Slashdot Mirror
Dungeon Siege Latest Game-To-Film Adaptation
Thanks to Ferrago for their story confirming a film version of popular PC RPG Dungeon Siege is in the works, from the same creators who gave us the 'horrific' House Of The Dead movie, in which Sega's ghoulish gun-game series was shifted to "an island off the coast of Florida, [where] a techno rave party attracts a diverse group of college co-eds." The German producer and director of the forthcoming Dungeon Siege film, Uwe Boll, also currently working on the Alone In The Dark movie starring Christian Slater, breathlessly proclaimed: "Based on the success of House of the Dead, I believe Dungeon Siege contains major crossover potential because of its unique blend of action and fantasy, on the order of Lord of the Rings."
Why do they keep picking games with such shallow premices, AITD etc.
Why not Morrowind instead of Dungeon Seige, I'd rather see that.
I'm sure its to appeal to the mass market, but mass market action games don't always translate well to movies (wing commander).
Jesus saves, everyone else takes full damage from the fireball.
I'm just so happy that they constantly seem to be compelled to follow up a benign yet entertaing video game with a horrible movie, thus destroying all positive-memories associated with the game.
I just hope they don't do a Silent Hill movie.
- - - - - - -
"All hail the glory of the Hypnotoad."
The house of the dead game was mediocre and the house of the dead movie was a Wyrm-tainted net drain of energy on the universe. "The House of the Dead" the movie had no positive side-effects in any way at all-- not for the producers, who failed to make money, nor for the actors and other artists involved, who now have a horrible stain of intense mediocrity on their record, nor for the audiences, none of whom enjoyed the movie.
However I'm almost curious about Alone in the Dark. I like Alone in the Dark and I like Christian Slater. Too bad that, most likely, when faced with a video game that contained actual effective atmosphere, elegant storytelling, and emotional relevancy, the movie producers will fail entirely to understand the game and merely give us a going-through-the-motions cardboard-cutout "hollywood movie" which connects with no one.
Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider 2, House of the Dead.. I tell you, the noble if horrible history of the Video Game Movie has dropped precipitously since the turning point marked by the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat movies. I wonder with some sadness if we will ever return to the level of gloriously barely-acceptable, deliciously anti-anti-camp that the genre held at its peak: Super Mario Brothers.
"TRUST THE FUNGUS!"
-- Super Ugly Ultraman
It used to be that only good/popular games were made into movies... Sure, there was a buzz surrounding Dungeon Siege at launch-time, but everyone who bought it realized within a few days that it was completely shallow. Dungeon Siege was like a stone dropped into a lake. It caused a moderate splash, then it completely disappeared. If someone's making a movie based on this, it just shows that it's too easy to make movies.
When will they be making a movie based on Typing of the Dead?
After a movie like this, I know the only reason they signed over the rights to him is because nobody else would be stupid enough to buy them. But this is a recipe for ultimate crapness: Terrible director working on a movie based on a hack-n-slash RPG that while fun, was shallower than the wading pool at an old age home. Nothing good will come of this.
Bloodrayne is also going to made into a movie by the same director. Shudder.
That blurb is exactly right. When I saw this new "Lord of the Rings" movie I knew right away it was a complete ripoff of Dungeon Seige. It's a wonder that the developers haven't sued Peter Jackson yet.
In all seriousness, has there been a decent movie-from-computer game film yet? Does Resident Evil count? Final Fantasy perhaps?
The opposite is also interesting, are there any decent game-from-movie adaptations? I can't think of any. The matrix game was woeful.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
How can you compare a video game with a so-so at best backstory to one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century? They'd better have better script writers than the Dungeons and Dragons movie did...
puke entertainment? Come on! LOTR? Shit... even an idiot knows that the LOTR trillogy is a huge undertaking, fueled by source material that is unsurpassed (except maybe by Star Wars) in fantasy literature. Dungeon Siege was a videogame, albeit a good one, but hardly worthy of comparing it to LOTR! I guess the saying "Open mouth, insert foot" was a popular one his parents told him.
Some games I think would make decent movies are Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story. Especially Vagrant Story. The camera work in the game itself is top notch.
The problem being is that hollywood and the producers will be like, "Hmmm... this plot is too complex, let's make it as deep as a 1/2 inch pool of water".
Then of course the director will get his hand in it and say, "Wow, that's awesome camera work, let's see if I can pretend I care and just produce crap instead".
Then the casting director will be like, "Wow, the lead characters are pretty strong, deep and multifaceted. Let's secretly switch the lead with a pretty-boy popstar that can't act his way out of a paper bag and see how everyone reacts."
In the end you get movies like Wing Commander, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and Tomb Raider (replace pretty-boy with babe).
PA is ze retarded and ze unfunny.
He wants to destroy the credibility of gaming in general and the concept of gaming overtaking movies as a source of entertainment for the general populace.
In shorthand, that's:
1) Buy the rights to make unbelievably bad movies about games with paper-thin pseudo-plots, thereby destroying any chance for a good game->movie script to ever get greenlighted
2) ???
3) Profit!
Why is it no producer seems to remember the '80s? Conan the Barbarian came out, had a budget backing it, and was a hit (and a fun film to watch). On the other hand, the deluge of fantasy films that followed, both in this country and in Europe (cough -Italy- cough) sucked the life out of the decade, and were mostly responsible for making a generation of Gamers sulk about in high school hallways like so many thieves failing their "hide in shadows" roll (the other being that damn Tom Hanks film.
Fantasy looks like silly crap without a budget. Fantasy looks like a bad movie with a budget and a bunch of producers and executives who're shooting for a certain demographic and a PG-13 rating so's they can bring in the teen market, and a cute side-kick to sell as an action figure... The only time fantasy works is when you dump a bunch of cash on a fanboy who's a skilled director and has enough clout to get his own way in most things.
er..IMO