Pandemic Studios is drawing fire from some members of the Venezuelan government.

The L.A.-based video game developer is backed by venture capital fund Elevation LLC, which includes rock star Bono as a partner.

At issue is the upcoming “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.” The game’s players will assume the roles of mercenaries when a “power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela’s oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a war zone.”

The game isn’t due to be released until next year, but members of Venezuela’s National Assembly were quick to suspect Pandemic in a wider U.S. plot to undermine the government of President Hugo Chavez.

“I think the U.S. government knows how to prepare campaigns of psychological terror so they can make things happen later,” Venezuelan Congressman Ismael Garcia told the Associated Press. Another member of Venezuela’s congress proposed banning the game under a law against violent video games.

The game won several awards at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, the biggest industry trade show of the year.

A Pandemic spokesman said the studio has never been contacted by any U.S. government agency concerning the development of the game. “The decision to choose current, interesting events and locations for any of its games is purely designed to make a fun and rich experience for the gamer,” said the spokesman. The first game in the franchise was called, “Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction,” where the player takes on the role “of an elite bounty hunter covertly dispatched to a Korean peninsula that is swiftly plunging into anarchy.” The game was also a crowd favorite, winning several “best action game” awards in the game enthusiast press when it was released last year.

Bollywood On Demand


Internet video-on-demand service Movielink is going Bollywood. The Santa Monica-based broadband service offers movies for download through distribution pacts with major U.S. studios, including Walt Disney Studios, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. It’s now expanding into the ever-popular Indian film scene with a download service focused on Bollywood movies. Movielink signed an agreement with U.K.-based Eros International, a distributor of Bollywood content, to offer Indian musicals and films for rental or download. The service kicks of in the U.S. in June.

Movielink is the first industry-backed online film service, launched three years ago. It charges between $2.99 and $4.99 per film for download onto a PC. The service faces obstacles in lengthy download time for movie files. Movielink is a joint venture of MGM Studios, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros.

Numbers Game


L.A.-based Secure Path Technology LLC has been tapped by an international motion picture and television standards organization to provide a worldwide identification system for media content.

Essentially, Secure Path will assign a “Social Security number” to film files.

Administered by the Geneva-based International Standard Audiovisual Number International Agency, the system would in theory provide unique identification, allow for searchable video and help with collection of film licensing revenues. Secure Path just closed its first round of financing, attracting $3.5 million from the Tennessee-based Collateral Guaranty Fund.

“If you consider what a Social Security number makes possible for a person, it becomes easy to see the value in giving audio-visual content unique identification,” said Josh C. Kline, Secure Path chief executive. ISAN is trying to cull together an international system for identifying media content.

The company’s business model involves content-owners paying a registration fee (up to $20 per movie, bulk rate is cheaper) to Secure Path for an ISAN digital identification number. The number is designed to be searchable in a database. “This is critical in the current era of digital distribution,” Kline said. Secure Path intends to license the information to third parties for distribution agreements. Kline said all major Motion Picture Association of America studios have signed up with Secure Path with the exception of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. He said the company is in talks with Warner.

Staff Reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached by e-mail at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.