manchester Tyne Tees Area Release 5th February 2010 Reel – Hull Scottish Area Release 5th February 2010 Showcase – Paisley 23rd February 2010 Ritz – Belper (3days-digital) Northern Ireland 5th February 2010 Movie House(Dublin Road) – Belfast Movie House(York Gate) – Belfast Southern Ireland 5th February 2010 VUE – Dublin

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Video Rating: 2 / 5

Angry Birds? That's right. The iPhone and iPad smash hit may be coming to the silver screen. Rovio Mobile, the Finnish developer behind Angry Birds, says that it has had talks with Hollywood studios in regards to expanding its bird simulator beyond games. Rovio is banking on Angry Birds becoming an entertainment brand.

The game's cinematic trailer (see below) has been viewed on YouTube over five million times. I can't understand why. What attraction do people have to these characters? They remind me of Mad Balls…feathered Mad Balls. Maybe all five million of these people clicked the video in hopes of it being a walkthrough video that could help them solve a level they've been stuck on for hours. Or maybe people like feathered Mad Balls that don't talk, don't have legs or wings, and battle green pig heads.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

[via Reuters]

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