By John Walker on July 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 am.
Sam Raimi is to make a Warcraft movie. So, everyone probably has an opinion on that. The maker of two good Spider-Man films and one astonishingly awful one, along with some of the greatest cult horrors of all time, he’s obviously someone who can do both BIG and NICHE, which would seem appropriate for the license. If indeed it’s an appropriate license. You can read all the details of who’s producing what over on GI.biz.
But rather than an explosion of hate over a) there being a WoW movie, b) people complaining there’s going to be a Warcraft movie, and c) my saying Spider-Man 2 was good which it was, let’s instead put that energy to good. Which is the game that you really believe should be made into a movie, who should make it, and who should star in it?
It should be clarified that, to my knowledge, this is a Warcraft movie rather than a WoW movie. Which may or may not prove significant to the story.
Also, Spider-Man 2 was immense, and people who disagree are Wrong, with a capital wuh.
As for which game should be made into a movie, Plants vs. Zombies directed by George Romero and starring Dolph Lundgren as Tall-Nut.
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Deus Ex – Christian ‘Gravelvoice’ Bale. Nuff said.
A BOMB!
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TF2. Valve. The existing cast.
I know it’s a glaringly obvious suggestion. But it’s no less true.
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That uh.
Huh.
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Raimi? Odd choice.
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Nocturne. I don’t care who, I don’t care how, but The Stranger must be seen on the big screen. We must open the files of Spookhouse right now, zombies must invade small american towns under the direction of eldritch horrors from ancient times and Al Capone’s horde of undead mobsters must be stopped.
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LIMBO OF THE LOST
Joe pasqule and stan boardman
a film by uwe boll
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Max Payne… oh wait, they already tried and failed. I still don’t understand how turning a game that was already written like a film into a movie managed to go tits up. Oh yeah, it’s because THE SCREENWRITERS WERE IDIOTS.
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I think the Mass Effect universe and the Fallout universe would lend themselves well to a movie. In some ways I hope “The Road”, will be a little fallout-ish in it’s art direction.
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Thief. And Stephen Russell, obviously. In a heavy cloak at all times.
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Europa Universalis 2, the Game.
Kidding, of course. (Or am I?)
I wouldn’t mind seeing, say, Fallout or DoW2. Of course, a lot of my games are really rather non-linear and awkward to *think* of adapting to the silver screen.
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X:COM.
James Cameron.
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Baldur’s Gate 2, if only for the figure of Jon Irenicus and assuming that the actual acting will be as strong as the voice acting in the game.
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Quest For Glory/Uwe Boll/Tim Curry as the narrator, probably some random less-known blonde bloke would be best for the Hero :)
It could be set in the German mountains (as in 1) and the sequel could be Transylvania (~Mordavia in 4)…And hey, Coppola or Foley (or both) could be in it! :)
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At first, I always thought that Thief had an engaging enough storyline for a movie. But as AvP proved, you can’t have a movie take place wholly in the dark, the action is anti-climactic.
Maybe NOLF, directed by anyone who had nothing to do with Austin Powers.
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I’m with TotalBiscuit, it has to be Deus Ex. The plot is there and most of the dialogue is already written. In addition to Bale as the lead I would suggest that they try and persuade Arnold Schwarzenegger to return to acting one last time to take the part of Gunther Hermann.
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On second thought I would appreciate it if they left Deus Ex alone. They would only go and change things, more than likely for the worse.
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Curious. I’m a Raimi fan so I’m sure I’ll be checking it out. Never played WoW (not got anything against it, it just doesn’t interest me) so not really sure what to expect story wise, but this could be interesting. Maybe the fabled good game-film will finally come to pass?
Oh and yes, a Thief film would be aces. Or a Freedom Force film.
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Mass Effect Trilogy
With anyone but Vin Deisel as Shepard.
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peggle by lars von teir
oh and monkey island, with sam rockwell just becaues he is ace in everything especaily galaxcy quest and moon
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CGI animated Starcraft movie.
KOTOR live action
-wolfman
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And I’m going to have to agree with whoever said this before.
It’s a Warcraft movie not a WoW movie.
Seeing as WoW doesn’t have a story, it being an MMO with no timeline. The Warcraft story, however, is very well made.
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Oh, I should add – only a Starcraft movie if it retains the humour.
-wolfman
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Stense’s avatar reminded me of Psychonauts. Give it to Tim Burton and see how he works that funk, s’what I say!
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Diablo 2, starring Jason Statham. Basically 5 minutes of dicking about in the Camp, then just monsters being reduced to monster jelly, monster cutlets and monster self-rising flour.
