videogames Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Disney's $4 billion purchase of Marvel means the gloves are coming off when it comes to comic books and all the possibilities for making money off of them, from toys and cartoons to movies and video games – and video game movies.

Disney is just one of the media conglomerates that's digging deeper into the video game world, and while that does include some rather unfortunate tie-in titles like "Hannah Montana: Rock Out the Show," it also includes really good games like "Kingdom Hearts," a role-playing game featuring classic Disney characters like Goofy, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse. And while I haven't played it myself, at least one video game girl professional told me I absolutely must play "G-Force." Seriously.

Right now Warner Bros. is definitely beating the other media giants, both with movie/comic book tie-ins like "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and innovative new games like "Scribblenauts." Now that Disney has its mitts on Marvel, we can expect plenty of Marvel superheroes and villains getting the Disney (well, hopefully Pixar) treatment. Is it possible that Disney will step up its game, so to speak, when it comes to competing with WB and DC's superior titles?

In the same way that higher-profile actors are jumping on the video game ship sans shame, so too are movie writers like Wanted's Chris Morgan. Morgan has signed up for a rather daunting task – working as the story director for the massive and practically holy sci-fi series The Wheel of Time by the late Robert Jordan.

Variety reports that this job entails "overseeing the writing on the titles, working with executive producers and writers to help develop story arcs and helping to digest the book series' 10,000 pages and over 1,700 characters."

(Of course, Morgan and the other two screenplay writers, Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, were taken to task by fans for not sticking to the original comic book story all that much. However, compared to comic book purists, the wrath of Robert Jordan fans can be deadly. Or so I hear.)

Morgan isn't the only screenwriter who has dipped his toes into the pixellated pool. Saw director James Wan is one of the writers for the Saw video game, which surprisingly got some good gamer feedback from its preview at SDCC. And David McKenna, who wrote American History X, Get Carter, Blow, and Bully, wrote Scarface: The World is Yours, which got generally mixed reviews.

It's been more than a year since we've talked about Second Skin, the video gaming documentary, but now you can watch the entire movie online for free, via Hulu. In fact, you can just head down beyond the break below to watch it right here on Cinematical. The only thing we can't supply is the popcorn.

If you need a primer on the film, you can read our own Peter Martin's review of the film from 2008. It documents gamers who are fully immersed in games like World of Warcraft and Everquest, and how it affects their lives. It's not afraid to show the bad side, but it also covers the unexpected good sides as well. It's surprisingly engaging, and well, you can't beat the price of admittance.

Second Skin will be out on DVD at the end of the month, by jump the gun and watch it from the comfort of your browser just beyond the break. And if you're a hardcore gamer, shrink this window and watch it while you continue your raiding party through that new Crusaders' Coliseum all the kids are playing lately.

It wasn't until fairly recently that voice acting in video games was done by either no-name actors trying to pay the bills or B- and C-list actors who were, well, also trying to pay the bills. The Command and Conquer games began employing a mixed bag of actors in its 1999 iteration, Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun, when they managed to snag Luke Skywalker's big daddy James Earl Jones, but otherwise continued casting random character actors like Udo Kier and Barry Corbin in future games like Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2.

Grand Theft Auto III changed the game, literally, with its roster of recognizable names and voices like Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, Michael Rapaport, Debi Mazar, and Kyle MacLachlan all playing parts in the free-for-all crime cape that make Rockstar Games just that. With GTA III's massive sales and buzz (particularly from angry parents), the scene was set for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which boasted an over-the-top cast particularly appealing to its target audience: Dennis Hopper, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Debbie Harry, Ray Liotta, Tom Sizemore, and Jenna Jameson, just to name a few.

The dead have risen from the grave! If you're a Castlevania fan who thought you weren't going to be subjected to a big-screen version of your beloved game, think again. In the midst of the news frenzy coming out of SDCC, Bloody Disgusting got the chance to speak with Saw co-creator James Wan, and he confirmed that he has just signed to direct the video game adaptation for producer Paul W.S. Anderson. Wan tells BD, "I'm very fresh on this project, so its early stages and I'm still trying to work things out, but the producers love my vision for it"

The Castlevania video game franchise mainly centered on a war between the vampire hunting family known as the Belmonts and the big bad blood-sucker himself, Dracula. The game is one of Konami's biggest titles, and was considered one of the best action-platform games around. But as we were soon to find out, it wasn't going to be an easy transition from the console to the big screen.

