The professional skateboarder Tony Hawk announces plans to release a documentary on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game series, and pursue a new game without Activision.

Without a doubt, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise has not only been one of the longest-running gaming franchises in history, with sequels spanning some of the best video game consoles of all time, but also it has been one of the most influential titles as well, especially considering the fact that the original installment inspired countless gamers to pick up the game as well as a skateboard, which helped to grow the sport into a full-fledged phenomenon in the late '90s. Now, Tony "The Birdman" Hawk – the de facto face of the franchise – has announced that he is working on a documentary about the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, while also potentially developing a new game without the help of Activision.

When it comes to the new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater documentary, the professional skateboarder took to his official Twitter account to reveal the forthcoming movie's title, Pretending I'm a Superman, which is a reference to a lyric in the Los Angeles punk rock band Goldfinger's song "Superman" that was on the soundtrack for the franchise's flagship title. Beyond confirming the documentary is currently in production, however, Hawk didn't offer further details as to when or where fans should expect the film to debut.

As pointed out by NeoGAF user Piston Hyundai, the documentary for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is being worked on by former Neversoft producer Ralph D'Amato, who had his hands in the development of every game up to Project 8, and he will be joined by the talents of the YouTube user known as Icebears4ever. Interestingly enough, the YouTuber has put out similar work in the past, as he made an unofficial historical documentary of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater a couple of years back in anticipation of the release of THPS 5.

While news of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater documentary is certainly an exciting proposition to the series' fans, perhaps the more intriguing information is in regards to the professional skateboarder admitting to Jenkem Magazine in an interview that he has been in the nascent stages of creating a new game without Activision. Hawk was asked during the discussion whether or not there would be more entries in the THPS franchise, and he replied, "Not from Activision. I’m potentially working on something but it’s so early I couldn’t talk about it. I don’t have any contracts signed but it’s exciting. I feel like it’s with the right people so I should know more in the next couple months."

Taking all of this into consideration, it's quite possible that Tony Hawk could have decided to step away from his Pro Skater series to help with the production of the recently teased Skate 4. After all, the long-running Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series could have left the Birdman feeling creatively bankrupt, and it stands to reason that tapping into a different franchise altogether might satisfy Hawk's expressive side even more so than working on a project so familiar to him.

Of course, he could have simply decided to not move forward with another partnership with Activision for the time being after the publisher's release of the lackluster THPS 5, which many believe to be one of the most disappointing games of 2015. Bearing that in mind, there's a chance that Tony Hawk doesn't want his name attached to another title that receives abysmally bad reviews from both the fans and critics.

As of writing, there is currently no release date for the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater documentary, Pretending I'm a Superman.