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I had high hopes for the Max Payne adaption (at least before I saw the first trailer) as it was always my top pick for a movie based on a game. And I could still rage at the total fiasco that film was. I mean… aaargh, Ibetter calm down.
Well, a Warcraft film is also high on my list. At least on my “this is realistic-list”. Warcraft has a strong, richly coloured universe, that is both easy to adapt for a non-gaming universe (just stick with the alliance) but can also feature lots of insider stuff for the fans. Plus, Sam Raimi isn’t the worst choice, neither is Legendary Pictures. For me, this is one of the most promising games-on-the-big-screen-films.
I second Team Fortress 2, but I don’t want a movie, I WANT A F’ING ANIMATED SERIES! NOW! NO, MAKE THAT YESTERDAY! Go Valve! I’d even pay money for that. Seriously. Now go make it.
Well, there’s lots of games I’d like to see in theatres, but let’s pick one more: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.! Take some russian director, make him play the game and talk to the devs and it could result in a dark, atmospheric film masterpiece. Man, I’d really love to see that.
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Grim Fandango – CGI, original voice actors, and some director who gets the style
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“Seeing as WoW doesn’t have a story, it being an MMO with no timeline”
What? I’m pretty sure it does in fact, have a story, regardless of it’s MMO limitations.
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In light of the Lucasarts/Steam retro-love-in, perhaps they could make a Sam & Max film? A naughty bunny causing death and destruction in the name of the law must surely be a winner.
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I really don’t think a Deus Ex movie is a good idea.
What made Deus Ex so good was the way it played, the opportunities it gave you etc – that and all the little side coversations, quips and little secret notes as well as the philosophical elements. None of that would transfer well over to a movie – all you’d see was a silly sci-fi action film with a very, very OTT conspiracy-led plot.
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Max payne could have been great but ended up mediocre to bad.
I’ll put my money on a Starcraft epic movie.
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Planescape Torment with Ron Perlman as the Nameless One
Half-Life with no-one in the main role, you’re a pair of hands and a crowbar, nothing else.
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I’d like a version of half life 2, but from the point of view of other characters. Gordon would be a cypher, someone who had disappeared and now returns, bringing hope, a stoic character, clearly troubled by his past.
A monkey island film would be lovely, of course, as long as it included a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs
Old, but still funny.
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Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis of course :)
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Having just finished it, perhaps Far Cry 2 could be adapted. Might actually make a better film than the game.
I’ve always thought a Half-Life universe film could work if they didn’t include any major character for more than one shot. There’s no reason why a film of the Seven Hour War couldn’t work.
Psychonauts could make a great animated series, so long as it keeps the undercurrent of mature realities (Milla’s nightmares).
Stalker… I’m a little sceptical about that one. It would require a major re-working of the characters… so that there actually are some. And of course the practicalities of filming in the Zone – how else do you find the iconic locations and buildings? – and cultural sensitivities means it would require some real creative thinking to even get off the ground.
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Ok, as nobody mentioned it I will:
EvE online
The two Clear Sky machinima paved the way, as did the firefly/serenity stuff (which admittedly where not a huge success, but still), there is a strong and rather interesting background and I would have some confidence in CCP choosing the right people to adapt their baby…
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Rather than express my general skepticism with the whole license whoring thing, I’m going to say…
- Ground Control: Would make a nice explosion-laden SF story.
- Any of the Total Wars: Historical films are fun, although I don’t know if the alternate-history thing that TW necessarily engenders would work with a linear story. The question: “What if Venice conquered the entire world?” isn’t the most interesting question to ask, perhaps. It depends.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Because it’s going to happen sooner or later, and it’s basically an action flick already
- Halo: See above
- Bioshock: Because they’d have to make it more interesting than “hit everything until it dies”.
I think in many of these, the question of how to make the mute game avatar work as an acted character, even one as iconic as Gordon ‘Gordan’ Freeman, is probably a deal-breaker. You’d have to change the story so that it wasn’t just following them, I guess (or maybe not at all – the existing HL2-based stories don’t follow Gordon Freeman) – so a Halo film wouldn’t just be Master Chief murdering monkey-aliens with squeaky voices for two hours.
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Stalker was a film before it was a game by the way. Albeit an art film by the master of glacial pacing that is Andrei Tarkovsky that bears little resemblance to the game or book!
Anyway:
Grim Fandango – Brad Bird
Doom – James Cameron
Thief – Christopher Nolan
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@Rinox: Thats because Stense’s avatar is of Lili from Psychonauts :) A game that would also be a good film candidate I’d say, it does have a very Burton like feel to it.
