Editor’s note: Epic Games was never able to bring its mega-selling hit “Gears of War” to the big screen and ended up selling the franchise to Microsoft. But the story may have a happier ending for its Infinity Blade. The series, developed for mobile devices to run on Apple’s iOS, has sold more than 50 million copies. The game itself is ending but there may be new life for it in Hollywood. John Gaudiosi has the exclusive details for WRAL TechWire Insiders.

CARY, N.C. – Chair Entertainment, an Epic Games studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah, has sold over 50 million copies of the iOS exclusive Infinity Blade trilogy over the past few years. Infinity Blade has sold as many copies as Microsoft’s Halo franchise, although at a much lower mobile price point. The studio just released its final update, Infinity Blade III: Kingdom Come, which adds new enemies, treasure maps and other in-game items. The sword-fighting action game has also spawned a pair of books from bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, a line of custom collectibles that can be 3D printed directly from within the game and a digital soundtrack from Josh Aker.

Composer Aker has co-written with Kyle Logan a script for Infinity Blade Chronicles, a new short 45-minute film that just raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter. He received a limited license from Chair and Epic to film the movie this November.

“I wrote the first few drafts of the script then worked with Kyle Logan on some versions,” said Aker. “The core story is based on the first part of the second book, which allows us to explore (protagonist) Siris’ back story and the entire Infinity Blade universe. The Infinity Blade saga is a metaphor for systems of power that outlive us all. This story is a look at these themes. The timeframe is in between the second and third game. I’ve delivered every version of the script to Chair to make sure it’s true Infinity Blade cannon.”

The movie will deal with characters and settings from the game, but the writers chose to focus on specific events in Siris’ life, with details not seen in the original game, its sequels, or the novels. Some of those details include the battle of the Plains of Koroth, how Siris lost his memory, why Siris and Raidriar couldn’t escape the Vault of Tears, the discovery of the quantum identity pattern, and even how the Infinity Blade itself actually works. Aker enlisted actors Kris Holden-Ried (The Tudors), Amrita Acharia (Game of Thrones) and Christopher Judge (Stargate: SG1) to film the movie this fall.

“The actors have been supportive,” said Aker. “They’re big fans of the story. Chris plays the game. He had it on his phone and he came on board. All three actors went on the Kickstarter to endorse it and generate awareness through videos and social media. They’re excited to be on board for the project.”

Aker said the entire movie will be filmed in his native Utah, which has an incredibly diverse topography. The film will visit Siris’ hometown of Drem’s Maw and shoot in some giant caves, we’ll have the plains of Koroth duel between Siris and Raidriar. There are a few exterior locations and they all look different. Aker said the team will build life-sized sets, but will also take advantage of miniatures to show the magic of this world and how amazing it is.

Epic’s Connection

Aker plans on tapping into Epic Games and Unreal Engine 4 to do the pre-visualization for the film. On the special effect front, the director said there are a number of things he wants to do.
“Infinity Blade looks very fantasy, but in reality it’s very sci-fi,” said Aker. “We’ll utilize whatever we can to make it look right. The most important thing is for it to look right. We have guys from ILM, WETA and FX guys who worked on Avatar, Man of Steel and X-Men on board. It will have a very high production value.

With the Kickstarter campaign now complete (and not completely funded to $400,000), Aker said he’s talking to investors for direct funding so they can film this November. There’s also the potential to do a second Kickstarter campaign, but that would not be for the entirety of the budget.

Aker posted the following update on Kickstarter: “To all our amazing supporters — we can’t thank you enough! Many of you have expressed your hope that we would find a way to make this film even if this campaign didn’t reach its goal, and we intend to do exactly that. We’re already exploring other avenues to allow us to begin production, but we still want you, our first backers, to be involved. So head on over to our official site and sign up so we can keep you updated — you don’t want to miss what we’re working on!”

Targeting May 2015

Backers will receive a 1080p version of the film next year with a targeted May 2015 release date on Kickstarter. Then Aker said the movie will be taken to some film festivals and eventually will be released globally through iTunes.

Aker will compose the music for the film, but he said it will be a little bit different from the games.

“I’ll reprise some of the themes from the game, but I have some friends who are amazing musicians,” said Aker. “Martin Tillman, the cellist from The Dark Knight Rises is a friend of mine and I’ve always featured crazy cello playing in the games but will work with him for the film. Will Calhoun from Living Colour is more than a great rock drummer and I’m bringing him on board as a percussionist because some of the Infinity Blade music is menacing. I’ve been cooking up something really good stuff. It will mostly be a live score, but we’ll have some electronic stuff as well. It’s a classical mix with some sci-fi.”

Aker said the ultimate goal is to get this movie made and then bring it to Hollywood for a potential big budget motion picture or television series.