EA plunders film industry for LA studio talent
Rob Fahey 09/04/2003

Electronic Arts has been busy soliciting Hollywood talent for its new Los Angeles studio

The new Electronic Arts studio in Los Angeles, which replaces EA Pacific, EA Las Vegas (Westwood) and the previous Los Angeles studio, has reportedly hired a number of key staff with background in Hollywood film production.

The new campus, which is expected to become EA's second largest location and will dwarf many of its neighbouring movie studios, will work on film franchises such as Lord of the Rings and James Bond as well as original titles in the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series.

Among those headhunted for the new studio are special effects wizards who worked on blockbuster films such as The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, Armageddon, Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds, Treasure Planet, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and many others.

For those interested, Xengamers has an inexhaustive list of some of EA Los Angeles' latest hires and their backgrounds. One thing which this list certainly highlights is the increasing crossover between game development and movie making, especially in the technical fields such as special effects, which is allowing talented personnel to cross over the divide between the two industries with ease.

(Source: XenGamers 09/04/2003)