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Think the drama over "Brutal Legend" is over? Think again.

It turns out that Activision Blizzard is under the impression it still has publishing rights to the game. And it’s threatening to sue developer Double Fine and new publisher Electronic Arts as a result.

(Some background for anyone who hasn’t followed this whole drama for the past year: Double Fine, developer of the critically acclaimed but underperforming “Psychonauts,” set up “Brutal Legend,” an action game set in the world of heavy metal that stars Jack Black, at Vivendi Games. Then last year Vivendi Games merged with Activision to form Activision Blizzard. The newly merged company, led by Activision execs, declined to pick up a number of Vivendi’s projects, including, it appeared, “Brutal Legend.” Then in December, Electronic Arts announced that it had reached a deal with Double Fine and would release the game next fall.)

Now Activision Blizzard has written a letter to EA (and possibly Double Fine) informing them of its legal concerns. According to two sources familiar with ActiBlizzard’s position, the publisher believes that it was still in negotiations with Double Fine and that the EA deal is invalid.

Does that mean ActiBlizzard wants “Brutal Legend” for itself? Nope. I’ve been told it doesn’t think the game has the potential to be the kind of mega-profitable, “Call of Duty”-size franchise that it looks for these days.

So what does it want? A good guess would be money in exchange for giving up its publishing rights. That is what it received from Atari for “Ghostbusters” and “The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena,” for instance.

Double Fine’s position, however, appears to be that it owns the rights to “Brutal Legend” and that somehow in the merger process, whether because there’s no longer a Vivendi Games or because the original fall 2008 publishing date passed and Activision didn’t express interest in finding a new one, it's allowed to find a new publisher.

An Activision Blizzard rep declined to comment. But EA has responded with its claws bared, giving me this rather pointed response:

Me-ow.

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Brütal Legend follows the story of Eddie Riggs (named for Eddie the Head, the mascot of Iron Maiden, and Derek Riggs, the artist who created him), who is living as a roadie for a heavy metal band. The game begins one night before a gig. As Riggs is tuning a guitar, an accident happens and he starts to bleed. His blood drips onto his cursed belt buckle, which bears a strong resemblance to Motörhead's Snaggletooth emblem. Before he knows it, the beast on his buckle has come alive and transported him into a heavy metal and Nordic fantasy inspired alternate history where demons have enslaved humanity.

After escaping the Temple of Ormagöden, where he first appears in the Heavy Metal past, Eddie meets Ophelia, a love interest likened to the same character from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ophelia is soon severely injured and Riggs must climb a mystical mountain to do battle with a motorcycle-driving bass guitarist (voiced by Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister), called the Kill Master. Eddie will also meet Lita Halford (a double-reference to Lita Ford and Rob Halford) and her younger brother, Lars, who help Eddie and Ophelia start a resistance movement against Lord Dolivicus, his glam metal minion, General Lionwhyte (voiced by Rob Halford and a reference to the band White Lion), whose hair is so luscious, he uses it to fly, and their legions of demons to free the world. Eddie will also encounter the local wildlife, including half-boar/half-motorcycle "Razorfires", a giant three-tongued lamprey, and giant chrome spiders that spin silk which can be made into magical bass strings.

After the first act of the game, Eddie will deal with a community of humans who willingly fight alongside the demons. They wear black and "drink from a sea of black tears. It gives them great power but also makes them look dead." These humans are parodies of Goth and Emo. These enemies include "Grave Diggers", "Brides" and "Reapers" that wear bondage gear.

In the game's first trailer, a demon tells Eddie that his belt buckle is a mask "forged from the steel flesh of the fire beast", and that it was meant for "a god, not a roadie". Eddie then snaps the demon's neck and charges into battle with the Headbangers to the tunes of Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules". The trailer also shows that Eddie has the ability to sprout wings so he can fly. According to the Game Informer article, "his blood hides a dark secret and his wings are the proof".

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The soundtrack is set to include brand new music by Zakk Wylde, Tim Skold, Wolfmother, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Ronnie James Dio, with extended guitar solos by Judas Priest guitarists K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. Tim Schafers' long term collaborator Peter McConnell is also involved in the soundtrack.

The song "The Mob Rules" by Black Sabbath was used in the first trailer for the game and the songs "The Hellion" and "Electric Eye" by Judas Priest are used on Brutal Legend's website.

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