Bob PeryeaThe Cinema of Games
May 12th 2008 14:48
As orble blog www.gamerherald.com, as well as www.news.com.au has already stated the hit Xbox 360 game Bioshock is being made into a film, headed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and possible penned by Gladiator scribe John Logan. Oddly, as I seem to waste a large proportion of my cash and time on video games (hell GTA IV has had been tied up since it came out, there is so damn much to do in that game!) especially ones on 360, I’ve never played this, despite hearing great things about it. Despite that, I know the game is meant to be atmospheric as hell. And Verbinski showed (with Pirates at least) that a fair level of humour is his thing, so maybe its not the best fit, but hopefully this works out for the best, hey anything is better than Uwe Boll right?
The emerging trend of developing successful games into movies is a bit worrisome (it’s seemingly becoming a theme of this blog discussing the adaption of other mediums into film). Firstly most video games simply don’t have a strong enough story, or probably more specifically a believable Universe to carry themselves into a film. There really haven’t been any top quality video game movies. Ever. The best I’d say, without doing much, well any, research would be the Resident Evil flicks; and they were often more ‘inspired by’ than truly straight out of the PlayStation.
There was a lot of talk about how excellent the storyline of Grand Theft Auto 4 was, and how movie like it is. While I still haven’t finished the game (hey, I just can’t get enough of wailing on police choppers with RPGs or causing other wanton destruction) I can tell you that the basic plot, minus a lot of filler (the whole Bohan story, the Playboy X/Dwayne plot etc), there is almost a modern day Scarface here. Immigrant tries to make a new life in the USA and finds himself trapped in a world of violence and crime; hardly the America that most movies show. The story is not so much the story of a character trying to climb to the top of the underworld like prior GTA games have been, but rather a character driven story of betrayal, guilt and attempting to start anew. Liberty City is based on New York in every sense, but manages to appear as a living breathing city without simply duplicating real life. Constant mentioning of other GTA locations: Vice City, Los Santos, Carcer City, makes you feel like you really playing in an alternate USA. In essence I could see this working as a film. It’s got the story, it’s got the world, it’s not just a stock standard crime story.
Another potential video game that has been mentioned a lot as a Hollywood blockbuster is Halo. And with the right work I could see this working too. If GTA is videogame’s Scarface or Godfather then Halo is Aliens: an action packed science fiction war movie, with far more story then anyone gives it credit for. Halo’s story is immense, so much that most people barely know the surface. It tells of humanity’s war with a galaxy spanning alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. For some unbeknown reason (revealed in the third Halo game they have declared humanity an affront to their gods and declare they must be wiped from existence. The current three games shows what is essentially the final culmination of that war, the discovery of the ancient superweapons that are the Halo rings, the release of their initial target, the parasitic flood, growing civil strife followed by full blown revolt among the Covenant, and their discovery of Earth. This blog, tells the story of the Forerunners, which unknown to most (myself included) was revealed in Halo 3. There is so much potential story here it’s ridiculous. While the storyline of the games has been criticised by some, the world that has been created is absolutely epic. There are currently at least 3 books out detailing some of the war before the events of the games. There is an absolute smorgasbord of potential screenplay to be seen here. Hopefully someone will put the money they need into this to get it back on track after a nasty start of production.
These two game franchises are the biggest series in the video game world, with only Mario, Zelda and maybe Half Life even on the same page; so you’d hope that there would at least be some potential for a movie here. Do video games actually have a hope of pulling off a flurry of movies ala the current superhero/comic book trend? I still kinda doubt it, but there is potential out there for a couple of quality flicks at least.
p.s - I’m actually against any GTA movie. It would only end up as a derivative gangster movie tying in to the brand name that the games have established, probably starring Eminem or 50 Cent. Halo on the other hand has a set story and a universe dictated very strictly by their creators, so that could still potentially work. Potentially being very much the key word here.
The emerging trend of developing successful games into movies is a bit worrisome (it’s seemingly becoming a theme of this blog discussing the adaption of other mediums into film). Firstly most video games simply don’t have a strong enough story, or probably more specifically a believable Universe to carry themselves into a film. There really haven’t been any top quality video game movies. Ever. The best I’d say, without doing much, well any, research would be the Resident Evil flicks; and they were often more ‘inspired by’ than truly straight out of the PlayStation.
There was a lot of talk about how excellent the storyline of Grand Theft Auto 4 was, and how movie like it is. While I still haven’t finished the game (hey, I just can’t get enough of wailing on police choppers with RPGs or causing other wanton destruction) I can tell you that the basic plot, minus a lot of filler (the whole Bohan story, the Playboy X/Dwayne plot etc), there is almost a modern day Scarface here. Immigrant tries to make a new life in the USA and finds himself trapped in a world of violence and crime; hardly the America that most movies show. The story is not so much the story of a character trying to climb to the top of the underworld like prior GTA games have been, but rather a character driven story of betrayal, guilt and attempting to start anew. Liberty City is based on New York in every sense, but manages to appear as a living breathing city without simply duplicating real life. Constant mentioning of other GTA locations: Vice City, Los Santos, Carcer City, makes you feel like you really playing in an alternate USA. In essence I could see this working as a film. It’s got the story, it’s got the world, it’s not just a stock standard crime story.
Another potential video game that has been mentioned a lot as a Hollywood blockbuster is Halo. And with the right work I could see this working too. If GTA is videogame’s Scarface or Godfather then Halo is Aliens: an action packed science fiction war movie, with far more story then anyone gives it credit for. Halo’s story is immense, so much that most people barely know the surface. It tells of humanity’s war with a galaxy spanning alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. For some unbeknown reason (revealed in the third Halo game they have declared humanity an affront to their gods and declare they must be wiped from existence. The current three games shows what is essentially the final culmination of that war, the discovery of the ancient superweapons that are the Halo rings, the release of their initial target, the parasitic flood, growing civil strife followed by full blown revolt among the Covenant, and their discovery of Earth. This blog, tells the story of the Forerunners, which unknown to most (myself included) was revealed in Halo 3. There is so much potential story here it’s ridiculous. While the storyline of the games has been criticised by some, the world that has been created is absolutely epic. There are currently at least 3 books out detailing some of the war before the events of the games. There is an absolute smorgasbord of potential screenplay to be seen here. Hopefully someone will put the money they need into this to get it back on track after a nasty start of production.
These two game franchises are the biggest series in the video game world, with only Mario, Zelda and maybe Half Life even on the same page; so you’d hope that there would at least be some potential for a movie here. Do video games actually have a hope of pulling off a flurry of movies ala the current superhero/comic book trend? I still kinda doubt it, but there is potential out there for a couple of quality flicks at least.
p.s - I’m actually against any GTA movie. It would only end up as a derivative gangster movie tying in to the brand name that the games have established, probably starring Eminem or 50 Cent. Halo on the other hand has a set story and a universe dictated very strictly by their creators, so that could still potentially work. Potentially being very much the key word here.
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Comment by S.L. Bradish
Comment by Geoff Egan
Noise Fanatic
I seriously believe that a Halo movie could be a sci fi masterpiece, rather than just a cheap cash in. Hopefully, if it ever eventuates, it will be.