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Movies based on games

Potential-Monke

So with the recent announcement that Sony have opened Playstation Productions to make film adaptations of their popular games, I think it's time to have a thread dedicated to films based on them, to discuss upcoming ones, or reminisce over the old ones, be they good (Mortal Kombat) or bad (Super Mario Bros).

So to start things off, we have a recent announcement that Constantine Film have acquired the rights to Just Cause and intend on going into production in 2020. They have already hired Derek Kolstad, the John Wick franchise creator, to direct.

Previously, Jason Momoa was on board to play Rico, but that just would not have worked. I've been discussing it at work, and while we all agree it needs to be balls to the wall crazy action with a terrible story to tie in the explosive set pieces, we narrowed down the role of Rico to 2 potentials, Frank Grillo or my personal favourite, Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell). He has the look and voice imo to pull it off.

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Shiminay

Yea, that's gotta go to Pedro Pascal.

There's been rumours of a Last of Us film for some time too. The Yakuza series could be turned into a film (or rather a bunch of films) too I'd say.

The Specialist

Super Mario Bros deserved a ****ing Oscar!

Retr0gamer

Potential-Monke wrote: »

be they good (Mortal Kombat)

If I was pushed I'd call it watchable but it certainly isn't anywhere near good.

There really hasn't been a good videogame movie. Silent hill looked the part but was ultimately boring and the screenplay nailed the fanservice but in doing so completely sailed by the reason all the stuff it was referencing existed.

Heard Ratchet and Clank was good, but then I hear a lot of people saying those games are good and I find them boring with tiresome dialogue.

nix

I'm still surprised there hasnt been a Metal gear solid movie yet to be honest, they would just need to adapt the 1998 game to the big screen and it would be great, although thinking about it now, a netflix series might work best given how many great characters are in the game.

They could focus on and flesh out the different characters instead of going down the same predictable hollywood formula route which would just be explosions and cheesy dialogue.. With the Sony announcement, i really hope they try and steer away from that formula, it seems to be the only thing they bother doing with games to movie films and it has never spawned a good movie.. ever..

They will probably just get Paul Anderson to direct all the movies or clones of his style, Id be excited for the Monster hunter movie if he wasnt behind the wheel, its gonna be piss.. :mad:

TerrorFirmer

I thought Silent Hill was actually quite good and visually very impressive. Certainly a lot better than some of the reception would have you believe. The sequel with Jon Snow was pretty weak though.

The first two Resident Evil's were good fun, and more recently I thought Warcraft was a solid enough effort.

The last few I've watched have been pretty dreadful - Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed specifically.

I think looking at the Wiki entry on video-game movies, the only ones I haven't seen are Double Dragon and Need for Speed.

Potential-Monke

Retr0gamer wrote: »

If I was pushed I'd call it watchable but it certainly isn't anywhere near good.

I remember managing to get into the cinema to see it when it first came out. Don't know how I managed it, as I was only 13 at the time, but I managed it. And I loved every single second of it. The fight between Johnny Cage and Scorpion in Hell to the thumping soundtrack of Fear Factory's Zero Signal, just kicking in as Johnny is in hell, looks around, Scorpion saying 'Welcome' and an amazing set, it was bliss.

Yes, the acting was a bit cheesy, but it suited it. We're talking about immortal beings fighting to the death for Earth, it was going to be cheese anyway. And Christopher Lambert as Raiden... Brilliant.

The recent(ish) Ratchet and Clank film was good, but if you played the game you've basically seen the film. The cut scenes in the game are lifted directly from the film, or vice versa.

Also really enjoyed Silent Hill, nailed the atmosphere and while it wasn't an amazing film, I thought it's definitely one of the better ones.

[Deleted User]

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I thought Silent Hill was actually quite good and visually very impressive. Certainly a lot better than some of the reception would have you believe. The sequel with Jon Snow was pretty weak though.

The first two Resident Evil's were good fun, and more recently I thought Warcraft was a solid enough effort.

The last few I've watched have been pretty dreadful - Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed specifically.

I think looking at the Wiki entry on video-game movies, the only ones I haven't seen are Double Dragon and Need for Speed.

The latest TombRaider is far from dreadful.

Mickeroo

I liked Mortal Kombat back in the day too, but it's definitely one I have filed under "don't re-watch as an adult unless you want to ruin it"

Main issue with video game to movie adaptations is that when you strip out the game part you're often left with something fairly derivative.

