Return to Castle Wolfenstein Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You know the old saying "You can't keep a good man down"? Well, it would appear that the same applies to big-budget video game flicks. Eurogamer recently spoke with id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead, and according to him the big-screen version of the popular first-person shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein is still on and in development. It has been a year since Oscar winner Roger Avary was signed to write and direct, but in spite of the delays it looks like the project is back on the front burner.

Wolfenstein takes place in Nazi-occupied Europe and revolves around Army Ranger William "B.J." Blazkowicz. Along with another agent, Blazkowicz is sent to discover the truth about the SS Paranormal Division. Taking the role of Blazkowicz, the player must escape the Nazi stronghold while investigating the activities of the SS Paranormal Division, which include research on resurrecting corpses, and various secret weapons -- providing players with hours of gruesome fun.

A feature film version of the game has been a long time coming, with rumblings of a feature going back almost three years. According to Hollenshead, "With the writer's strike it took so long to get underway and Roger Avary, the writer, had a commitment that was in line before working the Wolfenstein stuff, but I've recently been in contact with Roger and he's actually working on the script right now." Avary hasn't had the best of luck lately, personal or professional, so for his sake I hope Wolfenstein manages to pull itself out of development limbo.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is tentatively scheduled for release in 2010.

It's almost been two years since buzz first started about the Castle Wolfenstein project. At the time, we posted that iD Software was lining up the classic video game as their next step into movies after Doom. That was pretty much the end of that for a while. Now, perhaps fueled by all the 80s remakes and recreations lately, they're back in the wolfie frame of mind. Producer Samuel Hadida has gotten the rights to another in the series -- Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I'm not a huge fan of video-games turned into films. (Although I really want a nice documentary on how the heck you play the old-school Labyrinth game without falling into the Bog of Eternal Stench or running out of time.) But is this a good idea?

While I've no clue how it all will turn out, I'm pretty intrigued by who he's tapped to direct the flick -- he's re-teaming with Roger Avary, with whom he worked on Silent Hill. Avary is one of the names behind Pulp Fiction and he's helped kill Zoe, so he's got the gun angle down-pat. I think this could potentially be a fun film if he whips up some of the aesthetic from The Rules of Attraction and makes this a classy, funky-looking adaptation. He says: "I've been playing the character of B.J. Blazkowicz sine the epic Wolfenstein 3D first bruised my brain and have ever since wanted to bring his adventures to life on the big screen. It's time to bust some dams, storm some bunkers and blow up some bridges." Call me crazy, but I'm not entirely hating the thought.