Despite recent cuts in TV production, Microsoft has lined up a couple of big movie stars for its upcoming TV and video game crossover, Quantum Break.
Quantum Break developer Remedy Entertainment (maker of Alan Wake and Max Payne) announced via Twitter that Dominic Monaghan and Shawn Ashmore have joined the cast of the Xbox One exclusive series. Monaghan is best known as Merry the Hobbit from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He also played rock star Charlie Pace in the hit TV series, Lost. Canadian-born Shawn Ashmore has played Iceman in the hit X-Men movie series since 2003.
It’s another example of Hollywood actors getting drawn into the world of gaming, with House of Cards star Kevin Spacey recently taking a lead role in first-person shooter Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Do you know these guys? Quantum Break cast members @ShawnRAshmore & @DomsWildThings working on the mo-cap set in LA. pic.twitter.com/YV9sReURuq
— Poison Pill Entertainment (@remedygames) November 21, 2014
Remedy’s Quantum Break survived a recent round of cuts in TV production at Microsoft, which shut down its Hollywood-based Xbox Entertainment Studios last month after just two years. Quantum Break debuts in 2015, airing exclusively on Xbox One, and players’ actions in the game, which heavily features time-manipulation elements, influences the TV show.
In that respect, it’s similar to the concept behind Defiance, the science-fiction TV show on cable channel SyFy, which launched along with a massively multiplayer shooter for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC back in 2013. Despite getting a mixed critical reception, the show is set for a third season, also due to air next year, while the game is now running on a free-to-play model.