SEGA Secures His Dark Materials Game Rights

SEGA has announced a deal with New Line Cinema to produce games based on the upcoming $150 million His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass movie.

Based on the popular Phillip Pullman series of young adult books, the His Dark Materials trilogy will be New Line's biggest budget movie series since Lord of the Rings. Nicole Kidman and the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, will star in the movie alongside 12 year old newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, who plays the lead as Lyra Belacqua.

SEGA has secured the game creation rights for the film, hoping to match the success EA has enjoyed with the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings games. "We are excited to be partnering with New Line to bring the dark and fantastic story of the His Dark Materials trilogy to the video game audience," said Simon Jeffery, president and COO of Sega America. "The Golden Compass [the first book of the trilogy] is a perfect match for the video game medium with compelling characters engaged in a heroic conflict between good and evil in an incredible and rich fantasy world."

Currently in filming, there is no release date for the first movie or game.