When news broke last November that God of War II director Cory Barlog was leaving Sony Computer Entertainment with God of War III, everyone wanted to know what he planned to do next. Thanks to a well-placed source, we knew half of the story, which we can reveal to you exclusively today: he'll be working with the noted Australian film writer-director-producer George Miller--the man behind such features as "The Witches of Eastwick," "Babe," "Happy Feet," and most notably of all, the "Mad Max" series of movies that starred Mel Gibson--on one or more videogame projects.

What we didn't know, even after an hour-long, previously unpublished interview with Barlog that we conducted last December, is what the two men would be collaborating on. That's because Barlog was being coy, so we held off on publishing anything until we could get more details. A January phone interview with Miller took care of that--as did a subsequent follow-up conversation with Barlog--but we're going to take a page from Barlog's handbook and be coy with you, Dear Reader. Why? To let you experience this epic series of wide-ranging chats as we did, in chronological order, and absorb the implications of this partnership and the potential for others like it as more top videogame creators consider throwing off the shackles of the employer-employee relationship for the promise and peril of the independent contractor.

So tomorrow, we'll publish our world exclusive details of the first collaboration between Barlog and Miller, alongside a Q&A with Miller himself. (Trust us--you won't want to miss it.) But today, we're going focus on our initial December interview with Barlog, which centered around his decision to break away from Sony after the success of God of War and God of War II. Some excerpts:

On why he chose to partner with Miller over younger directors who grew up on videogames:

When I met with him, the interaction was like two storytellers getting together, in the way that both of us were able to relate to various subjects. He has a game knowledge. While he may not be a hardcore gamer, he has a game knowledge, and he comes from an angle that I'm very passionate about. I don't really want to make casual games or games with no sort of story backbone or character backbone. Our conversations, they kind of were all over the map, but they went to the heart of so many things as opposed to being kind of like, "Hey, so what do you like?" and "What do you like?" It was detailed conversations about character interactions and the way that each of our industries can kind of push things further.

On how the departures of key talent from the God of War team influenced his own decision to leave:

For me, the last straw was Eric Williams, who for all intents and purposes for me was always like an AD [assistant director]; like a second director almost. He's a very technical combat guy. Me and him basically built Kratos on God of War I. We established all the bosses; the way that the whole game felt; what God of War's gameplay from a navigation, combat and platforming perspective felt like. And having lost him on III, that was a defining moment for me to go, "All right, this is not what it was before," even though there's still an incredible team there. Those guys there are amazing and they know everything they're doing, but I really, really enjoyed working with Eric. So for me, working on a project without him was like, "Well, I'm not feeling as strong about it."

On the difference in perception between someone who directs a hit movie and someone who directs a hit game:

In the film industry, you make one movie, one movie that's successful--it doesn't matter if you've done anything prior to that--you make one movie that's successful and everybody loves it, at that point you are bankable, marketable and you have your choice. You have an idea, people want to move with you on that, you know you have the opportunity to work with many more people of a higher stature and increase your audience. With the game industry, you make ten games and people are still like, [skeptical voice] "Well, yeah, I don't know. Maybe, maybe it's good."

On why it's hard for videogame creators to get respect from the general public:

The way everybody views the game industry right now, it's just like, "Whatever man, you make videogames." I don't think they sort of see the individual achievement because it isn't like this in the industry. There isn't television shows about the directors, television shows about the producers, television shows about the biographies of actors and biographies of people who make these games. We're so inundated with everybody on the film side and their process that there's kind of an inherent respect, whereas with the game industry I think there's still a belief from most people that we use Super Nintendo controllers and tighten up the graphics on level three like that Westwood College commercial. That or "Grandma's Boy." That's what people probably think the game industry is: a bunch of flaky people hanging out and playing ping pong and video games in a break room for most of the day.

For Part I of our in-depth Q&A with Barlog, click here. For Part II, click here.

P.S. The headline is simply a play on words, folks. It's not a hint.