Games to Live Action Movies

[HighwindPilot]

First of all, I'm not really sure where this topic belongs. Sorry if this is the wrong section.

Now, it would seem to me that the whole game-to-movie thing used to be taken into real consideration. The problem seemed that they either couldn't find a plausible, willing cast and director, or that they didn't really have the resources to support some of the, err..., possibilities that the game allowed.

Some baaad movies were created (looking at you, Street Fighter)...

And now that neither of those things should really be a problem anymore, it just seems that they don't really care as much. Sure, there are projects like the RE trilogy and all, but none of them seem to hold up to the standards that they should (anime movies have kind of suffered the same fate). I don't know if it's because of the history with them or what...

And so now I ask, should faith be renewed? Should more attention be given to movies that base from video games? I mean, if so, they could really produce some high quality stuff. Not necessarily from the blockbuster games made today, but there are some real gems that would make for fascinating movies if handled with care (I think).

Thoughts? Sorry for the long-winded post.

EDIT: I'm interested to see what the new Tekken will be like.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

There was that Dragonball film as well which unsurprisingly failed

I think there is potentially some games out there that could make very good films if they have the right directors and cast. The likes of Uncharted (which as far as I'm aware is going to have a film made) and Bioshock have fantastic storylines and could be made into a film without much problems, but again, the problem is finding the director.

I'd like to see someone like Peter Jackson take a hold of Bioshock and create a film because there's a whole lot he could do with it and really take it places.

 

[Weapon XIV]

There was that Dragonball film as well which unsurprisingly failed

I think there is potentially some games out there that could make very good films if they have the right directors and cast. The likes of Uncharted (which as far as I'm aware is going to have a film made) and Bioshock have fantastic storylines and could be made into a film without much problems, but again, the problem is finding the director.

I'd like to see someone like Peter Jackson take a hold of Bioshock and create a film because there's a whole lot he could do with it and really take it places.

BIOSHOCK?!!

but on all seriousness, i have the issue of game informer somewhere, the uncharted movie is being done by the same guy who is doing prince of persia, bioshock might be done by peter jackson, after District 9, im hoping he does it, actually, i think he drop the halo movie for bioshock, so these sound great, except for prince of persia, its getting a tie-in game, and we all know its not gonna be good, so only time will tell

 

[Ilyena]

I think there is potentially some games out there that could make very good films if they have the right directors and cast. The likes of Uncharted (which as far as I'm aware is going to have a film made) and Bioshock have fantastic storylines and could be made into a film without much problems, but again, the problem is finding the director.

I agree with this. There are plenty of games out there with great storylines that would do well on film. Many RPGs have excellent stories that would make good fantasy or sci-fi films. I think a large problem is the types of games they are selecting to make into movies.

Fighting games in general tend to have very sparse or just generally silly plots. The focus is on the fighting. Thus when they try and make the movies, they turn the plot into something even sillier and then hire a Belgian actor to play an American Colonel and we end up with Street Fighter.

 

[Weapon XIV]

I agree with this. There are plenty of games out there with great storylines that would do well on film. Many RPGs have excellent stories that would make good fantasy or sci-fi films. I think a large problem is the types of games they are selecting to make into movies.

Fighting games in general tend to have very sparse or just generally silly plots. The focus is on the fighting. Thus when they try and make the movies, they turn the plot into something even sillier and then hire a Belgian actor to play an American Colonel and we end up with Street Fighter.

They are making a tekken movie, tekken has possibly the best storyline in fighting games in my opinion, i hope they don't ruin it,lets face it, they will, and its already set for mid to late spring, some things you just have to face when i comes to hollywood

 

[Linnaete]

Well the live action Dragonball movie is really based off the anime and not the video games, but because of how awful it turned out to be, it serves as a warning to people wishing to turn weird cartoony games into live action movies.

I haven't heard much about the Uncharted movie though, so I'm not really sure who is responsible for that movie. But I agree with Ryan there, Uncharted is a great example of a game series that could spawn a movie. It produced spin off stories such as Eye of Indra, so I'm sure a similar thing can be done to the movies.

Very few games I can think of can make decent movies that wouldn't seem a bit ridiculous or impractical. However, we've seen Avatar and the fantasy planet of Pandora created mostly by modern computer technology, so I don't see why an RPG story can't be done like that as well.

 

[Dionysos]

I think there is potentially some games out there that could make very good films if they have the right directors and cast. The likes of Uncharted (which as far as I'm aware is going to have a film made) and Bioshock have fantastic storylines and could be made into a film without much problems, but again, the problem is finding the director.

I'd say for me the problem would be getting the directors and the cast. With Uncharted for example the voice actors all did such a great job with their characters, and they did all the motion capture as well to make them fit into the characters more, and to make them move naturally in the game, but essentially it connects them more with the characters than most voice actors would be in a game. In a movie they'll have to put a lot of work into finding actors that can both look like the characters, sound like them and act like them...

It's a lot harder to find people to be the Uncharted characters than it would be to find people to take the roles of characters in games which had forgettable / standard voice acting, and hadn't done an amazing job on it.


As for the general thread topic, I haven't seen a lot of films based on movies... I think I only ever saw the FF ones and Tomb Raider, but I didn't find any of them as good as the games. However I do agree that a lot of it probably relies on having a good director who knows what he is doing, and how best to pull characters and the story from a video game and put it on the big screen. I guess things haven't been very good so far (on a general level) because it is relatively new in terms of the history of film, and it will take time for game movies to be made well.