• Formula One World Championship Limited extends multi-year videogame alliance with Codemasters.
• FORMULA ONE games portfolio to expand and diversify throughout 2012 and beyond.

Wednesday, 14^th March – Codemasters^® will remain the home of official FORMULA ONE games with the confirmation that it has extended its partnership with Formula One World Championship Limited in a further multi-year agreement to develop and publish multiple titles for video game consoles, personal computers, mobile devices and online platforms.

Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One group CEO, said:

“Codemasters has created some of the best and most successful FORMULA ONE games to date. We and the teams work closely with them and look forward to creating more award winning games together in the future.”

Rod Cousens, CEO, Codemasters said:

“We got off to a strong start with FORMULA ONE but we harbour ambitions to do much more. FORMULA ONE is front of mind at Codemasters and we give it the focus and attention it deserves. We have established close links across the sport and they know that, in Codemasters, they have a great partner.

“We remain ambitious with our plans and want to take the series forward. We want to take it to new geographies, make it available on new platforms to new audiences. We are taking FORMULA ONE to a new online platform this spring and our portfolio will be extended with a FORMULA ONE experience that will address a younger video game audience later in 2012. Our teams are hard at it, creating world class FORMULA ONE games across multiple genres for players irrespective of location or gaming platform and now, for many years to come.”

Codemasters will continue to produce the official FORMULA ONE game for worldwide release; development will remain with the BAFTA award-winning studio team at Codemasters Birmingham. The FORMULA ONE portfolio will be expanded with F1 ONLINE THE GAME™, a free-to-play online management and racing game, which will go live this spring. An additional and all-new FORMULA ONE experience for a family audience is due this holiday season with details to be announced.

EXPERIENCE THE LATEST ONLINE PHENOMENON FOR FREE WITH THE STAR WARSTM: THE OLD REPUBLICTM WEEKEND PASS

Now, even more gamers can experience the massively multiplayer online game that is taking the world by storm! Starting this Thursday, players around the world will be able to jump in and experience Star WarsTM: The Old RepublicTM in the first Weekend Pass Free* Trial. This limited time opportunity will give individuals who don’t already have a previously-active Star Wars: The Old Republic account a chance to experience the groundbreaking, story-driven MMO from EA, BioWare and LucasArts for up to four days for free, with no payment method required.

Individuals who take part in the Weekend Pass will be able to experience the opening adventures of each of the eight character classes in the game, exploring both their Origin World and may even have the opportunity to visit their faction’s Capital World. Additionally, Weekend Pass players will have the chance to face off against other players in PvP Warzones, or join up with friends and play through a couple of early faction-specific Flashpoints in the game, The Esseles and The Black Talon.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most critically acclaimed MMOs of all time, having won MSNBC’s “Game of the Year” award, “Editor’s Choice” awards from IGN, PC Gamer and “Best MMO of 2011” awards from Game Informer, Gamespy.com, Massively, Ten Ton Hammer and more. The game is set thousands of years before the classic Star WarsTM movies, with the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire locked in the middle of an epic, galactic war. Players choose one of eight iconic Star Wars character classes, including the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, Trooper, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent, becoming the hero or villain of their own personal Star Wars saga.

The Weekend Pass Free Trial opens Thursday, March 15, 12:01AM CDT and ends on Monday, March 19th at 2:00AM CDT. To learn more, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/weekendpass. Players can begin registering and creating their accounts on March 15.

Be sure to check back to www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com , as well as our Facebook and Twitter for all the latest updates.

• TRIAL VALID ONLY FROM MARCH 15, 2012 12:01AM CDT/ 5:01AM GMT / 4:01PM EDT THROUGH MARCH 19, 2012 AT 2:00AM CDT/ 7:00AM GMT / 6:00 PM EDT. ONLY VALID FOR NEW STAR WARSTM: THE OLD REPUBLICTM (“PRODUCT”) ACCOUNTS NOT ENROLLED IN A PROMOTIONAL TRIAL FOR PRODUCT. UNUSED TRIAL TIME IS FORFEITED UPON REDEMPTION OF PRODUCT REGISTRATION CODE, PURCHASE OF PRODUCT SUBSCRIPTION, OR REDEMPTION OF A GAME TIME CARD CODE. VALID ONLY IN TERRITORIES WHERE STAR WARSTM: THE OLD REPUBLICTM IS DISTRIBUTED. OFFER MAY NOT BE SUBSTITUTED, EXCHANGED, SOLD OR REDEEMED FOR CASH OR OTHER GOODS OR SERVICES. CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER OFFER, GIFT CARD, REBATE OR OTHER DISCOUNT. LIMIT ONE OFFER PER ACCOUNT HOLDER.

