Activision and Chrysler Turn to Hollywood Judges

Activision and Chrysler have selected a panel of Hollywood judges to decide the winner of their joint in-game advertising promotion, "Chrysler in the Movies: Virtual Film Competition." Writer/director Paul W. S. Anderson ("Resident Evil," "AVP"), producer/director Garry Marshall ("Raising Helen," "The Princess Diaries"), director Guy Ritchie ("Snatch," "Revolver"), director Brad Silberling ("Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," "City of Angels") and actor David Krumholtz ("Numbers") will watch the Top 10 short films and decide who wins. Krumholtz will announce the winner at this year's E3 show in LA.

Developer Lionhead Studios, which was recently purchased by Microsoft, is working on a PC expansion pack for the game called "Stunts and Special Effects," which ships this June. The studio also still hopes to release a console version of the game, although Activision scrapped its plans to publish anything outside of the PC game.

This contest is an excellent example of in-game product placement and cross-promotion between a game company and a major brand--in this case, Chrysler. The contestants are required to incorporate a Chrysler Pacifica, PT Cruiser, 300 or Crossfire into their short film. Lionhead added these cars to the game to allow for this competition.

The competition will also award the top five films a place in live action film. As part of the Chrysler Film Project, a contest where filmmakers compete to win a full-length feature production deal on behalf of Chrysler, independent filmmakers will turn the top five virtual films into live action shorts.

"The Movies" has opened Machinima, the art of using videogame technology to tell linear stories, to the masses. The game, which also allows anyone the opportunity to create and run every aspect of a movie studio through the ages, offers easy access to creating a virtual story with actors, dialogue, script and sets. This game, since it focuses on Hollywood, offers many more options than "The Sims 2," which has also sprouted virtual film festivals with its in-game movie-making abilities.

Activision can work with additional companies, or perhaps Chrysler again, to continue to promote this game and its expansion packs over the years. These types of games, because of their open nature, tend to sell for quite some time. "The Sims" franchise has sold over 50 million copies. While "The Movies" isn't nearly as popular, it can grow with this type of mass market cross-promotion. This contest was announced at the Sundance Film Festival and has generated a lot of press surrounding the game.