When I first heard that George Miller is working on a fourth Mad Max film, titled “Fury Road,” my first thought was, “Awesome.” When I learned that Miller was teaming up with God of War II director Cory Barlog to produce a Mad Max game for concurrent release with the film, I thought, “Even better.”

Prominent filmmakers, including Miller and Steven Spielberg, are flocking to the game industry, where cinematic products are becoming increasingly viable.

In a two part interview with Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, Miller talked about his attraction to games.

“I realized that the kind of filmmaker that I am, I unconsciously try to make films that are as immersive as possible,” said Miller. “My cutting patterns and compositions try to exaggerate–well, not exaggerate, but try to enhance a kind of three-dimensionality and an immersive quality to my storytelling. That of course is what games do so well.”

Miller sees games as a more open way to explore a narrative. “Film is a pretty closed narrative–it moves along at 24 frames a second, it’s extremely linear, and in that sense rigid, whereas games bust that open. So in a way, with games being more exploratory, it’s closer to what a novelist can do in many way,” he said.

“It’s just another way to tell stories,” added Miller. “If you’re much more interested in games than movies, then you might enter the story through the game. Or you might enter the story through the film and move towards the game. It’s still the same story. It’s still the same characters. It’s still the same world. It’s just that you can approach the characters and the world from different angles.”

Other filmmakers are in the news for making a transition to gaming. “Paramount is very, very excited about the growth in the interactive entertainment market,” said Alex Carloss, Paramount Digital’s general manager of worldwide distribution, in an interview with Next-Gen. “I’m sure you’re going to see an awful lot more from Paramount in this space.”

Yair Landau, president of Sony’s digital division, is leaving Sony to start his own game and animation company. “Online entertainment from all formats — (be it) animation, live-action games on the PS3 — is going to be relevant to what I do,” he said in an interview with GameDaily. Landau has some experience in the gaming industry, having worked on online games like Everquest.

Technology is motivating this exodus. What games are capable of rendering is growing closer and closer to what we see in digitally animated films, and the line between film and gaming is shrinking. As that happens, we’ll see more cinematic gaming experiences and more filmmakers interested in working with games.

Miller said technology is allowing games to tell sophisticated stories with more developed characters, rather than possessing a cursory story to explain gameplay and action. “In the past the technology hasn’t allowed you to do it,” he said. “But now I think you’re beginning to see more and more of it, so that the action of games can be very characterful.”