ACCEPTANCE OF END USER ACCESS AND LICENSE AGREEMENT (“EUALA”), PERSISTENT INTERNET CONNECTION, AND ACCOUNT REGISTRATION REQUIRED TO PLAY. MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER. AGREEMENT TO SHARE ACCOUNT INFORMATION WITH LUCASFILM ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LTD. IS REQUIRED TO ACCESS GAMEPLAY. SEE EUALA FOR DETAILS. PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE AVAILABLE AT WWW.SWTOR.COM. ; ALLTERMS AND CONDITIONS TO PLAY THE GAME APPLY AT ALL TIMES.

SYDNEY, Australia. – March 13, 2012 – EA SPORTS™ today announced that, in partnership with the Leo Messi Foundation, a popular street football pitch in Barcelona will be brought back to life through a complete upgrade and refurbishment in 2012. The pitch, located in the Bon Pastor neighbourhood of Barcelona and in disrepair for several years, will be outfitted with a new state-of-the-art surface, side boards, goals and much more, creating a high-quality and safe environment for the youth of Barcelona to enjoy.

“Football has brought me so much joy, and this new street football pitch will hopefully bring that same joy to children across Barcelona,” said Messi. “EA SPORTS shares my passion for helping the dreams of children come true, and I thank them for bringing this new project to life.”

“Our partnership with the Leo Messi Foundation is fundamental to our relationship with the world’s undisputed greatest footballer, and this pitch refurbishment is a great first project in that partnership,” said Jon Rosenblatt, Senior Director of Marketing, EA SPORTS. “We can’t wait to see the kids of Barcelona enjoying the new pitch and expressing their love of football in a safe and quality environment.”
The pitch refurbishment project funded by EA SPORTS and the Leo Messi Foundation also celebrates the launch of FIFA Street, which includes Messi on the cover of the game and brings authentic street football to fans around the world on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system. The game ships to retailers worldwide this week.

In November of last year, EA SPORTS announced a multi-faceted partnership that will see Messi become an EA SPORTS Football Ambassador. EA SPORTS is teaming up with the Leo Messi Foundation to support social, educational and health care related initiatives for children around the world. Messi will also be the cornerstone of marketing and advertising campaigns, featured on packaging, and utilized in social media activities around the world for the critically acclaimed FIFA franchise.

EA SPORTS is one of the leading sports entertainment brands in the world, with top-selling videogame franchises, award-winning interactive technology, global videogame competitions and breakthrough digital experiences. EA SPORTS delivers personal access to the emotion of sports through industry-leading sports simulation videogames, including Madden NFL football, FIFA Soccer, NHL® hockey, NBA JAM basketball, NCAA® Football, Fight Night boxing, EA SPORTS MMA, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® golf , and EA SPORTS Active. For more information about EA SPORTS, including news, video, blogs, forums and game apps, please visit www.easports.com to connect, share and compete.

Activision Publishing, Inc. announced today that the next monthly installments of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 Content Season are now available for download on Xbox LIVE for Call of Duty® Elite Premium Members. Elite Content Drops 4-6 includes the brand new multiplayer map Black Box along with new Special Ops Missions Black Ice and Negotiator, marking the first time Special Ops has been made downloadable online in franchise history. In “Black Box,” players will battle beside a downed Air Force One amidst multi-level homes overlooking the luxurious Southern California neighborhood.

Infiltrating a diamond mine aboard a snowmobile in the Special Ops mission “Black Ice,” your primary objective is to plant high-grade explosives in order to shut the mine down forever. In “Negotiator,” you head to India for high-stakes hostage extraction in which you’ll breach-and-clear rooms and navigate surface streets to ensure the safety of your VIPs. The Modern Warfare® 3 Content Season is published by Activision and co-developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software.

