Wingnut Films, the production company that Peter Jackson started way back in 1987 with his very first film Bad Taste, is about to jump into the world of interactive entertainment. It was announced today that Jackson and wife Fran Walsh are founding Wingnut Interactive, in partnership with Microsoft Game Studios, in order to develop two new video game series exclusively for the X-Box 360 and X-Box Live. One of the titles will be an original property, while the other will be a Halo game in collaboration with Bungie Studios, no doubt closely tied to the Halo motion picture which Jackson is executive producing. It is unclear whether or not that Halo game is in fact Halo 3, which is already deep in development and due out sometime next year.

“My vision, together with Microsoft Game Studios, is to push the boundaries of game development and the future of interactive entertainment.” Jackson is certainly not the first director to jump into the video game industry as of late, and I have to wonder whether the end result will really be as groundbreaking as they claim. Video games are still struggling to mature as a medium, and I think bringing filmmakers on board is only going to continue the trend of video games aping cinema. But on the bright side, at least it help bring more credibility to the medium as an art form. Shane Kim, a corporate VP at Microsoft Game Studios, also had this to say: “I don’t want to classify it as a game. I’m hoping to stretch the definition of interactive entertainment to go beyond the game.” Well, a guy can dream can’t he?