Microsoft is set to dig up some classic stories from the rise of the digital age with a new documentary series debuting exclusively on Xbox.
The series kicks off in 2014 with a documentary covering the story of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a game so disastrous that, legend has it, thousands of boxed copies were buried in landfill.
More than just telling the story, the film produced by filmmakers Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man) and Jonathan Chinn (30 Days) of media company Lightbox, will go one step further. They’re going to excavate the site.
“X-Men 2-scribe Zak Penn will direct the first installment that investigates Atari’s now legendary burial of millions of unsold copies of E.T. the Video Game in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in the middle of the night in 1983,” says the blurb.
“Lightbox will film the excavation of the landfill by Fuel Entertainment to determine whether the incident is an urban myth or a true tale that led to the demise of Atari.”
“When Simon and Jonathan Chinn approached me about this story, I knew it would be something important and fascinating,” said Penn. “I wasn’t expecting to be handed the opportunity to uncover one of the most controversial mysteries of gaming lore.”
The E.T. documentary is just the first in a series that will debut exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360 in 2014, Xbox Entertainment Studios said.
“Jonathan and Simon Chinn are the perfect team to spearhead this series for Xbox,” said Xbox Entertainment Studios president Nancy Tellem.
“They are consummate story tellers and they plan to match their creative sensibility with the best talent in the industry. These stories will expose how the digital revolution created a global democracy of information, entertainment and commerce, and how it impacts our lives every day.”