Coming first to Call of Duty Elite Premium Members on Xbox LIVE, all content will be available to Premium Members on other available platforms at a later date. The full calendar of content is outlined here – http://www.callofduty.com/contentcalendar. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language. For more information on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 content drops, season of content, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty Elite visit www.callofduty.com/mw3 and www.callofduty.com/elite.

Tuesday March 13^th 2012 – SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. are proud to announce that Yakuza: Dead Souls™ will be hitting stores this week. The latest instalment of the legendary Yakuza™ series will be available March 13^th in North America, March 15^th in Australia and March 16^th across Europe, exclusively on PlayStation®3. 

Taking place in the well-known Kamurocho district, Dead Souls sees the return of the charismatic Yakuza hero Kazuma Kiryu, accompanied on his adventures by three other playable characters: Shun Akiyama, Ryuji Goda and Goro Majima. In Dead Souls, not only will Kazuma have to go deep into the underworld to rescue his kidnapped step-daughter, but now he will also have to face an army of zombies laying waste to his beloved Tokyo streets! 

In addition to melee combat featuring punches, kicks and the possibility to use objects during fights, Yakuza: Dead Souls features gunplay for the first time in the Yakuza series where everything from pistols, machine guns and rocket launchers can be employed against your enemies. Just remember to save some ammo, in case you run into something far more terrifying than zombies! With all the depth, story and the plethora of minigames of a Yakuza title, plus the addition of exciting shoot-outs and previously unplayable characters Ryuji Goda and Goro Majima, Yakuza: Dead Souls is definitely worth dying for. 

For more information, please visit www.yakuza-games.com!

For more news, follow SEGA on Twitter @SEGA or like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/sega.

10 guidelines from AVG (AU/NZ) to keep valuable business data safe while on the move 

MELBOURNE, 13 March 2012 — AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd, the distributor of the award-winning AVG Internet and mobile security software in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, today announced the publication of ‘The Common Sense Guide to Working on the Move’. 

The Guide applies knowledge gleaned by AVG from security professionals around the world to create advice for SMB business owners and their staff who, by using multiple devices in conjunction with work, have embraced the mobility revolution. 

This latest advice represents AVG (AU/NZ)’s ongoing commitment to helping enterprises and SMBs avoid the devastating consequences of data loss or theft. 

Today’s executives and mobile employees now access e-mail and other proprietary data from more than one device. As content is increasingly packaged for mobile consumption – delivered via apps from cloud servers – methods to stay secure can become as confusing as they are numerous. 

Michael McKinnon, Security Advisor at AVG (AU/NZ), said: “Cyber criminals have SMBs firmly in their sights as smaller organisations tend to have less sophistication and structure to their security mechanisms. Everything is of value to the crooks – from product roadmaps and pricing data to corporate bank account information and customer databases.” 

AVG (AU/NZ) knows that while most users are familiar with the benefits of anti-virus and Internet security software, not everyone recognises the ever-changing multitude of phishing, scams and other malware waiting to take up residency on a device. Often undetected by users, criminals win access to trade secrets, launch plans, operational literature, market strategies and other confidential corporate data. 

Equally damaging but more embarrassing are those incidents where people misplace disks, documents and laptops in public places. 

To help businesses reduce their exposure risk, The Common Sense Guide to Working on the Move offers executives the following 10 guidelines: 

1. Use strong password protection on your laptops and smartphones.
2. Enable filters and other onboard protection barriers for Internet-connected smartphones.
3. Shut down Bluetooth in public to guard against Bluejacking or Bluesnarfing.
4. Beware of ‘free’ Wi-Fi, unless branded by the business you’re currently patronising. If you don’t know where your connection comes from, then you don’t know what you are connecting to.
5. If you have to use a public (or kiosk) computer, never access your online banking details, make electronic purchases or enter ANY personally identifiable information.
6. Think about where you are sitting and whether anyone can look at your screen.
7. Count the items you take out of your bag when travelling – and count them as you put them back in.
8. Don’t ask a stranger to ‘look after’ your laptop while you use the restroom or go to the counter in a web café.
9. Make a note of your mobile operator’s emergency phone number so you can call them to have your phone immobilised in the event of a loss.
10. As always, the first step to search, surf and email safely is to use a full online protection suite such as AVG Internet Security, or if you use an Android tablet or smartphone, AVG Mobilation. 

