Video game movies Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As is often the case with the translation of any geek property to the screen, this Friday's release of Max Payne seems to elicit just as many hopes and doubts as one would expect from a big-screen adaptation of a popular video game (well, one not directed by Uwe Boll, that is). So, coming from a position of relative ignorance when it comes to most titles (trust me, my PS2 gathers more dust than yours does), what's the current reading from fans on a film proudly rated PG-13, although based on a series of M-rated games?

And for which upcoming projects are you most hopeful: Halo -- that is, with or without Peter Jackson? Gore Verbinski's BioShock? Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? (And just when is The Rock's Spy Hunter coming out anyway? Do you care?) (Should I?)

As for my fellow ignorati: does this look to you like an appealing action movie regardless? Which video-game movies worked best despite your lack of familiarity with the source material? My vote goes to the first Resident Evil, with some moderate supporting love going to Silent Hill and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within -- no great blasphemy intended.

Oh, and just to keep things jumping, any thoughts on the following titles, or any left out, are more than welcome: DOA: Dead or Alive, Doom, Double Dragon, Hitman, the Mortal Kombat films, Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, the Tomb Raider franchise, Wing Commander.

In a rather unexpected box office shift, MGM has announced their plan to move the video game-to-movie adaptation Dead Or Alive from the middle of this month until the first part of December. Typically, a move such as this one is done for a high profile movie with major monetary expectations from the studio. DOA will now be bringing its sexy-female-fighters-on-an-exotic-island plot into direct competition with some of the biggest films of this half of the year.

Now I know there will always be a crowd for this style of movie -- particularly when it includes a beach volleyball scene* -- but I'm seriously baffled by the wisdom of this move. Common wisdom holds that video game movies tend to be poor box office performers, and this flick looks like it could very well live up to that proud tradition. Maybe MGM is hoping if they throw it into the middle of the holiday season it'll tank quickly, and they can take it off the market in a hurry.

*Seriously, what the heck? If you, as a movie maker, feel the need to stick a beach volley ball game into the middle of your martial arts movie, maybe you need to reevaluate the direction of your flick. And if you, as a movie watcher, feel the need to go see a martial arts movie because it has a beach volley ball scene in it, maybe you need to get yourself some action. Of the non video game movie kind. I'm just sayin' ...

Much has been made of the coming Halo flick, particularly as the film with the most potential to finally break through the video-game-to-movie stigma and deliver unto us a great film based on a popular video game. This hope has taken another small setback, however, as the film's release date is rumored to have been bumped back into 2008 sometime. This has caused some to speculate that the anticipated film is locked up in what studios infamously call "development hell," a worrisome state indeed. The script still exists, and the studio (and Bungie) are still supposedly happy with it, so hope is certainly not lost yet. It's just wandering around wishing it had brought a map.

I continue to wonder about the wisdom of this film. Granted, it has an appreciable built-in audience base and a good premise for solid alien action -- but hey, so did AVP. Can the video game story line of Halo support a silver screen movie? I think the answer to is probably yes, as movies have been written on far, far worse story lines in the past. The question really lies with the studio, and whether they can bring us a desirable product.

What do you get when you mix Mission Impossible with Silent Hill? According to the people at Mindfire Entertainment, you get the Eidos videogame Fear Effect. And, apparently, box office gold. Following this unchallengeable logic, Mindfire has decided to option out the film rights on said video game, and they are currently in talks with director Stanley Tong to bring this monstrosity to life. The film plans to follow the storyline of the Playstation game, but instead of being set in an alternate reality, it will take place ten years into our own future. Mindfire CEO Mark Altman says he hopes to get the film together in time for a late 2007/early 2008 release, based on a screenplay by television scribe Steven Kriozere.