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Schaulustiger: Stalker is already a movie. From 1979 at that, made by Tarkovsky. And it is a monumental bore (and I like art cinema). The movie was most definately an inspiration for the game.
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Civilisation (rom-com).
Spore: Creature Creator.
Oblivion (make sure you cast Patrick Stewert in a wig)
Trackmania.
Lemmings (rom-com).
Quake (including the line “Damn, that Quake bastard works fast!”).
Star Wars: Rebel Assault (just the cutscenes though).
Zeno Clash.
The Dig (maybe we can sell the concept to Stephen Spielberg?).
Plants vs Zombies (starring Cam “Cam Clarke” Clarke as the voice of Sunflower).
The Sims (subtitled).
Quake 3 (rom-com).
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down.
MDK (in 3D for the sniper helmet bits).
King Kong.
Peggle (using Bjorn in multiple Blade Runner references).
Speedball II (rom-com).
Halo School Musical.
Defcon (starring Signourney Weaver as The Lady Who Coughs a Bit).
Tron 2.0.
Leisure Suit Larry (Uwe Boll).
Battlecruiser 3000 (rom-com).
Elite (in classic black and white).
Black and White (in classic black and white).
Repton (rom-com).
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals.
Indiana Jones’s Desktop Adventures.
Custer’s Revenge (rom co- actually, no).
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EVE Online
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Starring:
Harrison Ford
Angelina Jolie
Vin Diesel
And using the current Engine for the special effects/ Space Battles etc.
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PORTAL 3D FTW
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Dare I say Braid? Nah, I actually think it should be made into a book, would seem to fit that medium better. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say “Beyond Good & Evil” simply cause the story is very good in my opinion, and if done correctly it could be a film which is “for the whole family”, as it has mature themes wrapped in a kid friendly wrapper…
Sadly, I don’t think Hollywood could produce that kind of balance, seeing as how they seem to muck up the easiest things… *cough*Max Payne*cough*
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- Metal Gear Solid with Kurt Russel as middle-age Snake (placed between MGS2 and MGS4)
- Serious Sam with The Rock
- Freelancer, Mass Effect or Anachronox with Gerald Butler
- Tekken with Paul as the protagonist, played by Josh Holloway
- Total Overdose with Freddy Rodriguez
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Fede says:
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis of course :)
Yes, I wonder if they will ever make a fourth Indiana Jones film…
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@Angeldust & Apotheosis:
I know the Tarkofsky flick (and found it rather strange). The film itself, by the way, is an adaption of a Strugatzky book (I only know the german title “Picknick am Wegesrand”) which I found way better than the film.
What I want is a real adaption of the game, not centering around philosophical questions and a clearly metaphorical “zone” but depicting the real zone around Chernobyl with numerous factions that struggle to accomplish their goals. I’d like it to have a pace similar to the “Apocalypse Now Redux” version. Make the entry in the zone action-y and stuff and the deeper our hero steps into it, the more of a mental struggle it should become, resulting in a great final in the reactor.
Sorry for my bad english, it’s hard to describe, but I want a Stalker film based on the game, not a Stalker film based on the old film. Since the latter would be quite useless.
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FEAR. It’s like a movie already, just convert some of the messages/pdas into beliviable conversations and you don’t even need a screenwriter.
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Trials 2, featuring an all volunteer, all amatuer cast, scripted as a reality TV show.
NO PAIN NO GAIN MOTHERHUBBARD!
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Life is harsh!
WHAT I WANT:
120 minutes long WoW cgi.
WHAT I GET:
??????
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This already exist… in a way.
Since Blizzard released his CGI’s in a episodic way (much like 1 min long Clone Wars episodes), you can see the whole history develop watching one after another.
Watching Warcraft that way is much like… Watching a Medieval Fantasy version of Star Wars, with Arthur (or whatever is called) as Anakin.
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Full Throttle, as an action movie/western with a vaguely post apocalyptic vibe. Ben would be played by Hugh Jackman, but if you could risk making this without an established star Jon Hamm would be an interesting choice. Maureen would be played by Reese Whitterspoon. Director would be a hard choice as you need someone with a good eye for action, and a flair for unusual settings, but I think Robert Rodriguez would have a great time with this material.
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@Bobsy: regarding Defcon, I ‘m wondering if you’ve ever heard about the movie Wargames (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/). Defcon was at least partially based on that movie.
