(...as in phone rings... get it?... oh never mind)

Gamasutra has an interview with Jon LaBrie, formerly of WETA Digital.

One thing he says makes me think that if I were a developer of 3D RTS games, I'd be trying to make a game that looks like some of the combat scenes in Lord of the Rings. There has to be an interesting opportunity there. If I were really smart, I'd have started in mid to late 2001, when the first scenes from The Fellowship of the Ring came out, so that I could spend some time on the technology, and release somewhere between, what, August 2003 (release of The Two Towers on DVD) and Christmas 2003 (theatrical release of The Return of the King and climax of the whole Lord of the Rings saga).

But I'm not, so I didn't. (The Spellforce trailer looked a bit like Lord of the Rings at times, though.)

Mr. LaBrie also has something to say on mobile games, and his view that converting old arcade games to the mobile platform is not a good idea, is something I've heard more than once at the GDC from people who's opinion I respect.

(Update: EA is working on an LOTR RTS that looks like the combat scenes from the movie.)