Edinburgh Games Festival premieres announced

This year's Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival will host world exclusive game screenings of two new titles based on forthcoming feature films, along with Lionhead Studios' film-making sim The Movies.

Buena Vista Games will showcase The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which is slated for a release on all current-gen consoles, handhelds and PC alongside the movie this December. BVG's Mike Jacob will be in attendance to discuss the game's features and development process in a Q&A session.

Also on display will be The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a tie-in with Aardman Animations' new Wallace and Gromit movie featuring characters and locations from the film.

The game is being developed by Frontier in co-operation with Aardman, and will launch on PC, PS2, Xbox and GameCube by the end of the year. The Q&A panel will comprise Frontier founder and CEO David Braben and Aardman's Rachael Carpenter.

Lionhead's Peter Molyneux will also be on hand to offer an insider's guide on how to make it in The Movies, a new title for PC and consoles which puts players in the role of Hollywood movie mogul. "Edinburgh is a key event on the gaming calendar and the perfect location for our world premiere screening," Molyneux commented.

"With the enthusiasm of publishers and developers participating in the 2005 Game Screenings programme, this is an exclusive opportunity for the public to discover and see what these amazing creative people bring to the most exciting industry in the world," said Matt Carroll, director of festival screenings.

The event will take place from August 10-14 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. More information and details of how to register are available from the official festival website.