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."

Comments

great

[DrSkwid]

2 hours of someone runnning round an empty warehouse looking for a key

Re:great

[TheAngryMob]

2 hours of someone runnning round an empty warehouse looking for a key

Don't you mean: 2 hours of someone sneaking round an empty warehouse looking for a key?

Just like DOOM...

[th1ckasabr1ck]

I hope this movie has Hellspawn and a Space Marine..

Re:Just like DOOM...

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

No this movie will be splinter cell, only instead of a secret agent it will be a mall rent-a-cop, and he will spend the whole movie trying to catch a wily teenager who is trying to get laid before prom.

Re:Just like DOOM...

[WoodenRobot]

...and thereby learning the true meaning of Christmas.

The goggles, they do nothing!

[Poseidon88]

To be filmed entirely in night-vision.

Been done

[superpulpsicle]

This would end up like Mission Impossible except explosive bubble gum and defying-physics motorcycle is not in the movie.

Casting

[tb3]

I'd say Michael Ironside was a sure thing for the lead role, but he might be a bit old now (at 54)

Re:Casting

[centauri]

He definitely needs a cameo. Or maybe he can be the Big, Bad, Evil Guy.

Nah, too much of a stretch.

Re:Casting

[SuiteSisterMary]

He'd be a good 'the guy who trained Sam' sort of char.

Re:Casting

[centauri]

Or Sam's father, who dies in a terrorist attack.

Re:Casting

[PhotoBoy]

He turned up on Smallville recently as a military general, sadly he's starting to look his age a bit I don't think he'll be offered the lead. As long as they don't cast Ben Affleck we should be OK.

Re:Casting

[tm2b]

I don't know, I'll continue to hold out hope - I'm a huge Ironside fan - he and Terry O'Quinn get the two "Actor wishlists" on TiVo, and his presence is enough to make me think fondly of Highlander 2.

The lead character ("Splinter Cell?") is supposed to be an old war horse, he keeps complaining that he's "getting too old for this" and appears to be a contemporary of other characters who are themselves around that age.

Sure, 54 is old, but makeup could probably take 10 years off.

He probably won't be doing any of those split jump stunts himself though.

Re:Casting

[Acts of Attrition]

Plus Michael Ironside doesn't even doesn't even sound like Sam Fisher

Yeah and like Doom

[the_skywise]

It'll be about a circus clown who decides to infiltrate the "evil corporation" that uses animals for experimental testing purposes.

But rest assured, it'll maintain the spirit and flavor of the Splinter Cell franchise we know and love!

Original character? Wha?

[2Flower]

...with a "dynamic, original" character.

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? ...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.

Re:Original character? Wha?

[JFMulder]

I'm all for keeping the Sam Fisher character, but I don't want to see Michael Ironside playing him! Sam would look out of shape. :p

Re:Original character? Wha?

[scot4875]

Well, if they want a dynamic, original character, that certainly rules out Sam Fisher, who was neither dynamic nor original.

Of course, I think I'm about the only person in the world that thought the story to Spliter Cell was boring, incoherent nonsense, so maybe take my opinion with a bit of salt.

--Jeremy

No Tom Clancy?

[ashground]

Put simply, if there was any real desire to make this a 'real movie' and not a 'lame video game adaptation', Tom Clancy would be on the writing credits. He threw his weight behind the game, why not the movie? Add to that a "dynamic, original" new character, and odds are really good that this is going to be very forgettable.

Re:No Tom Clancy?

[filth grinder]

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.

Re:No Tom Clancy?

[PedanticSpellingTrol]

Speaking of tarnishing his brand, Sweet Merciful Christ, have you read Teeth of the Tiger yet?

Worst
Book
Evar
Honestly, it is vastly worse than even the crap that's got the " 's " after clancy's name. And it's only half the book... I really want to go into details but won't spoil the horror for you. We'll just say that major characters died in between books and the fact only gets passing mention in one scene of dialogue.

Re:No Tom Clancy?

[AlexMidn1ght]

This game has his name on it because it came out of his game studio (Red Storm entertainment which was bought by UbiSoft).

I have to correct you on this one, the game was created in the montreal studio of Ubisoft. Ubi decided to tag it as a Clancy product simply because, as you said, it sells.

Re:No Tom Clancy?

[realdpk]

If Tom Clancy wrote a movie, it would be approximately 50 hours long, if he cut out some of the detail.

Let The Beating of the Dead Horse Begin!

[kenp2002]

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?

Oooh! I bet I know what it's about.

[alexjohns]

This one will take place on mars and feature hell demons.

I can feel it. Can you?

Re:Oooh! I bet I know what it's about.

[alexjohns]

I guess I was slow and not very original. What else is new?

Not a bad game, but as a movie??

[meanfriend]

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.

In other words

[Safety Cap]

It will suck arse and have nothing in common with the game or the book, except for the title.

Maybe the game spin-off (of this game spin-off) will be really cool, just like all the other times they've done that.

They should Get the X-Men Script Writers

[szyzyg]

If only for the fact that a certain David Hayter is credited.... AKA the voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear games.

Get the Doom scriptwriter

[trawg]

Its laughs a minute when playboy billionaire Sam Fisher, played by Roy Schneider, teams up with a wacky talking dog in a journey of self discovery as they traipse across the Sahara!

Re:Get the Doom scriptwriter

[CrackedButter]

In his new movie, Rob Schneider is ... the Paperclip!

George Clooney

[Anonymous Coward]

...would be the ideal star for this.

JP IV

[pvt. tucker]

This entire thing'll wind up like Jurassic Park. The books by Crichton (I'm about to go get the one that just came out) were teriffic! Jurassic Park followed the general idea, but was the movie was good. The Lost World took the title and introduction page and went from there. There was absolutely 0 Crichton-factor in JP III, which is why it sucked (and the fact that it was directed by Joe Johnson, I can't stand Hidalgo). For those of you who don't frequent IMDb, they're coming out with JP IV. Guess what? It's gonna suck. Pretty much any movie based on a video game is going to suck. Even in the discussion of a Halo movie (which is a hot topic on Bungie), I think it just can't be good. There's no love interest (unless you count Cortana, then, ughhhh....), no real motive (like in Spiderman his uncle gets killed) except, I'm going to save the world!, and no reasonable director would get behind it.