Microsoft announced a landmark partnership today between Academy Award-winning writer, director and producer Peter Jackson, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Fran Walsh, and Microsoft Game Studios.

The partners will create two new interactive entertainment series exclusively for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live®. The first series will be a collaborative effort with Bungie Studios to co-create the next great chapter in the Halo universe. The second series will be an entirely original property targeted at bringing new audiences into the captivating world of interactive entertainment.

In addition, in collaboration with Microsoft Game Studios, Jackson and Walsh are creating Wingnut Interactive. The two will create a world-class interactive entertainment studio that fuses the strength of Microsoft's technology and interactive entertainment experience with the creative and imaginative excellence of the Wingnut Interactive team.

Jackson and Walsh are also co-producing the Halo motion picture, to be directed by Neill Blomkamp, under their WingNut Films banner for Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. It is expected to be released in 2008.