Empire signs Bad Boys II

Empire has signed the rights to Sony Pictures' forthcoming summer-targeted Bad Boys II, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and plans to ship an internally developed game to coincide with the Christmas DVD launch, on PS2, Xbox, Cube and PC.

Empire hopes that some of the hype surrounding the film (which reunites the two Miami coppers with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay, and has been promoted with a teaser spot during the Superbowl) will work to their advantage, following Activision and others' lead in aiming to meet the DVD release date with the game.

And it's a good day for PR fluff, with Empire CEO Ian Higgins commenting on how "very exciting" it is for the group, what with the movie being "one of the biggest to come out of Hollywood this year". "Empire is looking forward to making this a hit franchise for a number of years to come," he added, before Sony Pictures' Mark Caplan took over. "Bad Boys II has a high octane story-line" blah blah blah and "Empire is well on its way to developing a videogame that" blah blah blah "has as much attitude and intensity as the film." And if they're lying, we'll be holding Sony Pictures personally responsible.