DarkStar is an interactive video game that's been in development for over 10 years. It's usually described as more of an interactive movie than a video game because the characters in the game are live actors. The game is of interest to Rush fans because the game's creators had planned on featuring the music of Rush for the soundtrack; about two dozen songs spanning 12 albums. The last we'd heard regarding the project was from DarkStar director/producer J. Allen Williams back in late 2009:

We are now negotiating with Universal and Atlantic to include the following songs to be featured in the feature length scifi film that serves as back-story to the project: Anthem, Bastille Day, The Twilight Zone, Cygnus X-1, Cygnus X-1 Book II, Tom Sawyer, YYZ, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs, Subdivisions, Red Sector A, The Enemy Within, Red Lenses, Mystic Rhythms, Manhattan Project, Time Stand Still, Test for Echo, Time and Motion, Limbo, One Little Victory and Nocturne. The band and their management has approved the use of all of these songs, but final negotiations must be completed with Universal and Atlantic before we can announce the final songlist. We're hoping we can include this entire list.
- J. Allen Williams/Parallax Studio L.L.C., December 2009

Unfortunately negotiations with Universal hit a snag in recent months and the studio has been forced to pull all Rush music from the game. From a July 1st press release:

The band gave us a green light years ago, but tough negotiations with Universal more recently have gone nowhere - and at the end of the day, they own the RUSH masters. They simply want too much money, more than was ever talked about during this process.' commented Studio owner J. Allen Williams. 'At this point we've made the difficult decision to pull the music and produce an original score for Darkstar so we can release, and that is now in process. We wish it could have gone better for both RUSH and our project, but that's Hollywood for you. Clearance rights were our last worry as we were told repeatedly over the years that the band was behind us. Anthem encouraged us to talk about it in interviews, which we did.' said Williams. 'We are disappointed, of course, as I'm sure there will be fans who have been writing us for so long waiting to see their favorite band in Darkstar. I have a true love for RUSH and a vision that could have glorified them to a new generation of listeners. It sucks, it's sad, but that's the final word.' Darkstar began production in mid-2000, featuring the original cast of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, Clive Robertson (Sunset Beach), and was veteran actor Peter Graves final performance. Darkstar is back on schedule for release now that these issues are resolved, a date to be announced late summer once new music is in place.

Thanks to Power Windows for the info.

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