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Cinematical Seven: The Good and The Bad of Gaming
Filed under: Cinematical Seven, Games and Game Movies
I think we are all pretty sick of video game movies these days, and whether this is because most of them suck, I couldn't tell you. But like it or not, there is a never ending supply of lazy executives who look no further than their home console for inspiration. But that is a rant best left for another time, because today's Cinematical Seven is all about the movies that aren't based on video games, nope, these are movies all about the cult of gaming.
If you watch enough movies centered on the world of video games you start to notice that a theme emerges: the desire and the peril of getting trapped in your favorite game. Granted it's a theme that isn't much of a leap considering that since the dawn of the gamer, there have been worried parents, teachers, and clergy convinced that those pixels are the work of the devil, and what better place for a cautionary tale than the movies? But, it's not all doom and gloom and there are also stories of how a gamer can save the world -- there really is something for everyone at the movies.
After the jump are seven movies that delve into the pros and cons of gaming...
Tobey Maguire's Next Role: 'Prisoners of Trebek' or Bilbo in 'The Hobbit'?
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Casting, RumorMonger, Games and Game Movies
In the tradition of great movies based on real game shows (Quiz Show; Slumdog Millionaire), Tobey Maguire is said to be producing and starring in a film called Prisoners of Trebek, based on a true story about a guy who found romance while attempting to master Jeopardy. Pajiba has the exclusive scoop on the project, which was scripted by The Hoax screenwriter William Wheeler and is being likened to the work of Charlie Kaufman. Producing with Maguire's company is Mark Gordon, who worked with Wheeler on The Hoax and regularly collaborates with Roland Emmerich (2012; The Day After Tomorrow). The Kaufman connection could mean we should expect Alex Trebek to show up as himself in a surreal sort of comedy akin to Being John Malkovich. Or, Trebek could be more similar to Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which also went behind the scenes of a game show in its biographical portrait of The Dating Game
Brad Pitt Prepares to Enter the 'Dark Void'
Filed under: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Games and Game Movies
A guy like Brad Pitt can do anything he likes. He's handsome, he's talented, he's rich, he's funny and outspoken ... and apparently he gets to play sci-fi-action-type video games long before the rest of us. (Bastard!) Variety reports that Mr. Pitt and his Plan B production company have snagged the rights to an upcoming Capcom game called Dark Void. Their report indicates that the game is about "a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission and wakes up to find himself in an alternate world."You can learn more about Dark Void at its Wikipedia page. For example, I just learned that the awesome Bear McCreary is doing the music for the game. (I say keep that guy around for the movie version.) You can also see a bunch of nifty Dark Void artwork over at Capcom's blog. Could this be the beginning of a swanky new action franchise for Brad Pitt? I say the guy has earned one by now.
More information on this project as it becomes available. At this point I just want to check this game out. It looks pretty cool. (Game trailer after the jump!)
And Now... The 'Twilight' Video Game!
Filed under: Action, Drama, Tech Stuff, Games and Game Movies
Once upon a time, there was a Twilight massively multiplayer online role-playing game being developed called Twilight Online. Think World of Warcraft but for Twihards. They were shut down (one would imagine by Summit, who is making oodles of cash from tie-ins -- have you been to your local Blockbuster and picked up your very own couch pillow with Jacob's face on it?) and the developer is now working on something called "Nebulous Blood." (Read more about Twilight Online over at Geekologie since the details of the game are no longer on its official website.)The first Twilight video game, one of many that's sure to come, is a trivia game that's part of the "Scene It?" game series. It is currently available as an iPhone app and a DVD game, and now even Wii and Nintendo DS players will be able to give their Twilight skillz a workout as well on November 24th. The console games are from Konami, a pretty damn solid game publisher that's behind great games like the Metal Gear Solid series, Silent Hill, Dance Dance Revolution, and even the recent Saw game.
Twilight game deets are hiding on the other side of the jump.
Trailer Park: Despicable Dragons
Filed under: Animation, Documentary, Horror, Trailer Trash, Games and Game Movies, Trailers and Clips
Despicable Me
Second trailer for this 3D animated comedy, and this time it's focusing on arch villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) trying to break into the headquarters of a rival bad guy. This looks like fun and the bit with the shark had me howling. Check it out on July 9.
