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More Game To Movie Translations In Progress

Posted by simoniker on from the will-they-never-end? dept.

Thanks to Yahoo/Hollywood Reporter for their article discussing the latest batch of videogame-to-movie adaptations in progress, which focuses on a completely different set of films to yesterday's article on Dungeon Siege. This time, Impact Pictures, who "which wrapped principal photography of its $40 million-range 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse' sequel Friday in Toronto", is profiled, and they discuss forthcoming movies from the company, helmed by Mortal Kombat director Paul W.S. Anderson, including "a $50 million adaptation of Atari's best-selling 'Driver' game", and, weirdly, a "big-screen version of Tecmo's blockbuster 'Dead or Alive' fighting game... [which] will provide some PG-13 fighting action and humor, devised by screenwriter J.F. Lawton ('Pretty Woman')."

12 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Movies? by Etone · · Score: 2, Funny

    Studios these days!

    They were better off back in my day when games with flimsy stories were ported to shoddy Saturday morning cartoons, like they should be.

    -e-

  2. Um yea by quantax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I failing to understand why they are picking these games for conversion. Dungeon Seige for 1.5 hours, what the hell? What about Morrowind or some other classic D&D quest with a real plot. But Dungeon Seige is good compared to Dead or Alive or Driver; DoA has zero plot to develop from, so I think we can expect another street fighter here. And as far as Driver, what the hell? Theres plenty of good car-chase movies without making one about a game about car-chases. Hollywood must be sadly misinformed or something, since I can think of plenty of video games which offer far more possibilities based on existing plots. Resident Evil atleast has a plot, though its not terribly original, its there and its something, so I can give them that, but DoA the movie sounds weak.

    --
    "What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
    1. Re:Um yea by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My guess would be that there are a couple of things at work here. First of all, say you're a movie producer and you own the rights to this somewhat poor script for generic movie Y. Now during the course of reading the script for Y, you notice that some scenes match a hit video game that has sold very well on a multitude of platforms. Well golly - let's slap that license on there and make some easy money! Now I don't know if more people are familiar with Dungeon Siege or Morrowind or Driver or DoA. My guess would be that the most people are familiar with DoA but I've got no numbers to back that up so feel free to disagree and correct me. Second of all, I'd guess that an already established plot like Morrowind apparently has is dangerous territory because, if you mess with that established universe, you're going to piss off some of the core of your target a lot. Who knows how those kooks out in Hollywood think though...

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    2. Re:Um yea by The+Munger · · Score: 2, Funny

      Alright, bear with me. GTA: The Movie. You've got to admit, it's got a bit of story and background. I'd love to see Bruce Campbell playing Tommy Vercetti as a comedic gangster (So he's not Italian - I don't care). I could see him slip right into the role.

      Then again, why not use the voice of Vice City, Ray Liotta. I can't quite see him doing the comedic aspect as well, but we'd all recognise his voice straight off and he has done the Mobster film before.

      --
      Refuse to make a statement in your sig!
  3. Boy I can't wait... by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...until Tetris comes out.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Boy I can't wait... by GregThePaladin · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think Penny Arcade wrapped that one up: http://penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-01-24& res=l

  4. Oh boy by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I just finished watching Hulk like half an hour ago. You can probably imagine, I didn't find this artice exciting.

    My main problem with video game/comicbook/cartoon adaptions is that live-action movies are not the right medium for it. Video games and cartoons are very single-dimensional when it comes to personality. How do you adapt human depth to a character without destroying it? Spiderman comes to mind. Remember the villain in that movie? Who can imagine a guy really turning into that?

    What's the solution? I wish they'd think about what this medium is strong at and focus on its strengths. Live action is great for human interaction, it stucks as a superhero medium. Wanna use live action? Okay, at least be kind enough to make the experience worthwhile. X-Men comes to mind. Don't want your movie to be like that? Okay, at LEAST consider an animated film. You have an enitrely different range of advantages with animation.

    I really wish movies were made to be entertained instead of to draw money.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  5. Obligatory Penny-Arcade link by JFMulder · · Score: 2, Funny

    Penny-Arcade already gave a thought to it. :)

  6. Fucking Paul Anderson by sideshow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Check out his "extensive" filmography. What know the worse of it? George "Night of the Living Dead" Romero was origianlly signed up to write and direct the Resident Evil movie. He even wrote a script. Then some genius at Capcom says, "When has Romero made a movie out of a video game? This Anderson guy made the movie Mortal Kombat so he must be the man for the job!"

    I fucking hate Hollywood.

    --

    Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.

  7. Not only that. With DoA by Ayanami+Rei · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The only thing they have going for it is T&A, esp. the shaking ones during intense fights. This concept works as a game because there aren't real actresses playing the parts.

    No actress that is of the "caliber" to be a DoA stand-in would subject herself to that level of fan-service. All three Charlie's Angels would have to go under the knife first.
    It could only be a good film if it WASN'T rated PG13 and actually was violent or pornographic.

    Sadly, it will be neither of things, nor can it be tongue-in-cheek unless they really scrape the bottom of the talent barrel, which no one wants to see.

    Unless a firm and mildly interesting plot manifests itself. Even then, what's the point... why call it DoA? Reminds me of that "Pirates of the Carribean" game disaster. Just drop the name, save a little money, if you aren't going to "do it right".

    --
    THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
  8. Re:Bloodrayne by Kris_J · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It can be two things.

  9. Re:HOW!!!??? by imperator_mundi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If at Square they did an outstanding job writing the history of FFVII, why the hell they did "The spirit within" with such an awful screenplay?

    I think that the point is that histories for games are written from people who feel free to try daring solution, because the key of the succes of a game is to find a core of people who really, really, really love to play it (otherwise they wouldn't spend tens of hours and bucks on it); screenplays have on the contrary the main goal to be pleasant to the masses, so when translating a videogame in to a movie there's this tendency to smooth all the sharpen edges that eventually characterise the game... consequently the atmosphere of the story will be dramatically altered... as far as I remember they tried to do a Supermario movie... a decade after I still trying to wash it from my brain ;)