Shiminay

This is why computer game story writing needs to improve drastically

nix

Deleted User wrote: »

The latest TombRaider is far from dreadful.

haha theres very little difference between the recent Tomb raider and the first Angelina Jolie movie story wise, its woeful/dreadful/predictable/pish

Her father leaves behind a mystery for her to solve, the bad guys need her to figure out puzzles they cant.. :rolleyes:

It had a good cast but they literally done the same movie again, wasted opportunity...again

[Deleted User]

:pac:

Retr0gamer

The Dead or Alive movie is the only film I feel nailed the tone of the game it was based on.

Fighting. T&A. Fighting with T&A. And a slow motion volleyball scene in the rain.

All it was missing was Tecmo Koei's love of insanely priced season passes and DLC. If they were nickle and diming you for each kernel of popcorn you ate and charged for the post credit sequence it would have been perfect.

The screenwriters of Silent Gill should have been taking notes.

Shiminay

Can we all agree that as long as Uwe Boll is never let near any games IP again, we'll be better off?

Star Lord

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The screenwriters of Silent Gill should have been taking notes.

Seriously though, even though they're cheesy tripe, I still kinda love the old Mortal Kombat and Streetfighter movies...

Raul Julia just chewing up the scenery as M Bison!

Retr0gamer

Street Fighter the movie is ironically brilliant but you still need to be under the influence with like minded friends to really enjoy it.

Mortal Kombat on the other hand is B movie garbage aping other B movie garbage films and ends up being enjoyable nonsense. I couldn't call it good though and I fear saying it might, even if it's only a slim possibility, make Paul Anderson think he is a competent film director.

Drumpot

I actually enjoyed Doom when it was released. Guilty pleasure.

Wasn’t overly concerned with the original material so didn’t have any fan baggage or expectations.

Smertrius

mortal kombat 11 you need access WiFi zone to play Konquer and fight modes which kind of sucks and stops taking the switch on the go which ruins switch gimmick taking home console to on the go for portable play

Potential-Monke

I did a bit more Googling, and there's a surprising amount of intent out there recently!

Showtime are doing a 10-episode series on Halo. Hoping to release in 2020, set in the same universe as the games, Stephen Spielberg is (kinda) involved, executive producer and showrunner is Kyle Killen (Lone Star and Awake), Pablo Schrieber from 'American Gods' will play Master Chief (hope he doesn't remove the helmet, like Dredd).

Monster Hunter movie is in production (Paul W.S. Anderson, Jovovich in the lead).

Doom Annihilation is currently in post production, and there's even a bad trailer... Doomguy is, well, a girl now. Doomgirl? Doomchick? Doomed?

Dynasty Warriors is in post production, and has a pretty good trailer. Set to release at some stage this year.

Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment have announced a feature length animated Super Mario Brothers movie with intent to release in 2022. Aside from the fact it's animated, which is a good start, Shigeru Miyamoto is fully involved front and centre, so it should be good.

Minecraft movie is still going ahead, but missing it's release this month. Seems they have got more people on to rewrite it. dilligaf

There's a Five Nights at Freddy's film in the works. Don't know how that will work, considering it's only kids who play it and it's a horror game, so don't know how they're going to market it, or to which group!

A Mega Man movie. I'll just quote the bit I read: 'The live-action Mega Man movie, from Capcom and 2oth Century Fox, will be written and directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman and, according to Capcom’s announcement in October 2018, will appeal to both seasoned fans of the game franchise as well as those who just appreciate a good action-cranking popcorn flick.' Live action...

Other movies potentially in the pipeworks:

- Metal Gear Solid
- Call of Duty Cinematic Universe (CoDCU? - They intend to make a series of films on the game, and making a 'soldier' series, not a war series)
- The Division - It will be directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2), while Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal will star
- Sleeping Dogs - Not a lot of info, possibly not even being made, but Donny Yen is apparently being cast as the main star, and he reckons it's still going ahead
- Rainbow Six - Based on the books, but still. Michael B. Jordan penned as protagonist and will be introduced in a prequel before the main film
- Uncharted - Apparently, Tom Holland is going to play Nathan Drake, there's a 'very good script' and it will be a prequel to the games. That's about all we know.

There are other potential films, and I got most of this info from this Rottom Tomatoes site, the rest of the potentials are at the bottom of the article, but briefly there are talks about Gears of War, Dragons Lair, Just Cause, Contra, Borderlands, Duke Nukem, Half Life, Portal, Resident Evil (6 film reboot), Splinter Cell and Thief.

Star Lord

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Street Fighter the movie is ironically brilliant but you still need to be under the influence with like minded friends to really enjoy it.

