Electronic Arts and Starz Media have joined forces for the production of an animated prequel movie, that is to warm up game enthusiasts who are eagerly waiting for the launch of the sci-fi horror video game “Dead Space”.

The film is in fact the middle piece of the “trilogy” (comics, film, video game) and, as far as story continuity goes, it acts as a link between the book series and the actual game. It follows the evolution of events aboard a mining spaceship, the USG Ishimura, after the discovery of a strange artifact which triggers the awakening of an aggressive alien species.

In “Dead Space”, the game players will step into the role of engineer Isaac Clarke – an ordinary man on a seemingly routine mission to fix the communications systems aboard a deep space mining ship. It is not long before Isaac awakes to a living nightmare when he learns that the ship’s crew has been ravaged by a vicious alien infestation. He must fight through the dead silence and darkness of deep space to stay alive.

Starz Media's Film Roman will be responsible for the making of the movie; this is the same studio which was in charge of the production of the popular shows “The Simpsons”, “King of the Hill” and “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!”.

The film will have two versions; the one intended for DVD release will have strong language and will be a lot bloodier than the one for TV; the latter will be softer and will target a wider audience.  Not by chance, the animated movie is to be released between mid-September and late October, right before the game’s release, Halloween 2008.