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Splinter Cell Movie in the Works
By way of Voodoo Extreme comes the news that a movie adaptation of Splinter Cell is in the offing. From the blurb: "Paramount has acquired film rights to Tom Clancy's video game Splinter Cell and hired Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) to direct. Variety says Berg is writing the script along with Splinter Cell game writer J.T. Petty and John J. McLaughlin (Man of the House). Paramount said the movie is aimed at combining the game's blend of stealth action with a "dynamic, original" character."
...with a "dynamic, original" character.
...then again, we've all been wondering what was so freaking hard about demons from hell and marines in DOOM. Maybe Hollywood has severe head trauma and can't see the obvious, already established demographic-pleasing elements that are being given to them on a silver platter.
Okay. When the games are already highly cinematic and have Tom Clancy behind the scenes and are centered on a single well established character like Sam Fisher... WHY would you monkey with that and invent some new "dynamic, original" character for your lead?
Let The Beating of the Dead Horse Begin! Soon tactical games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear will join the ranks of other great dead horses like:
Casualties:
Mortal Kombat
Street Fighter
Tekken
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Final Fantasy
Sonic
Mario
Zelda
Kirby
G.I. Joe
Heman
Jason
Freddie
Pinhead
Transformers
"The First Person Shooter Game"
"The Real Time Strategy Game"
Can some soul out there actually make game that is fun to play rather then fun to watch?
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
I personally liked the gameplay of Splinter Cell, but I think it takes itself too seriously to be a good candidate for movie adaptation. Metal Gear Solid is the seminal 'stealth action' game and it lends it self better to a movie version because it's meant to have over-the-top characters and a little cheesy dialog doesnt look out of place. MGS storylines are pretty outlandish and far-fetched, but they work perfectly well in the context of the game.
Splinter Cell, OTOH aims for gritty, semi-realism; something you might actually believe happens in the real world and a movie that tries to be faithful to the original game would likely fall dreadfully flat. (Though that's usually true of any video game -> movie attempt)
IMHO, a MGS movie that's meant to be a little campy (think Hellboy or Spiderman) would be more appealing to me than a Splinter Cell adaptation.
Because Tom Clancy didn't write the game. The closet to an actual credit is, "Based on some notes Tom decided to give us". Tom Clancy leads him name to a TON to crap that he doesn't write. "Tom Clancy's Ops Center", "Tom Clancy's Power Plays" and a host of other bad books that just tarnish his brand.
This game has his name on it because it came out of his game studio (Red Storm entertainment which was bought by UbiSoft). It's just one more product he "branded" without having to do the work.
Plus he isn't a screen writer. Tom Clancy's books are great fun books, but I've yet to see him produce a screenplay. Writing a novel, and writing a script are two different things. Notice how none of the movie adaptations of Tom's books feature him with a screenplay credit.
What you should be looking at here is the game writer on the writing team. He's the one who should get credit for the story. He's the one who should have his name plastered on the game.
Tom also pretty much loathes the video games as well. His comments have been anything but warm on video game subjects. He'll plaster his name on them because they sell.
Executive Orders was the last good thing he's written.
...would be the ideal star for this.