Tex Murphy fans rejoice!
For so long we have been starved of our hero. And now
he’s back…

…almost.

What we do have is a
Machinima (“machine cinema”) movie starring
Chris Jones in a role with parallels to Tex Murphy. For fans, those of us who
downloaded (and saved) the amateur radio theater productions, this is approaching
the Tex Murphy pot of gold-getting another Tex Murphy multimedia adventure game.

Machinima is a groundbreaking
technique that renders 3D animation in a game engine. This technique
allows live action and animated films to have a main
location
in one piece, which allows continuous filming without needing to cut and
changing camera angles on the fly. It allows a small team of filmmakers
to make a large
production that once would have been impossible.

Following on a 70-minute
animated movie called “Killer Robot”, Sydney,
Australia-based director, Peter Rasmussen has teamed up with Jackie Turnure to
create Nanoflix’s (www.nanoflix.net) latest 3D animated feature, “Stolen
Life”.

“We seemed to be
in sync from the very start of the production. Typically during
the voice record I would move to make a suggestion and before I
needed
to say anything Jackie had already made it happen. Through the two
years of production there has been and easy blurring of roles”.

“Stolen Life” is described as “future noir”-remind anyone
of a certain hard-boiled detective? Peter calls it a dark and moody sci-fi detective
mystery. Also starring in the film is Australian actress Claudia Black (“Farscape”, “Stargate
SG-1”). Peter says “we are close to completing the film. He sees
it as a fascinating outcome of the blurring between games and film:

Jackie Turnure, the voice
director say, “For me the appeal of the script
lies with the clever juxtaposition of a well-worn genre and all its attendant
conventions, with an entirely new world. In considering the direction, I aim
to find a balance between honoring the conventions of the film noir genre and
play with and against these conventions in both the performance and the stylistic
look and feel.

“Although the film
is 3D animation, the directories approach to the performances is
not that different from live action. The back stories of the characters,
their
motivations, inner conflicts, desires and obstacles will be explored
and communicated to the actors. With animation, and especially
here where the characters are not
human, voice becomes even more important in communicating character.
I will be spending a lot of time with the actors getting the tone
and performance right,
finding the balance between the film noir archetype and a more
naturalistic delivery. My goal in directing the voice records is
to create entirely dimensional characters,
with humanesque needs, desires and motivations, even if embodied
by robots”.

The film is about a private
investigator, Pi, a machine, that lands on a seemingly uninhabited
asteroid some time in the distant
future.
He
has been
sent to investigate
the unexplained disappearance of a robot on the asteroid. Finding
tunnels leading to the underground, he finds the asteroid is
a refueling station
for interstellar
travel long since shut down. He discovers a deactivated robot,
Kieru, and determines to extract the truth of what happened
hear from what
he is being
told. Mysterious
goings on, a death, cover ups, Pi is driven to get to the bottom
of what happened to this ice covered rock. What starts as a
straightforward investigation
become
increasingly fraught with danger…

Peter and Jackie have
nothing but adulation for Chris Jones work on “Stolen
Life” and his prior work in the Tex Murphy series:

“I did not write
his part with him in mind. But when it occurred to me I realized
he was perfect. I also had the feeling that being a pioneer of
media
himself that an independent and ambitious project like
this one would appeal to him. I was chuffed to hear that the quality
of the script attracted him to
the project. It was great to see again how in tune Chris
is to the finest details of what the story needs to make it work.
The performance that we asked for was
demanding
but without any discussion he knew why it has to be that
way. He’s always
been completely in tune with the project and always puts the work
first”.

Peter sent voice director
and co-producer, Jackie Turnure to Salt Lake City to meet with
Chris and record his lines.
Peter
listened
for hours
through
Skype. Chris’ easygoing nature was one where he was happy to give anything a go: “He’s
a natural performer. People who like Chris will like this movie. It’s a
detective story-he’s in his element…he takes a serious role and injects
it with humor-gives it ‘blood pressure’. And with Claudia, there
was sensational chemistry”.

Peter and Jackie are
also thrilled with the sound in the movie. The soundscape enhances
the voice acting because
of the jazz-based
soundtrack,
courtesy
of Philip Johnston (www.philipsjohnston.com): “it combines old school smoky bar film
noir with sci-fi. It really draws you into the mix-there’s a balance of
elements leaping out of the screen-atmosphere, music, dialog. It all draws you
in to the experience”.

First premiered at the
Dragoncon sci-fi convention in Atlanta, Georgia (www.dragoncon.org),
the movie
is in
contention
at the Machinima
Film Festival (www.machinima.com)
in New York in November, 2006 and has been nominated
for six individual awards: Best Picture, Best Visual
Design,
Best Voice
Acting Performance,
Best Virtual
Performance, Best Technical Achievement, and Best
Original Music. Only seven minutes of footage will be screened
at Machinima but
it will
be shown in
its entirety at later film festivals. The Machinima
Film Festival will also have
a presence in the virtual world of “Second Life”. All the info is
at: http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2006/10/the_machinima_f.html.

Following Machinima,
selected clips of the 80-minute film will be screened at the Farscape
Convention
in Burbank, California (www.creationent.com/cal/farscape.htm).
Stolen
Life has been
entered for competition at the Sundance (www.sundance.org)
and Slamdance (www.slamdance.com) festivals in
Utah. With
Chris
Jones
based in
Salt Lake City, you never know who might actually
be
at the screenings in Utah… Well, here’s hoping!

Peter has high hopes
for the film and its genre:

“I think we are moving in to a new time where it’s possible
to make a high quality project for a niche audience like the fans
of future noir. Like those that love the special quirks of the Tex
Murphy adventures. Stolen Life is quite different from Tex Murphy
but I’d like to think it’s as fresh”.

And Peter is optimistic about the future of adventure games:

“Take Half-Life 2. They are going back to storylines. Things
could be got right. Games need to be more accessible to players.
AI will make a big difference-if players could speak to and be spoken
back to in a game, people would be interested in adventure games.
There is an appetite for adventure games out there”.

And who knows? If “Stolen Life” is successful, perhaps
it may just open the floodgates that will allow another chapter in
the Tex Murphy story
to be told.

Peter can be contacted
by email ([email protected]).

The trailer for “Stolen Life” can
be downloaded here: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~raz/nima/SL_Tumb/sl_ss.html.

Stay tune for a review
of the movie when it’s complete…

Once a distribution deal
has been struck information on where to purchase the “Stolen
Life” DVD will be at the Nanoflix website.