The Common sense guide to working on the move can be downloaded from the AVG Business Resource Center: http://www.avg.com/ww-en/business-guides 

Watch the video accompanying the guide at: http://youtu.be/fysogL6tSf0

Data Insight 3.0 Creates Accountability for Unstructured Information Governance

SYDNEY, Australia – March 13, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced Symantec Data Insight 3.0, the latest version of its solution that improves information governance by providing intelligence into ownership and usage of unstructured data such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails. Enhancements to Symantec Data Insight help organisations transform storage operations and simplify information governance processes to reduce costs, reduce risk and achieve compliance.

Read more detailed blog posts:

• New Release: Symantec Data Insight 3.0
• Creating Accountability to Take Control of Runaway Unstructured Data Growth

According to Gartner, the growth rate of data is 40 to 60 percent; but for unstructured data in the enterprise, the growth rate can be up to 80 percent¹ and is becoming increasingly difficult to manage and protect. IT organisations are faced with seemingly impossible data governance objectives to reduce costs, reduce risk and achieve compliance. IT lacks the business context for the data and must engage the data owners who best understand the value of the data. However, challenges in understanding who owns the data and how it is being used impact IT’s ability to operationalise data governance.

Symantec Data Insight addresses these challenges by continuously monitoring data usage and enabling rule-based inferences for data ownership. Understanding how data is being used enables effective unstructured data management operations – facilitating tasks such as reclamation and chargeback. By assigning data ownership, IT organisations can establish a framework for collaboration with the business to address data governance objectives. Since the initial launch , Symantec has seen broad adoption and use of Data Insight to reduce storage costs, simplify protection of critical data, and meet compliance.

Transform Storage Operations
Symantec Data Insight’s detailed data usage analytics of unstructured data, such as growth, frequency of access, inactive data, and user activity are essential to reducing storage costs and streamlining unstructured data storage operations such as reclamation, tiering, migration to cloud storage and capacity planning. Rapid growth of unstructured data and the emergence of Big Data are significantly increasing the magnitude of the operations challenge. Data Insight is particularly well-suited to support large-scale data management operations with its highly scalable and parallel architecture. With optimisations in collection, indexing and query algorithms, Data Insight delivers actionable analytics with enhanced performance across large data sets.

Empower the Business
Symantec Data Insight helps storage, security and compliance professionals empower the data owners inside the business to better manage and protect unstructured data through a new data custodian management feature.

• Data Custodian Management: Data Insight helps automate the discovery and management of custodians for unstructured data within the business. IT can automatically engage the custodians with valuable usage, permissions, and classification reporting and analytics, empowering the business to become better stewards of an organisation’s resources.
• Managing Data Growth: Data Insight automates custodian reviews of inactive or orphan data facilitating storage remediation actions, such as deletion, archival, or migration as well as assisting with data retention guidelines based on data ownership classification. Data Insight’s ownership and usage capabilities help organisations build a consumption-based chargeback model to promote accountability for efficient use of the storage.
• Protecting Confidential Data: Symantec continues to strengthen the integration between Symantec Data Insight and Symantec Data Loss Prevention. Features such as risk scoring and sensitive data alerts, combine Data Loss Prevention’s content-awareness with Data Insight’s usage and permissions analysis to help prioritise remediation of data based on risk. Data Insight’s custodian management feature will streamline the risk remediation process, especially important given the rapid growth of unstructured data.
• Governing Access to Data: Through Data Insight’s integration with the Aveksa Access Governance suite, organisations can easily establish business processes to control who can access key data resources across the enterprise. By incorporating the ownership and access information discovered by Symantec’s Data Insight into the Aveksa system, organisations can more easily and efficiently achieve compliance and better enforce access policies.

Comprehensive Coverage
Data Insight 3.0 now features a new integration point with Veritas Storage Foundation 6.0. Customers using Storage Foundation for file serving can now leverage Data Insight for their data management needs. Data Insight also features enhanced operations for NetApp network attached storage (NAS) and expanded coverage to support both CIFS and NFS protocols.

Data Insight provides comprehensive support for leading platforms such as NetApp NAS, EMC NAS, Windows File Servers, Microsoft SharePoint, and Unix File Servers with Veritas Storage Foundation file system. Data Insight also provides support for leading directory services, such as Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, and NIS/NIS+.

