You may not have heard of Keith Arem, but you’ve no doubt saved the princess, the planet, or the universe from aliens, terrorists, zombies, or any combination thereof in at least one of the 500-plus games he’s helped to create. His resume reads like an entire wall at GameStop: Spider-man, BioShock, Transformers, Darksiders, Guitar Hero, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, oh, and a little game by the name of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Yup, as the casting director of Activision’s first-person shooter juggernaut, he had a hand in every “boo-yah,” barked order, and battle cry to fly from the mouths of Modern Warfare 2’s good guys and evil-doers. But being part of the one franchise that makes even Master Chief quake in his Spartan battle boots isn’t enough for Arem. The man behind more-games-than-you-could-play-in-a-lifetime has his crosshairs set on something bigger, yet smaller.

With the help of his visual content studio, PCB Productions, Arem is trading the TV/computer screen for the big one with his directorial feature film debut, Frost Road. But before you scream “Not another videogame-based movie!” through a mist of angry spittle, know that Arem’s taking an unexpected path: While a game adaptation would seem like the obvious choice for an industry vet, he’s forgoing a cheesy cash-grab in favor of a more artistically ambitious project. Of course, just because he’s not helming the next big screen BloodRayne disaster, doesn’t mean he’s in for a cakewalk. While Hollywood heavy hitters such as Steven Spielberg and Vin Diesel have seamlessly made the jump from film to games, it hasn’t been as easy a transition for game industry vets to go from Xbox to box office. Digital Anvil’s Chris Roberts, for example, famously went from Wing Commander creator to cautionary tale after failing to find success in the director’s chair.

Arem’s past experience alone pretty much guarantees it’ll take more than a casting session with Freddie Prinze Jr. to tarnish his reputation, but he’s still got his work cut out for him. We recently talked with the man who can call both Sam Fisher and Big Daddy colleagues to discuss his 15-plus year career in the videogame industry, the challenges facing first-time directors, and why his “zombie” movie doesn’t have any zombies in it.

What did your role as casting director on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 specifically entail?

My role was working with Infinity Ward as their talent director, so I’d work with the script in terms of casting all of the celebrity talent and directing them in the game.

What shifted your interest from working on games to directing films?

I started off doing writing, art, and music, and always wanted to get into films. But I loved the magic of being able to go into a film and get lost in it, so I stayed out of it initially because I didn’t want to be too close to the medium I loved. As I moved into videogames, I realized all the work I was doing was very closely modeled to where the film industry was going. As these games were becoming successful, I realized it was a great time to explore my passion for film.

What inspired you to do Frost Road?

Even though I have lots of experience working with actors, scripts, writing, and graphics, I really wanted to do a film that I could have in a contained world, where we could uses practical in-camera effects and minimal CG effects; something where I could focus on strong performances and take a genre that’s been done in so many different ways, but put a new spin on it. Frost Road was something that was very approachable for me, especially in learning my skills as a director. The film takes what would normally be the classic zombie/virus genre and completely 180s that idea. We’ve also started a graphic novel, and we’re doing art for that now.

Tell us what you can about Frost Road’s story—can we expect zombies?

It’s not a zombie film; it’s a story of survival. It focuses on a guy who wakes up from a car crash in the middle of a forest in the early morning; he’s bleeding from his head and nose, and he thinks it’s from the crash. He finds a cell phone on the car seat and dials 911, but gets strange interference. He makes his way down to this small town of Frost Road, and the entire town is dead...something has just happened. For whatever reason, he’s immune to what’s going on, but whatever’s happening is still going on, and as he continues into the town he finds a handful of survivors. But they’re only alive because they’ve been incapacitated or something has kept them from killing themselves. What’s fantastic about the story is that everything happening in the town, and to the people, is based in science...what’s happening to them is actually real. It becomes a zombie movie in reverse; in most survival horror, you have your main protagonist and cast being attacked from all sides and trying to survive. This is the opposite of that; they’re their own ticking time bombs. It’s a really neat twist on that genre. 

How does the graphic novel tie into the film?

My idea for telling any kind of trans-media is that a graphic novel, film, videogame, etc., should all tell different facets of the story. That way you’re not simply rehashing the same stuff in a variety of different mediums. With Frost Road, I’d actually been doing a lot of graphics for the film’s storyboards and started painting them based on what we were developing for the film. Because of that, the film and graphic novel are a little bit closer. We brought in artists Trevor Goring to do lots of the storyboards and Christopher Shy to do the artwork. It’s pretty amazing when you look at the panels...you can actually watch the film unfold through the graphic novel and the animatics we’ve built.

Do you feel your work in games gives you a head-start in directing films?

There’s a lot of talent in the game industry, so I’m used to working with so many great people. I’m also used to working with massive amounts of data, hours of content, story arcs, and character development. I think a lot of that experience makes you really think through a lot of the questions you encounter when developing a film. We also use lots of the same tools, techniques, and production methods in games. I think the biggest advantage is having the preparation and the scope of the work mapped out from a philosophical standpoint, so I know how we’re going to be approaching things. I’ve also had a lot of experience working with actors [closely], just using their voices; now having the advantage of using fantastic actors, who can now bring all of their skills to this world, is going to be fantastic.

Conversely, do you think your experience in games has put you at any disadvantage in your new role?

Working on games is very collaborative. The environment is dynamic because you have so many departments working simultaneously and everyone working to develop the game. With a film, however, the director is the focal point, running everything. I’m excited about that aspect, but I’m not so driven to have things “my way or the highway.” So the biggest challenge is realizing I have the ability to achieve my original vision and be able to temper that with everyone’s opinion, but at the same time, be able to keep the ship moving forward. Additionally, my graphic novels and the scope of the world I want to create [are] pretty ambitious. In videogames and graphic novels, it’s very achievable because we have the tools readily available to us, but in film it’s a bigger palette. I want to be sure I can achieve what I see in my head on film, and make it believable and have the audience connect with that.

You mentioned a more subtle approach to using special effects in Frost Road?

This project has a fair amount of effects work, but I’m trying to keep most of it either compositing, meaning we’re bringing in real elements as opposed to CG elements, or in-camera. I don’t want to use a lot of CG effects, mostly because of our budget, but I also want to do what’s best for the medium and most believable for the viewer. This film is so real, and everything that happens has to be believable. It’s going to be a combination of some spectacular location stuff and also using visual effects supervisors that will be able to achieve our goals in-camera. We’ll also be shooting much of the movie on film as opposed to doing it digitally. There’s great digital equipment, but even the best cameras can not give us the grain, saturation, and the look of what we want to achieve [like film can].