If you haven't been keeping track, (and who could blame you) here's a brief history on the troubled flick: the announcement of a feature film Castlevania first came about in 2007, but over the next two years little ground had been made. For starters, there were personnel changes and then there was the double-whammy known as rewrites. The last anyone had even heard from the project was that Sylvain White (Stomp The Yard) had reportedly been hired to direct. But then the writer's strike hit and the project ran into a brick wall -- but that was then, and this is now.

After the jump: find out what Wan has planned for the Belmonts...

Folks far and wide are eagerly awaiting the film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are, which, if you live under a rock, is being directed by Spike Jonze. (He also wrote the adaptation with Dave Eggers, so here's hoping Jonze could keep the twee to a minimum.) The photos and trailer are so fantastic, I could cry. What's the rumpus, you say?

Last year Kotaku reported a rumor that Brash Entertainment would be developing a video game based on the film. Brash aimed to make great video games based on movie licenses, but instead ended up making games like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Interestingly enough, one of the cofounders of Brash, Thomas Tull, is also the head of Legendary Pictures, one of the production companies behind Wild Things. However, Tull quit and Brash folded. Variety reported, "Tull is believed to have been disappointed with the quality of Brash's games, as well as the company's strategic direction." This left many titles in the lurch, including Wild Things.

So, what now? Sounds like Amaze Entertainment will be taking over, as per the bio of Michael Waite, Studio Head / Executive Producer, which some blogger stumbled upon.

"Michael's contributions include Electronic Arts' best-selling Need for Speed and Harry Potter series, and other top tier franchises including titles such as Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, Shrek the Third, Lord of the Rings: Tactics, Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events, as well as two titles due out later this year: Where The Wild Things Are on all console platforms and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for PSP."

But! Amaze is still looking for a publisher for Wild Things. With Warner Bros. talking big about its interest in technology, will they be the ones to snap it up? And more importantly, will it be any good?!

If you're feeling bored at your desk and you don't feel like playing good games while toggling between work documents and your desktop, might we suggest a few Paul Blart time-wasters? (And by suggest, I mean, go straight to PopCap Games and get Peggle or Plants vs. Zombies.)

You have two choices for Blart-tastic web-based fun, and one downloadable game as well. In "Mall Cop The Game," you ride your Segway around the mall looking for criminals, alarms, and special goodies that increase your time or give you extra points. And in Paul Blart: Mall Cop Slalom, you're just zooming away on your little Segway trying to avoid a skateboarding punk, potted plants, and benches. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - Mall Maze is actually the best of the bunch, relatively speaking, as it's a sort of Pac-Man game where you avoid criminals and collect candy and badges.

So where are the Observe and Report games? It could be totally old school, with Ronnie as Pac-Man trying to collect his pills and avoiding Detective Harrison and Brandi as Ms. Pac-Man collecting lipsticks and margaritas. The Yuen brothers could be like Super Mario Brothers. Or Hey, 2K Games! Call me!

The predictably and sadly stinky Righteous Kill, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as cranky old cops trying to solve a possible serial killer case and make old rights wrong etc. etc ad infinitum, has a video game. No, I didn't know it either! Probably because it was put out by Merscom and Starz Media and is a downloadable PC game that can be yours for just $6.99 via Big Fish Games. And now there's a sequel called Righteous Kill: Revenge of the Poet Killer, which can also be yours for $6.99.

Both games have the barest connections to the actual movie. Here's the description of the first game:

"Step into the shoes of Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in New York City. It`s a man hunt for a vigilante on a killing spree through 16 locations containing over a thousand hidden objects. With the help of Sergeant Vasquez, Erica will use clues she collects in a number of detective-themed mini games. Inspired by the motion picture film, Righteous Kill features clips from the movie and 15 animated levels."

In an interesting video game/movie tie-in, GameStop has a promo running until June 30, 2009 ("or until all e-Movie Cash tickets have been distributed, whichever comes first," natch) called "Love the Movie - Live the Game," and it's definitely a mixed bag.

Basically, if you buy one of the following games, you can get a $10 voucher for select movies at participating theaters that's only good until July 31, 2009. That's a lot of ifs, especially if you check out the games they're offering, which are not all tied in to current releases. And some of them will make real gaming geeks bleed from the eyes. Take a look.

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.