Quotes

• “Data Insight has given us a better understanding of how unstructured data is being created, used, stored, and retained,” said Starla Rivers, Sr. Information Security Architect, Sharp HealthCare. “With the integration between Data Insight and Symantec’s Data Loss Prevention solution, we are able to identify and manage data by content, access, age and risk. This allows us to work with the business custodians to protect that data through tighter access controls and a clean-up process. This is helping us with our data governance objectives of gaining efficiency and reducing risk.
• “NetApp and Symantec are committed to delivering innovative solutions that help our mutual customers employ new strategies to manage, retain and protect growing data volumes,” said Chris Cummings, vice president, products and solutions marketing, NetApp. “The combined strengths of Symantec Data Insight integrated with NetApp’s high performance storage systems enables organisations to better understand who owns information, how it’s being accessed, and how it’s being used to accelerate the business. This in-depth understanding helps customers efficiently manage data growth, make better decisions and drive successful business outcomes at the speed of today’s business.”
• “Data Insight provides visibility into the who and how as context to ‘eating the elephant.’ Our enterprise customers large and small find the task of classifying information somewhat insurmountable based upon volume, complexity, and lack of visibility,” said Marc Johnson, Practice Director for Data Center Management and Storage, Creative Breakthroughs, Inc.“Data Insight’s ownership and usage analytics help organisations link security, storage, and compliance in an unprecedented way. Never before have the walls crumbled between IT security and IT storage the way that Data Insight incites.”
• “With Symantec Data Insight and Aveksa integrated together, organisations can safely and efficiently delegate access decisions to the line-of-business custodians, while ensuring compliance with controls and constraints defined by Information Security,” said Deepak Taneja, CTO at Aveksa. “Symantec Data Insight provides information on data resource ownership, classification and usage, and Aveksa leverages this to provide business-user-friendly access activities, including certification, access request, and access remediation. The end result is a full lifecycle management system for controlling enterprise access to applications and data. ”
• “Data Insight demonstrates innovation and integration across Symantec’s security and storage portfolio,” said Vivian Tero, Program Director for Governance, Risk and Compliance, IDC “Data Insight’s data ownership and usage analysis benefits both storage and security stakeholders, by enabling efficient management of data growth to reduce cost and simplifying protection of sensitive data, regardless of where it is stored.”
• “It is difficult for most organisations to identify the data owners for a majority of the unstructured data in their organisation,” said Don Angspatt, vice president, product management, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec Corp. “Data Insight 3.0 enables our customers to not only identify data owners but also automatically engage them to reduce storage management costs, achieve compliance, and facilitate data protection, thereby increasing the effectiveness of an organisation’s data governance initiatives.”

Pricing and Availability
Data Insight is available immediately. Estimated pricing starts at $5,000 USD with either a per-User or per-TB licensing option.

Resources

• CIO Digest article: A View from 2015 on Information Explosion
• SlideShare: Data Insight
• Screenshot: Data Insight
• DCIG Blog on Data Insight 3.0
• Data Sheet: Symantec Data Insight 3.0
• Webcast: Promote Accountability and Compliance Over Your Unstructured Data with Symantec Data Insight (14 March 2012).
• Solution Page: Symantec Data Insight
• Symantec Storage Management Solutions
• Symantec Data Loss Prevention
• Press Release: Symantec Takes On Unstructured Data with Data Insight for Storage
• Press Release: Symantec Simplifies the Detection and Protection of Enterprises’ Most Valuable Information
• Press Release: Symantec Answers “Whose Data Is It Anyway?”

Connect with Symantec

• Follow Symantec Storage on Twitter
• Follow Symantec on Twitter
• Join Symantec on Facebook
• View Symantec’s SlideShare Channel
• Join Symantec Storage on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to Symantec News RSS Feed
• Visit Symantec Connect Business Community

About Storage and Availability Management from Symantec
Symantec helps organisations secure and manage their information-driven world with storage management, high availability/disaster recovery, email archiving, and backup & recovery solutions.

About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organisations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com or by connecting with Symantec at: go.symantec.com/socialmedia.

¹ Gartner, IT Market Clock for Storage, 2011, Sept 6, 2011

High-octane off-road racer featuring racing legend Jeremy McGrath will be available Q2.

