April 7^th, 2004 (12:00am) - In January of 2003 Warren Zide and Craig Perry of Zide/Perry Entertainment purchased the film rights to Nintendo’s Metroid. Mr. Zide and Mr. Perry were responsible for such movies as American Pie and Final Destination. As a result, when this announcement came, mixed feeling were flowing in the air.

Production never began on Metroid the Movie, and thus Zide/Perry Entertainment’s right to Metroid became expired. That was when John Woo’s Tiger Hill optioned for the movie, when the property once again became available from Nintendo.

Sharing production responsibilities with Terence Chang and Brad Foxhoven, Woo will produce Metroid the Movie and has the option to even direct. Lion Rock Production’s Suzzane Zizzi is also attached to the project.

Mr. Foxhoven has gone on to say that the first movie is scheduled for release before 2006. “Everyone involved is looking at this as a big-budget picture," Foxhoven said. "We see a tremendous opportunity to launch a film franchise with Nintendo as a partner."

"We are very fortunate that there is such an extensive amount of material to draw upon for the film due to there being so many iterations of the game over the years," Woo said.

The plot of Metroid the Movie will be true to the roots of Nintendo’s franchise. It will explore the roots of heroine and bounty hunter Samus Aran, and her adventure battling the parasitic Metroid creatures and Space Pirate leader the Mother Brain.

"We have to assume the mainstream audience is unfamiliar with the property," Foxhoven said. "As for the rest of the film, we will stay true to the game and have Samus battling the Metroids and Mother Brain in a fight for control of the galaxy."

"Gaming is huge in both Europe and Japan and is starting to gain momentum in China -- so we are not only going to see interest domestically but also on a worldwide basis for these films," Chang said. "These properties are really going mainstream."

Woo added: "This type of story has a proven track record of success with film audiences."

Tiger Hill Studios is John Woo’s personal videogame studio in which he directs game titles. Tiger Hill is currently overseeing three original games, the first which is set to ship in late 2005, with the other two scheduled for late 2006 releases. Woo will direct the games’ cinematics, oversee the story and voice talent, supervise motion capture and manage the character designs.

"We are bringing in top-notch Hollywood talent to our games due to John’s influence and connections," Foxhoven said. Referring to Max Payne and The Getaway, among others, he added, "Many games have already borrowed from John’s films, so it was a natural progression for John to work on video games himself."

Tiger Hill has a multiyear first-look deal with Sega and is developing a game for the publisher but also is developing at least one additional game for another publisher. Details on two of the games are expected to be unveiled at E3.