What does Titanic, Dick Tracy, and MMOs have in common? Jon Landau and James Cameron. No, they're not going to be doing a Titanic MMO (almost everyone dies in the end anyway), they signed up to be the advisory board for Multiverse, a MMO game network. There are even rumors circulating about a film/MMO tie up, but no official word so far.

From Jon himself: "It turns out films and MMOs are not that different,. That shouldn't be too surprising, though. After all, what we do as filmmakers is create virtual worlds...Both our industries build experiences that have the same goals."

According to the article, doing games and creating movies is an inevitable intersection. A virtual movie set would let the director film an actor and see what special effects he'd like to see in the scene--just like a game. That way, the director would be able to add or delete parts of the expensive effects even before the camera starts rolling.

Combining existing technologies would allow them this degree of freedom and creativity. The article also says that it'll help both industries regarding resources, especially financial. Movies to game adaptations can be much easier. The movie people can share some of their movie clips and other animations in the movie.

Jon said that audiences these days have much more higher expectations when it comes to their movies or games. The film industry is challenged by how an MMO keep its audiences and make them want more. He added that the virtual world should influence the movie, let it feed back into the process and provide riches and depth. However, MMOs won't replace great directing or flimaking, but rather the ones who create those games may become the next generation of directors or writers.