Twain Harte, CA –  March 12 2012 – Get ready for some high-speed truck racing as Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad has received its official launch date! This intense off-road racer featuring seven-time AMA Supercross champion Jeremy McGrath is being developed by 2XL Games and will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network – Q2.

In Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad, players race four-wheeled, 800-horsepower off-road race trucks with tons of options including a host of tracks, single-player and multiplayer modes as well as a wide loadout of vehicle classes including Rally Cars, Pro Buggies and Pro Lite Trucks, all in crispy 1080p, 60 frames per second presentation. With multiplayer support for eight racers and a full career mode that follows Jeremy’s bid for the Pro2 championship within the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad will be THE title for racing fans who want to get down and dirty on the track.

“Teaming up with Jeremy to create our frenetic racer is a dream come true for me and the rest of the 2XL Games team,” said Robb Rinard, director at 2XL Games. “We can wait to deliver our brand of smooth arcade-style gameplay to racing fans everywhere.”

“I am super excited about this game…the graphics look awesome and my Monster Energy Pro 2 looks exactly like what I am racing right now in the Lucas Oil Offroad Series,” said Jeremy McGrath. “It’s great to see something that started as an idea turn into a killer video game thanks to the guys at 2XL Games!  I am sure my fans from both moto and offroad are going to love it.”

Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network.

For more information, visit www.raceroffroad.com, or check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

KONAMI announces METAL GEAR SOLID HD Collection for new handheld

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH today announced it will release METAL GEAR SOLID HD Collection for the new PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system this winter.

From the series’ critically acclaimed director, Hideo Kojima, METAL GEAR SOLID HD Collection updates two of the most popular METAL GEAR SOLID titles in true high definition. The PlayStation®Vita collection boasts enhanced versions of the acclaimed METAL GEAR SOLID 2: Sons of Liberty and METAL GEAR SOLID 3: Snake Eater titles, and both games enjoy graphical make-overs, trophies and bespoke controls systems designed to make the most of the PlayStation®Vita’s touch-screen capabilities. Similarly, the games enjoy a rebalanced user interface and make use of Kojima Productions’ unique TRANSFARRING system for data sharing with PlayStation®3 units.

“The PlayStation®Vita system will provide fans with an exciting new way to enjoy the METAL GEAR SOLID HD Collection,” said Martin Schneider, General Manager for Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH. “We’re confident that users will be pleased with the new innovations Kojima Productions have implemented with the new PlayStation®Vita iterations, offering a truly unique experience for this exciting new format.”

The Story of the First Adventurers to Walk Across Victoria Island

Distracted Media’s Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey will bring to the big screen this year the infamous Victoria Island adventures of explorer, Clark Carter and his expedition partner, Chris Bray in “The Crossing”.

The award-winning filmmakers of Australian horror film, The Tunnel partnered with the Australian adventurers two years ago. Directed by Julian Harvey and with the support of Australian Geographic, iinet and Gore-Tex®, the feature documentary will detail the first attempt in 2005 by Clark Carter and Chris Bray to navigate Victoria Island in the Arctic Circle. It will then recount when the pair returned in 2008 to finally complete the expedition.

Hauling half a tonne of food and equipment across 1000 kilometres of mud, rock and tundra, the adventurers braved being chased by wolves, battled blizzards and hid from polar bears. After spending 128 days on the island together, Clark Carter and Chris Bray became the first people in history to walk across the remarkable Victoria Island.

“Nothing comes easy with Victoria Island so to finally finish the expedition after four years of blood, sweat and tears was really an amazing feeling. I’m really excited we’re now able to share our adventure with the rest of the world,” said Clark Carter.

Bringing to life Chris’ book, The 1000 Hour Day, the filmmakers have sifted through in excess of 100 hours of high-definition footage to condense it to a one and a half hour film that accurately told the plight of the adventurers.

“As someone who has done a fair bit of mountaineering, I’ve come across quite a lot of adventure stories, but this one stood out straight away. Not only because of the quality of the footage they captured but the incredible determination Clark and Chris showed to reach their goal. It is a truly inspiring story,” said Julian Harvey.

“The Crossing” will premiere as part of the 2012 film festival circuit with a plan for mainstream distribution. Visit www.thecrossingfilm.net