Okay, there are some real challengers out there these days hoping to break through the "videogames don't make good movies" barrier. Several big names with good stories, including the likes of Halo and Metal Gear, are being brought to the silver screen in hopes of finally turning the vast videogame market into a viable big screen option. I do not, however, think this film is the one to do it. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong. Fans, feel free to convince me this is a good idea -- I'm 100% willing to have my mind changed.

News of a film adaptation of the popular video game series Metal Gear Solid has been floating around the industry for a while now, but creator Hideo Kojima had remained silent about the whole affair until this week. Kojima finally broke his presumably self imposed silence on a Japanese radio station and confirmed the existence of a deal to bring his series to the silver screen. This was about all Kojima was willing to say, however, as he then insisted he couldn't talk about details such as a possible release date.

Despite a dismal track record for such films, Hollywood seems to be experiencing something of a rush on video game-based projects lately with some heavy-hitting titles on the way -- leading some to believe the negative karma surrounding the genre may be on the verge of breaking. I personally shudder (in a mostly good way) to think of the sheer wall of crazy that will be a movie script written by the insanely unpredictable mind of Hideo Kojima; the man uses plot twists as frequently as some writers use adjectives. This geek is personally holding out some hope for a good film, although I inherently distrust the thought.

Gamer geeks have almost nothing but praise - and rightfully so - for Advent Children, the recent movie sequel to popular title Final Fantasy 7. While the film is definately attainable via internet download, fans have been clamouring for a DVD release, hoping for a DVD jam-packed with delicious special features. A DVD release for the film in Japan has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and on the heels of that success comes the announcement of a pending US release. The official statement seems to suggest a special features-heavy release, as well, because according to the announcement, "It's taking a little extra time to work with the director to get all the supplemental elements finished, but the title is on track for release sometime later this year." That certainly sounds promising.

I don't know if it is possible to be a gamer and dislike this film.  Well okay, I'm sure it is, because there are millions of gamers with diverse opinions...but the vast majority of us are thrilled about this film, and can't wait to purchase a copy of our own.

[via sci-fi wire]

 

Hey, I'm looking at Uwe.* Uwe Boll, to be specific; that wacky German man who likes to call himself a director and has a penchant for creating awful video game to film adaptations. Boll's latest masterpiece, as you all know, hits theatres this very weekend. Bloodrayne, the vampire movie (sort of based on the video game of the same name), is set in Transylvania and is called by Boll himself "extremely violent" and "disturbing." Even more disturbing, in my mind, is that Boll (very optimistically) considers Bloodrayne to be a franchise, which is why he chose to set this film in 1750 instead of the WWII, where the game had it. We all know that a franchise means more than one film- and as we've reported to you before, Boll is optimistic enough about this movie's prospects that he no doubt thinks he can spin its success into yet more Bloodrayne movies. Nevermind that such an occurance would be a first for Boll, and is probably listed in Revelation somewhere as one of the signs of a coming apocalypse.

The very best part here is Boll's idea for a sequel- the man wants to set it in the Wild West! That's right, a good old fashioned cowboys 'n Indians n' Vampires flick. Yee-haw!

*I apologize profusely for this terrible pun. Sometimes you just can't hold them in.

[via IGN filmforce]

I was standing in EB Games just recently, patiently waiting in the enormous holiday line with a crush of other gamers, rabid children, and clueless parents. While waiting, I observed a very hassled mother surrounded by four satellite children (by that I mean her children were constantly in orbit around her) waving games at her. As best as I can tell, each child was allowed to claim the title of his/her choice as a Christmas gift. The stack of games the dismal mother eventually found herself holding made me sick--a sorry collection of bad television and movie related "games" (and I use that term loosely here) topped of by something that looked very much to me to be called "Trollz." Yes, with a 'z' at the end. I presume this is some hot new property I am blissfully unaware of. The other four or so games I can't recall, but I do remember that every one of them was for the Gamecube, and every one of them was a bad movie tie-in. I wanted so badly to slap the pile right out of her hands like some gradeschool bully and then replace them with a copy of Skies of Arcadia. But I digress.