Hollywood’s Proposal to the Gaming World, and Why that’s a Problem

The sandbox is open May 2010.

It seems here at Gamer Road, we’re pretty big on film adaptations of games.  I encourage you to check out the articles by David Stephens and Philon before coming back.  But come back.  Technology has so vastly improved, both with films and with videogames, that a legitimate crossover was bound to happen.  And yes, there have been countless adaptations done across the world since 1986, but there are a few reasons why now is the time to pay closer attention to your favorite game franchises.  As good as it looks, the PoP movie could be a disaster.

Jerry Bruckheimer.  Jake Gyllenhaal.  And the creator of the Prince of Persia franchise Jordan Mechner gives his two thumbs up for the picture.  Is that enough?

It's a meee! Floppio!

The first video game adaptation released in America. Does anyone remember this?  Nintendo tries their hardest not to remember, and for good reason.  Since then, we’ve seen a lot of franchises come and go; most of them worse off than when they arrived.  What exactly went wrong?

Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson used the same film school correspondence program.

I could very easily blame it on these two.  Maybe I should.  But it would be better to examine the nature of the Hollywood adaptation.  First:  projects must be predicted to generate the most revenue with the least risk.  Second:  projects must appeal to a ‘general audience’.  Third:  projects must be entertaining.

With the suits in control, it’s all about the money.  Maybe that’s why, as bad as it was, Batman and Robin brought in one and a half times its budget.  Or, just think Spiderman 3.  Okay, stop thinking about Spiderman 3.  The issue of staying true to the source material is always relevant, but in many ways ignored by the studios for the reasons above.  Fans are fans because of the stories they experience.  But fans are not the general audience.  So unless I can pack a boatload of special effects (because explosions do appeal to a general audience) and/or get some heavy movie stars cast (because movie stars appeal to a general audience), my faithfulness to the source material means I can’t make it in Hollywood.  To use the PoP film again, they’ve managed to achieve all of the above.  It will generate revenue with very little risk because it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production, and that’s a household name now.  The project will appeal for that same reason, and because of Jakey.  And a boatload of special effects.  Which is fine, because if it were in the hands of, say, Paul W.S. Anderson, Ubisoft might have to cancel the release of the second game of the trilogy to avoid embarrassment.

I could just be overly skeptical, as a friend mentioned to me when I argued my points to him.  However, I witnessed Hollywood courting the comics world – with the exception of The Dark Knight, DC Comics is barely alive, and Marvel flew under the umbrella of Disney to protect them from more of the studio/zombie invasion (let’s hope Disney hasn’t been infected).  PoP isn’t the only thing on the table:  there was Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (which was almost Halo), Bioshock (now only produced, not directed, by Gore Verbinski), Tekken (though not backed by Hollywood), Resident Evil Afterlife (I do not count this at ALL), and if you read your Game Informer, they list about a half dozen other projects on the table.  Hollywood is down on one of its twelve thousand knees, asking for the hand of my beloved game industry.  He’s speaking sweet nothings, promising to be loyal, and to bring more of an audience by to support her.  The advantage the game industry has over comics is the exponential growth within the past few years.  It’s a stronger, sharper world, with budgets for games rivaling Hollywood blockbusters.  But I fear the ambition of getting a video game story ‘brought to life’ on the silver screen may be enough bait to ensnare developers, snatch the rug from under them, and pour so much money and Hollywood-isms into their story that it turns into the enormous, mutating Tetsuo from Akira, screaming for help, eating everything in its path.  Here’s my advice game developers:  Remember Street Fighter?  Remember Resident Evil?  Double Dragon, Bloodrayne, Max Payne, Hitman, D.O.A., freakin’ Wing Commander??  Don’t fall for the promises; get a pre-nup.

By the way, the only successful game adaptations have been through animated films.  Final Fantasy VII:  Advent Children is one of the most magical things I’ve ever seen.

Related posts

• Shows, Movies, and Comics that Video Games Should Rip Off
• What are you crazy?
• You Might Have “Skills”, But I’ve Got… BUTTON SMASHING!!!
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Movie Trailer
• Heavy Rain - Innovation or Fad?
• Movies That Drain the Life of Games
• Prince of Persia: The Bricks of Time
• 5 Games That Could Be Turned Into Good Movies
• Top 5 Movies That Should Be Video Games
• Wii + Netflix: Together at Last!

Tagged as: adaptations, Bloodrayne, comic books, DC, Disney, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jerry Bruckheimer, M, Marvel, movies, Paul W.S. Anderson, prince of persia, Resident Evil, Super Mario, ubisoft, Uwe Boll, video games