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I third Fate of Atlantis, it’s a shame they never did anything with it. Really captured the Indy feel, and is one of the few games to follow a traditional three-act structure well.
Aside from that and a couple of other adventure games, most game stories aren’t even worthy to be filmed by Uwe Boll. I mean, the guys a hack, but when you’re working with the dross he does as source material you’d have to be damn good to avoid it.
Man, I got out of the wrong side of bed this morning.
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Games that cross over to become movies never really capture what the game was like. I’d like to see some of the actual game really cross over into a movie. the first person shooter scene in the Doom movie was interesting, lets build on that
Tron is perhaps the only movie I can think of that really tried to capture what I’m asking for or maybe that’s just me looking back with rose tinted glasses.
Think Sin City the comic, how that transferred to the big screen carrying with it every bit of the comic.
It’s just crazy enough that it might work!
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Planescape: Torment
Alpha Centauri
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@ Theoban says:
“Planescape Torment with Ron Perlman as the Nameless One”
How about Keith Richards? (I always used to think the box-art looked like him).
Far Cry 2 could quite easily be turned into a film as, compared to most games, it has a fairly low-concept plot. Mercenary goes into warn-torn country to kill arms dealer, Gets caught up in events, Eventualy wins. Shanty-town; Beautiful vista, gun fight; beautiful vista; gun fight…etc. Lots of “isn’t war terrible” interspersed with gun-porn.
Alternatively, you could set it in Vietnam, and have Martin Sheen play the assassin…
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Saint’s Row – Straight crime comedy thriller, in the style of Bad Boys, but with the star dressed as a banna at all times.
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The Last Express, done in Run Lola Run fashion, directed by Richard Linklater.
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HL2, of course.
But especially, Morrowind, keeping/adapting the original music. That would literally tear my heart out.
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Mechwarrior!!! I´ve been hoping for a mechwarrior movie since mechwarrior 2.
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I think I’ll have to second Anachronox. Don’t know about the rest. The idea of Custers Revenge being filmified got a laugh out of me, but I’d be horrified if anyone did actually try it.
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I’d say it would be advisable to avoid the Mechwarrior series for the moment though, I just know some hollywood director will have them jumping about spinning through the air and other similar bizarreness. Maybe when that particular style of action dies down a bit they’ll get it right, maybe.
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“Planescape Torment with Ron Perlman as the Nameless One”
That one!
Also, somebody needs to make a No More Heroes movie, but who? It’s got to be an intelligent funny action movie. Intelligent action movies spells Michael Mann, but he hasn’t proven himself with the comedy part. Intelligent funny sounds like the Coen brothers, but I don’t trust them with action. Maybe somebody like Joel Silver or Quinten Tarantino?
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well there’s WoW pron allready… figured it’s about time to do a real move i guess? ;)
not interrested in that movie… but i’d love to see a diablo 2 epic awesomesauce, every chapter a own movie!
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Anachronox – directed by Terry Gillham, art direction by Jean Paul Gouete
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Thief thief2 Thief3.
It’s a unique setting, with a strong plot, in a ready made trilogy, with a unique style and a very strong cast, including a great main character.
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films are so 20th century.
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okay, I’ll cast my vote on “Beyond Good & Evil”
Only you do not need Hollywood for that, take for instance Luc Besson. I think he’d be the ideal choice for producer or director.
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The Longest Journey & Dreamfall.
Skip the puzzles focus on the excellent fantasy world and the heartwarming characters. John Walker would be weeping buckets of tears (and so would I). It’d clean up at the box office and maybe lead to them making enough money to lead a final game/episodic thing to finish the whole story off.
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@People suggesting Far Cry 2 adaptations: Blood Diamond already pretty much covered that, no?
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An Old Republic movie, all CG, animated by whichever mad bastards at Bioware Austin created this cinematic .
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honestly though, can you imagine people going, what book of a film would you like to see? or what prog rock album of a film would you like to see? if the game was any good as a game then the film i’d like to see would be of my particular story through the game, which is what i got when i played it, if it wasn’t then why would i want to watch a film about it over an original ‘from the ground up’ film, i suppose if the world of the game is compelling then a film set in the world could be an idea.
i want to see films of games as much as i want to see games of films, not very much.
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I want the guys who did the Dawn of War intro hired to make and 18s CGI WH40k movie with James Cameroon in the directors chair… asking to much?
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I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Dwarf Fortress yet.
More seriously, Star Control 2. Would work best as a TV series I spose, Star Trek with more diverse alien life.