Mortal Kombat on the other hand is B movie garbage aping other B movie garbage films and ends up being enjoyable nonsense. I couldn't call it good though and I fear saying it might, even if it's only a slim possibility, make Paul Anderson think he is a competent film director.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, but neither are good movies!

And Paul WS Anderson is just a small step away from being a joke director at this stage. And seemingly can't direct anything that doesn't star Mila... The first of the Resident Evil movies was bad, but had some decent ideas and moments, but the rest were just rubbish, plain and simple!

Retr0gamer

Star Lord wrote: »

And Paul WS Anderson is just a small step away from being a joke director at this stage. And seemingly can't direct anything that doesn't star Mila... The first of the Resident Evil movies was bad, but had some decent ideas and moments, but the rest were just rubbish, plain and simple!

Sure he can't do anything to make the wife mad!

Supcycle

Kerbal space program, now there's a movie!

Retr0gamer

Supcycle wrote: »

Kerbal space program, now there's a movie!

I could actually see the likes of Illumination do something really great with that.

recyclops

Little segway here, HBO should buy rights to bioshock and go to town on it. Could easily expand on those two worlds with well written characters.

degrassinoel

Shiminay wrote: »

Can we all agree that as long as Uwe Boll is never let near any games IP again, we'll be better off?

He should be locked away, he has his own letterboxd official account where he critiques err, more popular films AND his own. I think he's actually insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgAitlF_ynk

pixelburp

Deleted User wrote: »

The latest TombRaider is far from dreadful.

It was far from great either; it's probably one of the better adaptations in that it was merely 'OK', stayed relatively(?) true to the source material and didn't go completely off the rails. It was a barely tepid Indiana Jones knock-off, but... yeah

Seems like the problem is that games IPs come with a readymade large audience, the IPs likely cost a lot to begin with and if Hollywood invests money into an adaptation, they default to "big and noisy, to get bums on seats"; invariably resulting in all the qualities that made the games appealing, being stripped away in favour of a dumb, superficial blockbuster.

The greatest game adaptation never made was Bioshock (nope, not Half Life, but it's a close second), but it's probably just as well it died in pre-production. It has complex, rich stories of race, politics, class, and whether set in Rapture or Columba, has an evocative & singular setting - there was simply no way a 2 hour blockbuster could have encompassed (say) the folly of Andrew Ryan's Objectivist world-view and would have been reduced to a superficial bad-guy. Maybe if you got someone like Bong Joon-ho and approached it like he did with Snowpiercer, but I guarantee the suits would have demanded Bioshock be a big action film featuring the Big Daddies.

Basically where I'm going is that games need to look to TV if they want adaptations to stay true to their origins: a 10 episode Bioshock series, charting the fall of Rapture, would be amazing, and likely freed from the structural biases of Hollywood.

Retr0gamer

Don't think Bioshock is all that great inretrospect. It's Ayn Rand influence is kind of disgusting and the antagonist characters are quite cartoony as a result. Bioshock 2 is a much more human tale.

Bioshock Infinite is a mess and not a good one.

One film that's failed to be mentioned so far is a CG adaptation of Dragon Quest V. I think this one could turn out to be good as the source material lends itself well to an animated feature. It's also got one of the best stories written for a videogame, it's a great character arc with a lot of emotional highs and lows.

pixelburp

And that's kinda my point: a Bioshock TV series allows the narrative breathing room to smooth out rough edges, add some necessary side characters to tell different perspectives of an obviously flawed, exaggerated society. Snowpiercer was itself a "cartoon", the nature of the dystopia completely surreal and unrealistic, but that didn't prevent it from having a very compelling, human tale of class warfare. Hell, just set the Bioshock series at the lowest rung - what was it like to be a janitor in Rapture - during Atlas' uprising and boom, compelling series.

If you limit adaptations to movies, you have 2 hours to cover a lot of ground, and for more complex stories that isn't possible, not with the needs of Blockbuster cinema telling you to have more Splicer action.

kunst nugget

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Don't think Bioshock is all that great inretrospect. It's Ayn Rand influence is kind of disgusting and the antagonist characters are quite cartoony as a result. Bioshock 2 is a much more human tale.

It completely takes the piss out of Objectivism and shows it up for the base philosophy it is. I don't know what the issue there is.

[Deleted User]

pixelburp wrote: »

It was far from great either; it's probably one of the better adaptations in that it was merely 'OK', stayed relatively(?) true to the source material and didn't go completely off the rails. It was a barely tepid Indiana Jones knock-off, but... yeah

I do not disagree but it was specifically called out as being terrible.

I thought that it showed promise, for a franchise, to be honest. Weak but had potential

[Deleted User]

I see Bioshock has been added to the hit list :P