Amy Hennig, the creator of the Uncharted series, has announced that she will be joining the film production company Skydance Media. As part of this union, Hennig will be given her own development studio to run which will be focused on reaching out to ” gamers and non-gamers alike on emerging streaming platforms.” In addition, Hennig will have a special partner in this new venture, Julian Beak, who is a former EA producer that has worked on the Star Wars, Need For Speed, and Battlefield franchises.
Skydance is known for working on Hollywood blockbuster films such as Mission Impossible: Fallout, Annihilation, Gemini Man, and recently Terminator Dark Fate. They also have numerous upcoming projects which include Top Gun: Maverick, The Tomorrow War, and the next two installments of the Mission Impossible franchise. It’s quite a surprise for Hennig and Beak to align themselves with a company that has literally no experience in the gaming industry. This goes double for Creative Directors, as their vision tends to clash with what the higher management wants in their overall product.
In the press release, Hennig appears to be optimistic as she states “Julian and I are thrilled to be part of the Skydance creative team, and excited to partner with Skydance to explore this new frontier in entertainment while pioneering new ways to tell immersive stories through technology,” Hennig said. “Our goal is to create inviting and innovative experiences with the high production values and visual fidelity that will set the standard in this new media landscape.”
Hennig’s career in the video game industry has been well documented, spanning all the way from the late 1980’s. She got her first big break in the mid-to late 1990’s when she moved to Crystal Dynamics and assisted with Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Hennig then took over as the Creative Director of the franchise and went onto produce the Soul Reaver series which would go onto be successful in it’s own right. However, it was her next project that made her a household name.
Hennig was hired by Naughty Dog and created the Uncharted franchise, which would become one of the most successful, popular, and critically acclaimed video game series in history. She was the Creative Director and main writer for the first three installments before departing Naughty Dog while the fourth game was still in development. She was then hired by EA to make new Star Wars game in one of their proprietary studios, Visceral Games.
Unfortunately, the game was canceled and in the same year Visceral Games was shut down. Hennig was tapped to continue the project within the company, but she left EA last year and began her own independent studio with the intention of researching Virtual Reality possibilities. No projects or IP’s were mentioned in the press release, but with such a rich history between two video game veterans, they sky’s the limit with that they could potentially come up with. At the very least, we know there will be some creativity involved.