Sherlock Holmes
A second trailer for the new Holmes fllck with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role aided by Jude Law as Watson. Pretty sure this will have awesome written all over it. Plan a trip to Baker Street for Christmas day.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
There's some serious spectacle at work here. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this adaptation of a video game I've never played, but I'm pretty sure that's not necessary. It seems tailor-made to be a summer blockbuster, which is good because it comes out on May 28.
Best Worst Movie
Speaking as someone who has watched and enjoyed some truly awful films in his time, this one really speaks to me. This documentary examines the phenomenon/train wreck that is Troll 2, a 1990 horror flick whose badness has become legendary. No release date yet and I suspect this will be hard to find in theaters.
How to Train Your Dragon
In this new animated comedy from Dreamworks, a viking teenager is trying to learn the ways of his people including hunting and killing those pesky dragons that are plaguing them. He soon learns, though, that everything his people know about dragons is wrong and sets out on his own path. Training begins on March 26.
New this week on AOL Moviefone:
- Splinterheads - A young slacker falls in love with a beautiful carnival worker.
- Invictus - Morgan Freeman stars as South African President Nelson Mandela who urges the captain of the national rugby team to strive for the World Cup for the sake of unifying their nation in the days following apartheid.
- Eichmann - Historical drama based on the confession of Adolf Eichmann.
- Mammoth - An intricately woven family drama starring Michelle Williams and Gael García Bernal as a married couple whose lives begin to spin out of control.
- Shake Hands With the Devil - Based on true events surrounding a 1994 U.N. peacekeeping mission to Rwanda that failed to prevent the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans.
- Avatar - Second trailer for James Cameron's epic 3D science fiction extravaganza.
- Did You Hear About the Morgans - A couple on the verge of divorce can't escape each other after they witness a murder and must enter the witness relocation program.
'Risk' to Become Next Big-Screen Board Game Adaptation
Filed under: Action, Deals, Games and Game Movies
Battleship. Monopoly, Candy Land, and Ouija. A Clue re-do. If it's a board game, chances are it's going to get put into development sometime in the near future. If Hollywood wasn't such a wacky world of insane ideas, I'd be surprised that we hadn't gotten this one earlier. Nikki Finke is reporting that Sony Pictures has bought the rights to Risk, piling more cinematic coin into Hasbro's coffers. The project will be developed by Hasbro in conjunction with James Lassiter and Overbrook Entertainment.Columbia Pictures pres. Doug Belgrad says audiences have "shown a great desire for films that bring to life everything that has made these franchise properties stand the test of time," and mentioned the likes of Transformers and G.I. Joe. Unsurprisingly then, he says the film will be an exciting movie with "an action-packed, thrilling story." It makes sense -- a game where you roll the dice to world domination is just asking for a big blow-out action flick. That being said...
First of all, there's been no "great desire" to see board game movies get adapted. Nice try. Second, in the piece, Finke talks about Belgrad mentioning the two old cartoon redo's before noting that he did not mention "the dismal movie from the board game Clue." While I understand some people dislike the film, dismal is quite a strong statement -- especially in a world where we're getting Battleship. Finally, with the ever-rising popularity of all things geek, I'm kinda disappointed that this won't be a tongue-in-cheek comedy about a bunch of geeks playing Risk. But who knows? Maybe that will come when someone gets around to buying Magic: The Gathering.
The First Trailer For Disney's 'The Prince of Persia'!
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Games and Game Movies, Trailers and Clips
After so much hype surrounding the casting and a handful of beefy stills, the trailer for Disney's The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is finally here, and we have it courtesy of IGN. From the comments left on Todd's preview of the trailer, I know you've been as eager to see its swashbuckling as we have.
It really looks like Jerry Bruckheimer and Mike Newell have taken the best of Pirates of the Caribbean, and employing it here. The costumes and sets are lush and exotic, the cast is gorgeous, there's plenty of crazy action sequences, and the special effects look as solid as golden sands of time can look. My only issue with it is that we only see a few glimpses of wit and fun. Part of what made Pirates so enjoyable was the chemistry and dialogue, and a cast that seemed to be relishing every moment it spent swashbuckling. There was a healthy sense of the ridiculous inherent in it. Everyone in Persia seems to be taking magical daggers, destines, and demons very, very seriously and such earnestness can be offputting for an audience who wants to be transported. Luckily, there's some promising flickers of humor at the end of the trailer (Do jokes about body searches ever get old? Not if they're delivered with the right twinkle in the eye.), and I hope it's a sign that it's not going to be grim and humorless stuff.
