Epic Games, the studio behind Fortnite, is investing in Gilgamesh, their first-ever movie project. The film will be an animated epic that focuses on the titular figure from ancient Mesopotamian mythology. Production is currently underway on both Spanish and English versions of the film.
Argentinian production companies DuermeVela and FilmSharks will develop the film. Latin-American studio Hook Up Animation will animate it using Epic’s free 3D design tool Unreal Engine. Director Tomás Lipgot will helm the project, which Epic Games is financing through their $100 million MegaGrants fund. A few months ago, Hook Up dropped an official trailer for the film on Vimeo.
The plot comes from one of the world’s oldest pieces of poetry, the Epic of Gilgamesh. It follows Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, as he battles beasts, argues with gods, and searches for the source of eternal life. The film will retain several characters from the original myth. One of these is Enkidu, a wild man the gods send to end Gilgamesh’s reign. The two later become friends and accomplices.
FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud told Deadline that working with the Fortnite developer was “an honor.” He also brought up that there’s a “huge appetite” for animated takes on mythic tales. And while this is far from Hook Up’s first rodeo, it might be their biggest project yet. That’s because, if things go well, they’ve already made plans to work with Epic Games on more films.
Unreal Engine is a versatile piece of technology. Because of this, shows like The Mandalorian and Westworld have used it to create 3D environments and visual effects. It’s no surprise that Epic Games wants to market the software suite’s abilities to even more film and television producers.
Still, whether it’s ready to service designs at the level Hook Up needs isn’t quite clear based on what we’ve seen so far. At the very least, info on how it aided The Mandalorian‘s unique design seems to show promise. Epic Games clearly has plans to make Unreal Engine the next big tech trend, and this film is a good place for them to start. They need to prove to filmmakers that it’s worth it to switch to a new way of doing things. If they succeed in that, we could see the game studio further establish itself as a multi-faceted media titan.
Hook Up Animation will release Gilgamesh on an unspecified future date.
Source: Deadline
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