Sami Järvi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sami Jarvi (Sam Lake) | |
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| Born | Sami Jarvi June 30, 1970 Finland |
| Occupation | Writer, Actor |
| Domestic partner(s) | Petri Järvilehto |
Sami Järvi, also known (mostly abroad) by his artist name Sam Lake (Järvi is Finnish for Lake) (born 1970), is a Finnish writer who is mostly known for his work on the popular Max Payne video game series. Järvi is good friends with Petri Järvilehto, a founding member of Remedy Entertainment, the company behind Max Payne. Järvilehto needed help with script writing in one of Remedy's early games, Death Rally, and invited Lake to write. Since then, Järvi has helped write and design Remedy's most successful game: Max Payne.
He attended the University of Helsinki, where he studied the English language and literature.
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[edit] Max Payne
Järvi played several roles in the development of Max Payne. He not only wrote the game's story and script, but also helped design levels, and was the face model for the character of Max Payne, which many players joke had a "constipated" look. He posed as Max Payne in the game's graphic novels as well. Because of the game's budget, Remedy could not hire actors. As a result, Järvi, along with other Remedy programmers played the roles.
[edit] Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
In this sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Järvi stuck to writing. The game's script ended up being about four times as long as some movie scripts. For the sequel, Remedy's budget was increased, allowing the ability to hire professional actors to model for the graphic novel cutscenes, Järvi was replaced by actor Timothy Gibbs. However, if the player should watch any of the TV set shows during the game, they will see that Järvi models for John Mirra in the fake television show Address Unknown as well as "Lord Valentine" and "Mama" in Lords and Ladies.[1] There is also an unofficial mod to give the character his old face back.[2]
The ending theme song, "Late Goodbye" is based on a poem by Järvi. The song was written by the Finnish group Poets of the Fall.
Mob boss Vinnie Gognitti remarks that the creator of Max Payne's in-game cartoon series, Captain Baseball Bat Boy, is a man named Sammy Waters, which is a play on Järvi's alternative name (Sam) Lake.
[edit] Future projects
Järvi is currently involved with writing Remedy's next game Alan Wake, a "psychological action thriller" slated for release in 2008. An upcoming Max Payne film was also slated for release in 2008 (with actor Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne), though it is unknown to what capacity Järvi will be involved with the project, Järvi is said to be the character writer for the movie according to IMDB.
[edit] References
- ^ Buffington, Wade. "Meet Sam Lake, the Real Max Payne", ECorsair, 2004-03-03. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ GameSpot:Video Games PC Xbox 360 PS3 Wii PSP DS PS2 PlayStation 2 GameCube GBA PlayStation 3
