Recently I had an idea to make a completely different type of game. Note that this impossible to do alone, and Im thinking big here. The idea is to combine artistic cinematography with interactivity. Think about it as a movie with interactive sequences. A balance of 50% movie and 50% interactivity is about what I have in mind. The story will be told through the movie clip / game mix. Artistically it should almost be overdone. Im leaning towards the look of 300. I have not seen it, but have an idea. It should be very dramatic, with a gripping story. Its more of an artistic showcase than a game. I want to write a prototype design document, but I need to do a lot of research first about cinematography and art.

What do you guys think?

Oh yes. I forgot!

The soundtrack is very important. Should be epic and majestic. I want to say like an interactive musical, but thats a bit too much.

I already have an idea about 'new genre' and its quite unique and will be a lot of fun,but as you said about your idea "its impossible to do alone" you are almost right. Everything can be done by one person,just not that good as 10 people working on it.
I dont think you should learn everything about movies,atleast thats my opinion. Everyone is a natural artist,you just have to learn to see the details and recreate them. (Applies in textures,models,levels and everything involving pictures and frames).
And finaly,your idea is good,but I'll share my idea about interactive movies I had an idea one year ago to make a movie wich will be diffrent every time you start it,choosing random variables at the start and playing diffrent parts of the movie based on those variables. This will give each time diffrent endings and even diffrent story 'flow' showing the evil guy laughing at the end,or the good guy getting married,or the neutral guy standing over the corpses of both characters. It'll be great,but I'm too lazy to make it,so I stick to top-down shooters and isometric RPGs

Sounds like Phantasmagoria to me.

Doesn't sound like a new genre to me: At best, it sounds like interactive machinima; at worst, merely an old genre with extended cutscenes.

Something to consider... People that like movies go see movies; people that like games go play games. It a rare customer that wants both in their entertainment experience. The people that want movies will complain that they have to jump through all these hoops to get to the next chapter while the people that want games will complain that the cutscenes are too long and let me just play!

I think it's a neat idea, but I wouldn't go so far as to put "new genre" on the box if you know what I mean and I would be really careful about thinking of who will play your game and what they want out of it.

Yeah it was done in the Tomb Raider: Interactive Experience DVD Game. It broke down tomb raider angel of darkness into cutscenes and choices.
Also most of the old adventure games incorporated this into the gameplay, say tex murphy with the fmv choices

I renember shenmue for me one of the best games in the
history

I think there are new genres out there in the 'unexplored'. It is the same with each new technology.

In the beginning people try to translate the success of the old media into the new media, and often there is disappointment about all what is not working as good as in the old technology. Like all these games that follow the AAA movies (matrix, harry potter ...).
Usually it takes some time to discover that on the other side there are unique possibilities, that are the real strong features of a new media.
Look at the early days of movie making. In the beginning movies where silent, like a book, that was transposed into pictures. It took years until they discovered the power of sound to transport moods, feelings etc. Today we have digital effects, that bring people to the movies just to see these effects (matrix, transformers).
Or take the history of books itself. In the early days they were just used to keep in a written format, what were the common stories of a society (Ilias, Odysee or Thora, Bible and Koran). It needed (centuries and) courageous individuals like Michel de Montaigne to write down personal stories and publish them. Today we have a hugh market of all kinds of literature.
Who knows what possibilities are waiting out there in the interactive world of computer games?