Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, talks about his plans in bringing one of his favorite films to the game space. The new game will incorporate both single-player and multiplayer first-person shooting action.

Can you talk about the challenges of taking an existing, and beloved, action film and expanding it for the gaming audience?

Randy Pitchford: Frankly, one of the things that interested me most about the idea of adapting the characters and settings in Heat to a video game is the notion of spending more time with these particular characters and expanding far beyond the film's plot. I'm not interested in merely recreating content we've already seen in Michael Mann's film (although we will be doing some of that). I'm mostly interested in having the freedom to explore and act in this place and style he's created - to become wrapped up in my own plot about crime, obsession and two men on opposite sides of the law.

The challenge is to not just retread the same space the film already took us, but to let us choose our own paths and make our own decisions that the characters in the film didn't have to make or perhaps wouldn't have made if they got into the situations we're going to get you into. Maybe you can pull off the bank heist that was the centerpiece of the film. The game might let you answer that question. In Heat, we're going to get you into some pretty hairy situations.

What role do you see next generation consoles playing in Hollywood?

Randy Pitchford: For those of us who really get caught up in these fantasies portrayed on film, for those of us who become really interested in spending a lot of time with the characters and situations that we see in the films we love, the interaction between passive entertainment and interactive entertainment can be intensely appealing. Next generation consoles are helping to bridge the gap in visual fidelity between the real world and the virtual reality we are creating in video games. Who doesn't want to star in their own film? Video games let us become these famous and interesting people and they let us live and act in these virtual places that are getting closer and closer to reality in terms of look, feel and the choices we can make.

What kind of gameplay are you envisioning for this story and will it be an original game engine?

Randy Pitchford: We are collaborating with some very talented and important partners for development, technology and publishing to fully envision a Heat first person action game that completely tackles interactive hard-core heist from both sides of the law. There is going to be a unique experience both on and off-line with situation oriented multiplayer modes and narrative oriented single player modes. The design is very exciting - the kind of heist game I've been waiting for my entire life. I think anyone who's been dreaming about having this kind of experience on either side of the law is going to be very excited about this game. Everyone (and I mean everyone) has either thought about the challenges of robbing a bank or what kind of bravery it would take to stand up and be a hero in the face of ruthless killers. In Heat, we can become these amazing characters and actively participate and explore those thoughts in virtual reality where nobody has to get hurt. We're really looking forward to talking more about the design as we announce the amazing partners we are working with to create the game, power it with the best technology and bring it to market with the best publisher.

How did you score the Heat license?

Randy Pitchford: Gearbox has been cultivating a hard-core heist concept for a long time. Heat was pretty much the primary influence for a lot of our discussions. About a decade ago, when the film first came out, I happened to have a series of long conversations with one of my best friends about how we could adapt the Heat movie to be an intense video game that let us explore that dark side notion we've all had from time to time that contemplates doing something insane like robbing a bank.

I never actually considered that we could actually get the actual Heat license and make a game with it. Brad Foxhoven from Titan Productions is really responsible for helping Regency see the value in taking their best film properties into the game space and for hooking us in to get the development license to a property we already cared about. We learned that there was a lot of respect for Gearbox amongst the Hollywood personalities that pull the strings with this stuff and, of course, we have tremendous respect for Michael Mann, Al Pachino and Robert DeNiro. So we owe Brad a lot for being relentless in putting this all together.

It's a great deal and I think it's going to be a huge game. We tend to be very shy about movie licenses and we have been offered a LOT of them over the years. But there is something about this concept that I call "hard core heist" that has never really been done well in a video game, yet everyone on the planet has thought about robbing a bank or something at one time or another. Heat pretty much defined what hard core heist means and it gives us a narrative mechanism to consider both sides. It's perfect.