BioWare and FUNimation are collaborating to make an anime film based on the world of Dragon Age. The straight-to-DVD release will be worked on by Bioware’s Executive Producer Mark Darrah, Creative Director Mike Laidlaw, and FUNimation’s Fukunaga and Chris Moujaes.
It’s set to appear some time in 2011 and will be the first project released under FUNimation’s “Original Entertainment” team. Whether it will be an adaptation of the game’s story or an all-original tale remains to be seen, although 2011 certainly places it in a prime position to hype any obligatory sequel that may be rearing its head.
Still, that’s all speculation. All we know for sure is that a cartoon of Dragon Age is coming. How nice.
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BioWare™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio and FUNimation Entertainment, the leading distributor of Japanese animation in North America, announced today an agreement to create an anime feature film adapted from BioWare’s critically-acclaimed fantasy Action RPG franchise Dragon Age™. Production of the Dragon Age anime movie is slated to begin in May 2010, with a home video release in 2011. Executive producing the film are Bioware’s Executive Producer Mark Darrah and Creative Director Mike Laidlaw, as well as FUNimation’s Fukunaga and Director of Original Entertainment Chris Moujaes.
“Anime is a great medium for us to continue the robust Dragon Age story”
“Anime is a great medium for us to continue the robust Dragon Age story,” said Mark Darrah, Executive Producer for the Dragon Age franchise. “Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we are delivering the exceptional quality and entertainment value that our Dragon Age fans expect.”
“We are thrilled to be working with EA and BioWare on the production of the Dragon Age anime feature,” said Gen Fukunaga, President and CEO of FUNimation. “We are going to be bringing the classic visual and storytelling techniques found in anime to create a film that will extend the narrative of the world BioWare has created.”
Dragon Age has been selected as the first title in FUNimation’s slate of major anime movies to be developed through FUNimation’s Original Entertainment team since the announcement of the company’s co-production initiative in November 2009.
When originally released in 2009, Dragon Age: Origins won over 30 critics awards and was named “RPG of the Year” by the Academy of Arts and Interactive Sciences, Game Informer, G4, SpikeTV, and PC Gamer. Seth Schiesel of The New York Times described the game as “…perhaps the best electronic game made yet.”
For more information on Dragon Age, please visit http://dragonage.bioware.com/.