Check out the trailer below the jump, and let us know what you think. Thanks again to IGN for the embed.
Bruckheimer to Adapt 'Shattered Union' Video Game
Filed under: Action, Disney, Games and Game Movies, War
Now how's this for a cool premise? "U.S. states secede from the U.S. and form their own governments that wage a civil war against each other after Washington, D.C., is wiped out in a nuclear blast and chaos ravages the nation." Sounds like it could make for a fairly novel action flick, eh? Well, as Variety informs us, that's the exact plot of a 2005 video game called Shattered Union. (Just because I've never heard of it doesn't mean it's not good. If you've played this one, leave us a mini-review in the comments section.)The tale of a dystopian American Civil War Part II will come from producer Jerry Bruckheimer (don't act surprised), who in turn will entrust the adaptation to one J. Michael Straczynski. Serious genre fans know this gentleman as the co-creator of Babylon 5. He's written tons of TV, in addition to Eastwood's Changeling, plus he's got a metric ton of massive projects on the way, World War Z and Silver Surfer among them. The studio will be Disney, so don't expect a hardcore carnage-fest. I'm generally a fan of the Bruckheimer / Disney action conflagrations, and this one sure sounds like something I'd dig. Now hire Peter Berg to direct it.
'Kane and Lynch' Going Ahead With Bruce Willis
Filed under: Action, Independent, Thrillers, Casting, Lionsgate Films, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Games and Game Movies
Last summer, the trades reported that Bruce Willis was in talks to play Kane in a big screen adaptation of Kane and Lynch. Perhaps you were one of the game fans excited by that prospect, but as the long months wore on, you may have forgotten such a fleeting news item. But Kane and Lynch didn't go anywhere, and GameDaily is confirming that Bruce Willis is ready to go in with his guns blazing, with Simon Crane directing, and that filming will begin in March 2010. They're just looking for their Lynch and their locations. GameDaily caught up with producer Adrian Askarieh, who confirmed Willis' casting, and shared just what had lured him to the project in the first place. "[Kyle Ward's] script has been incredibly well-received around town. After Bruce Willis read it, he called it one of the best action scripts he's ever read, and Bruce is an expert in terms of action scripts because he's read everything over the last 20 years." Askarieh describes the film as "a great buddy action movie" (nothing's funnier than kidnapping and death row) and promised that'll remain faithful to the game, at least in terms of its plotline. "It's going to have the basic premise. But the details for the movie are going to be different. It's not going to have every sequence from the game, but it's essentially the story of a mercenary teaming up with a schizophrenic psychopath to save his wife and daughter."
While none of us hold out hope for video game adaptations, I would like this one to turn out solid. It's two death-row inmates (one of whom is heavily medicated) doing rotten, sociopathic things in the name of rescue. It's the kind of movie Hollywood should be able to make, but probably won't, even with an action heavy like Willis.
[via Empire]
Robert Rodat To Write Sam Raimi's 'Warcraft'
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Games and Game Movies, War
The news that Sam Raimi would be helming the game movie of all game movies, Warcraft was met with both squeals of joy, and stunned silence by the movie blogosphere. But now that it's had a little time to sink in, people seem to be really looking forward to it. Some might even wish he'd do a last minute duck out of Spider-Man 4. But at least the wait is broken up by a bit of news, and that's Raimi announcing his screenwriter. MTV and Variety both report that Robert Rodat is set to pen Warcraft for Raimi and Warner Bros."We want to be really faithful to the game," Raimi told MTV. "We would have our writer, Robert Rodat, really craft an original story within that world that feels like a World of WarCraft adventure. Only obviously it's very different 'cause it's expanded and translated into the world of a motion picture. [We hope to capture] the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents. I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible."
Rodat might strike some as an odd choice as he's best known for the screenplay to the relentless Saving Private Ryan and the fanciful The Patriot. But both scripts prove he knows his way around a sweeping action scene, and revels in heroes with puffy shirts and villains with cold sneers. So this could turn out quite well indeed.
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