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What is Blizzard's Mike Morhaime doing in this weird movie trailer?

Why Him?

Video games and cinema have always made for awkward bedfellows, but this latest trailer for upcoming film Why Him?, featuring actual game developers, is especially odd.

Looks like a classic.

Throughout the video, we see some surprisingly important names from across the gaming industry rave about a fake billionaire game developer Laird (James Franco) and his game, Ape Assassins.

"You want to know the real reason why we had to cancel Titan?" asks Blizzard president, Mike Morhaime. "It's because everyone was just playing Ape Assassins all day."

Alongside the man that co-founded the company that brought us Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and Overwatch, we've got the head of content for Assassin's Creed, as well as a couple of big names from Halo developer 343 Industries.

All of them promoting a film whose protagonist actually has the words 'Game Over' tattooed onto his fingers. Okay then.

Cover image for YouTube videoWhy Him? | Laird's Got Game | 20th Century FOX

The film itself, mercifully, looks like it'll have very little to do with video games. Instead, it's a romantic comedy where Bryan Cranston plays the father of a girl Franco is trying to date.

Add to that the fact the film's production company has also made and released the Ape Assassins app for iPhone and Android devices - and it's all very meta.