Chris Roberts founded Ascendant Pictures in early 2003 and in just a short time, established himself and the company as a force in the world of independent film production and finance. In 2004, Roberts earned an Executive Producer credit on The Punisher and produced The Big White (Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson) and Lord Of War (Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto). In 2005, Roberts produced Lucky Number Slevin. In addition, he served as Executive Producer on The Jacket (Adrien Brody and Keira Knightly) and the upcoming Robert Towne film, Ask The Dust (Colin Farrell and Selma Hayek). The end of 2006 finds him producing the effects laden sci-fi Viking project, Outlander starring Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles and Jack Huston and to be directed by Howard McCain. Principal photography began October 16 in Nova Scotia and will continue through January 2007. Roberts will also serve as Executive Producer on Black Water Transit which films January 2007 in New Orleans.
Prior to founding Ascendant, Roberts was Chairman and CEO of Digital Anvil (DA), the game development and digital effects company he founded in 1996 with funding from Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices. Roberts guided DA's growth to annual revenues of $14 million, prior to the release of many of its games in development. His innovations changed the gaming industry. His games were the first to perfect the use of 35mm film as narrative in interactive game titles, and DA became the first interactive entertainment company to produce a game title, Wing Commander, into a $25 million feature film, directed and produced by Roberts. The film starred Freddie Prinze, Jr. (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea) and Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo).
DA and the video game titles it created won numerous gaming awards and the company became a digital effects powerhouse, creating all of the digital effects for the Wing Commander movie and contributing to the digital effects for several other films, including Spy Kids. In December of 2000, Roberts sold DA to Microsoft. DA remains a successful subsidiary of Microsoft and content provider for the XBox.
In 1987, Roberts joined Origin Systems, Inc. (OSI), which was later acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1992 for $30 million. Roberts was instrumental in OSI's growth from a company with $4 million in annual revenues to a company with annual revenues of $50 million. In 1990, Roberts developed Wing Commander, which set a new standard in PC games and evolved into a franchise series of game titles, all developed and produced by Roberts. With its cinematic quality, clearly developed story lines and well-known actors, the Wing Commander series created a whole new genre within the gaming industry known as the "interactive movie." By 1995, the Wing Commander series had generated well over $110 million in revenues, and from 1990 to 1995, the Wing Commander series accounted for more than 60% of OSI's revenue. In addition to selling more than 3 million units worldwide by 1995, the Wing Commander series won a record setting number of gaming awards. To date, the series has generated over $400 million in global retail revenue.
A gaming wonder kid, Roberts sold his first computer game at the age of 14, and by the age of 20, Roberts had developed three #1 hits in his native U.K.: Match Day, Wiz Adore and Stryker's Run.
