A new Tale of Tales: "Fatale"

Fans of Tale of Tales' The Path, and even their previous title The Graveyard will want to keep an eye on their just-announced new project, tentatively titled "Fatale."

The new work will be much smaller in scale -- "but not in ambition" -- and is inspired by 19th century "femme fatale" paintings, a femme fatale being a woman who lures men to their death -- this one will take on the inverse premise of The Path, then, it seems.

"We wanted to do something with that theme in realtime 3D," remark designers Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn. "And also with the idea of a painting as a frozen moment in time."

Fatale's story is based on the legend of Salomé, particularly Oscar Wilde's 1891 interpretation of it in play form. As the legend goes, 2000 years ago this woman (Salomé) demanded the head of John the Baptist as a reward for dancing for her stepfather, King Herod (must've been some fine dancing); Wilde's take on it focuses on a young woman in love with the prophet; in Tale of Tales' interpretation, you explore the aforementioned scene and experience the story as it unfolds through the emotions and thoughts of the characters.

"We're interested in the idea of a love story that ends in death," muse Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, "but we also want to include other elements of the tale. The fact, for instance, that Salomé may have been just an insecure girl who was manipulated by her mother, Queen Herodias -who then ends up becoming the real "femme fatale". We're also very sensitive to the political tension that underlies the tale: a Middle Eastern country -Judea- occupied by Westerners -Romans- at a time of religious unrest -the birth of Christianity. And this girl, Salomé, just has the head chopped off of one of the most important figures of the time. On a whim, apparently, or for unrequited love, changing the course of history."

Previous team members will be onboard for the project, so some familiar elements are to be expected (even welcomed); they are: Laura Raines Smith on character animation, Gerry De Mol on dance music, and musicians Jarboe and Kris Force on soundscaping and voice acting. Quite interestingly, the characters themselves will be created by an "extremely talented and very well known game artist", whose identity they are keeping secret for the time being.

Tale of Tales have previously worked on The Godlove Museum, described as "a series of interactive websites based on the first five books of the Old Testament."

Fatale will be released October 5, the 78th anniversary of the first public performance of Salomé in English -- the play has been banned from the British stage for nearly half a century due its depiction of biblical figures.