xbox Tagged Articles at Cinematical

John Woo's Red Cliff isn't just the most expensive Asian movie ever made, it's also an epic testament to history and actual wars that were waged on both land and sea. In China the film was four hours long and split into two parts, but American audiences are getting a 2.5 hour version that (unfortunately) has a lot trimmed out of it. There are massive battles, martial arts, trickery, and of course, doves. It is a John Woo film, after all. It is also awesome, and enough to make you forget that he directed Paycheck.

Check out the exclusive clip after the jump which features the initiation of the climactic clash between Cao Cao and Zhou Yu's forces. This is just one of three massive battles in the film which is available today on VOD, Amazon, and the Xbox, and will appear in theaters on November 18th. This movie marks a return of the old John Woo, and it's about time he came back. Let's just hope he'll give us a two-gun wielding Chow Yun-Fat one more time.

Head on after the break to watch the clip and then check out the movie, which is best described as 300 meets Hero with a dash of those huge battles from all of the Lord of the Rings films tossed in.

GamePro recently spoke with 30 Days of Night scribe Stuart Beattie and scored some news about his upcoming Gears of War adaptation. Based on the bestselling Epic game, the story centers on an elite military unit called Delta Squad fighting off an alien invasion by something called the Locust Hoard. But, Gears of War was never about story, it was all about firepower. So, how do you capture all that carnage on the screen? Why with green screen, of course. Beattie told GamePro, "There's no way to build that world any other way, really...That's a huge world. It's a planet and it's a bubble and it's a building. It's an epic sci-fi war and an enormous film. To get it made at all, the only way to make it for a price is to be on a sound stage. But the game also has that look, which is really interesting, so I think it will dovetail really nicely".

The rights to Gears were purchased by New Line back in March, and there were rumblings of a treatment floating around a few weeks later. There is still no word on a director yet, but New Line has promised that they will start looking for one as soon as Beattie finishes his script. Beattie is probably most famous for his work on The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but he is also responsible for Collateral and Australia, so you can't deny the man likes to make diverse choices. He has even worked on video games in the past; writing the script for an installment of the crime game, The Getaway. Beattie has yet to turn in a finished script for War, but he seems to be in a collaborative mood and has been working closely with Epic Games on the project. Gears of War is set for release in 2009.

So it just might be possible that the big-screen version of the Microsoft video game Gears of War is a step closer to production. Latino Review is posting what they claim to be the first pages of the film treatment for New Line, and we know they have some good New Line contacts. It's a pretty detailed treatment with plenty of information about characters and plot points, so, if you like to be surprised, beware of the plenty of spoilers that lie ahead -- tread carefully. It was only a little over a month ago that we had word that New Line had picked up the best-selling video game but, given Microsoft's history with big-budget video game adaptations, I think most fans were probably pretty skeptical. If this treatment is the real thing, it would seem that this time around, New Line isn't going to waste any time.

According to Latino Review, the treatment is the work of Stuart Beattie, who is also set to write the script. This won't be the first video game project for Beattie, who also wrote the script for Spy Hunter with Dwayne Johnson set for release in 2009. Beattie also has a screenplay credit for the upcoming Russell Crowe and Christian Bale western 3:10 To Yuma, The Punisher 2, and Baz Luhrmann's Australia -- so it doesn't look like he has had a lot of free time in his schedule lately. Since the Gears of War project is still in the realm of speculation at this point , and I think we've learned by now that when it comes to less than rock-solid sources, it is always best to wait and see.

If you're one of the estimated 1.5 Million XBox 360 users here in the U.S., then this article from the Los Angeles Times may inspire you to cries of joy and elation. Following in the footsteps of Apple Computer, with its hugely successful iTunes store, and as a preemptive blow to Sony's PS3 console being released in two weeks, Microsoft announced agreements with networks and studios like CBS, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. to bring an initial slate of over 1000 hours of movies and TV shows to its XBox 360 gaming console for download by users.

Beginning on November 22 (its one year anniversary) XBox 360 will be the first console in history to offer downloads of not only standard-def programming, but also hi-def as well. Some of the programming being offered by Microsoft initially with this deal includes the feature films The Matrix, Superman Returns, Batman Forever, Mission Impossible 3, Nacho Libre and Jackass: The Movie. Some of the TV shows initially being offered include Aqua Teen Hunger Force Jerico and CSI -- for those of you who watch TV.

Regarding the announcement, Peter Moore, a VP at Microsoft for interactive development said: "This groundbreaking announcement is a win for everyone. It connects our partners with one of the most coveted audiences in entertainment today, and provides even greater value to our Xbox Live community, allowing them to enjoy the games and entertainment they want, when they want it." Man, that does sound cool, doesn't it? Although, with no mention of pricing, restrictions (or much else) in the announcement, it remains to be seen if this will end up being a good move for Microsoft or not.

When Apple started offering movies and TV shows for download, they already had an established store for music with iTunes and were taking the next logical steps by offering more content to their already impressively large user base. Microsoft, on the other hand, doesn't have this key advantage. They do have something in place with their XBox Live service, but that's hardly the same as what Apple had with the iTunes store. Plus, with the size of hi-def video files, how long are these movies and TV shows going to take to download -- all night? Probably. I don't know if I'm willing to wait that long and I'll bet I'm not the only one.

After seeing the announcement, I feel this is another case where Microsoft is "too little, too late" to a party that's already started without them. Just because you're the biggest kid on the block doesn't mean you're the smartest. Steve Jobs and company at Apple are some of the smartest in the business and with iTunes, I think Microsoft has a fight on its hands that it just won't be able to win in the log run -- even if they technically are first with content that can play directly to your TV from the XBox 360 console.

Although, as an Apple, iTunes and XBox 360 user, I look forward to the advantages that this kind of competition will surely bring. Who knows, maybe Microsoft will get it right. They did do a very good job with the XBox 360 console so anything is possible. And hey, maybe they can distribute the often-delayed Halo movie this way? It could happen.

So, is this a good move for Microsoft,or not?

The Playstation 2 and XBOX were very instrumental in the adoption of the DVD format. The PS2 brought the DVD player into 87 million households, with 1.5 million sold in the first month alone. And with a High Definition DVD format war on the horizon, we look to the video game industry to see the future of movies in our home. The annual E3 video game convention takes place this week in Los Angeles California and our sister sites Joystiq.com and Engadget.com are there providing live coverage. Three next generation systems have been announced, and the good news is all of them will be HDTV and DVD compatible, but only one of them will play a next generation High Definition DVD format. Could this be enough to influence the future of watching movies at home?