Epic Games, 'Fortnite' developer, backing animation feature film 'Gilgamesh'
Fortnite game developer brand Epic Games is spreading its wings. The North Carolina-based company is serious to back an animated flick in production. The brand has also developed a grants program, Epic MegaGrants, to sponsor one animation studio and two firms for using the technology of Epic's Unreal Engine and help the project, which is about ancient Mesopotamian mythological hero Gilgamesh, come to fruition.
Latin American animation studio Hook Up and firms DuermeVela and FilmSharks from Argentina will receive a combined donation of $100mn from Epic's MegaGrants Fund to help the players harness the explosive 3D tools and plug-ins of Unreal Engine to create the animated film. Argentinian filmmaker Tomas Lipgot of 2019 title The Adopters fame will direct the movie as part of his banner DuermeVela.
Few studios have attempted to make a full-length feature on the ancient ruler, whose life was immortalized in scriptures on twelve clay tablets, which are 5,000 years old. The first feature film on the ruler was a Bahrani film released in 2011, directed and written by Peter Ringgaard. However, an animation feature on the history of Gilgamesh is still to be made.
FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud thanked Epic Games for supporting the project. "Although animation has done an excellent job of entertaining through comedy and colorful creatures, there is also a huge appetite and opportunity to share cultural stories and tell larger-than-life mythical tales," he said. Notably, Hook Up has impressive collaborations with Disney, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros, and this grant will boost the project.
No matter what the theme is, these kinds of storylines need immersive visuals and experiences, which the Unreal Engine has helped achieve for big-banner projects such as The Mandalorian and Westworld. Even Fortnite, the free-to-play video game, has been using Unreal Engine 4 to make their gameplay glitch-free on the latest consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Let's wait and watch!
