Businessweek is reporting that James Cameron wants to have an MMORPG developed that will coincide with his upcoming movie "Project 880." Cameron wants to make a game available a few weeks before this movie is released, giving players a chance to explore the world of the movie before it comes to the silver screen.

"Now the director of Aliens, The Terminator, and Titanic is trying something different. Holed up at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif., Cameron is working on the screenplay for Project 880, which he describes as "completely crazy, balls-out sci-fi." If it gets produced, it could be the first major Hollywood project that audiences will experience first as a multiplayer game on the Net, and only later on the silver screen."

"Cameron has more than a passing interest in simulation and next-generation games. A former physics major at California State University, he once served on the board of NASA. Aiming to shoot all his future films in 3-D, he has helped pioneer a whole suite of 3-D cameras, tools to capture actors' performances and import them into simulations, and various post-production techniques. Cameron now sits on the board of Multiverse, a startup that helps developers create their own games in return for a cut of the subscription revenues. "You're seeing what hundreds of thousands of people in this game environment can create," he says."

"Project 880" is still a couple years down the road, so don't get too excited yet.