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TotalBiscuit posts here too? Ohh god I can’t escape him! :p
Prototype btw :]
And Half Life… Edward Norton as Gordon Freeman. (The guy from Fight Club)
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I’d settle for a properly done Wing Commander.
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Half-Life 2 movie, no gordon freeman but something like the short movie the Purchase Bros did. That was amazing, and if it was a feature, hoe-my-god.
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Command and Conquer anyone? No need to change the actor playing Kane. :)
-wolfman
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Dwarf Fortress, as directed by Werner “I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder.” Herzog.
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I think I will be fun to see a movie about M.U.L.E. made by Monty Python. The game is already very monty-python-ske, and there has to be said about Economy.
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@Dan Lawrence: I was thinking about the Longest Journey, but there’s just too much plot there. You’d end up with Exposition: The Film, even though there are obvious candidates for cutting. Dreamfall is a bit more manageable: you can actually cut out everything that occurs in Arcadia – which tends to further the themes but not the plot – and have a decent sci-fi film.
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@ Ergates:
Wasn’t the point of FC2 that you didn’t ‘win’? I mean, I could have misunderstood the story and all, but it all seemed rather non-victorious to me.
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“TF2. Valve. The existing cast.”
^ This
“Command and Conquer anyone? No need to change the actor playing Kane.”
^ Also this.
“Deus Ex – Christian ‘Gravelvoice’ Bale.”
^ Er, no. Christian Bale sounds like an eight-year-old trying to pretend that his voice broke. Original voice actor or bust, kthxbye. Original writers, too. But CMaster’s probably right that it’s a better game anyway, as it’s advantage is its nonlinearity (or, at least, multiple linear paths).
Full Throttle might make for an interesting film if and only if handled by people who are competent and have played the game. (Sort of like all game->film translations, then.) Hell, good adventure games in general have linear plots and good writing, which makes them filmable material.
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@EyeMessiah: There is only one Dwarf Fortress tale which can be chosen for such a task.
THIS! IS! BOATMURDERED!
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Steve Carrell MUST be Leisure Suit Larry. MUST!
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“Full Throttle might make for an interesting film if and only if handled by people who are competent and have played the game.”
That one exists and is pretty good.
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Another World would make a great wordless film.
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ZAngband as directed by Peter Jackson.
The film lasts for 45 hours and it ends abruptly with the protagonist being insta-killed by a dragon breath for which he has no resistance.
There will of course be an extended DVD version at 70 hours, with the extra 25 hours being taken up by an alternative ending in which the protagonist is paralysed and slowly poisoned to death.
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Worst most boring Game -> Film?
Pac Man!
Chomp chomp chomp chomp AHHHH GHOST, chomp chomp, MWHAHAHAHA I ate tha pill! Here ghosty-ghosty chomp chomp chomp AHH PILL RAN OUT, RUNNNNNN.
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The warcraft universe is just a rip off of warhamer fantisy.
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Undoubtedly – but the Warhammer universe is itself a ‘rip off’ of Tolkien/D&D etc. so it seems a bit pointless to get overly bothered.
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brokensword
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@Catastrophe I think a film based on Asteroids would be even worse.
Oh, wait…
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“Dreamfall is a bit more manageable: you can actually cut out everything that occurs in Arcadia – which tends to further the themes but not the plot – and have a decent sci-fi film.”
I wish Ragnar Tørnquist had done that with the game, and left the Arcadia bits for a separate game. They made the whole story less cohesive.
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Watch the Spiderman films the other day, I remembered them being good too, they really suck its just the third one was much worse. The others are still shit.
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I hope Games Workshop sue the shit out of them
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@Catastrophe: There was a Pacman cartoon series. As far as I know, it was the first time the ghosts were named.
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“I wish Ragnar Tørnquist had done that with the game, and left the Arcadia bits for a separate game. They made the whole story less cohesive.”
Actually finishing the game would have made the story more cohesive. No need to cut if they’d have gotten it actually done.
On the topic, I can’t believe they’re seriously trying to do a Warcraft movie now after they’ve run the entire setting and lore into the ground instead of before WoW, when it actually had some interesting places to go.
If there’s a God the (seemingly) upcoming City of Heroes movie will be awesome. If they exploit the advantage and unique point of the setting (alternative history with superpowers since 1930something, superpowered WW2, etc.) instead of doing a cheap comic book movie ripoff they’ll have a hit on their hands. Also, Rikti Invasion setting please.
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I was going to say Left 4 Dead and then do lots of sarcastic jokes about the zombie apocalypse being an underused genre…but I changed my mind.
Half Life and I’d like Aronofsky to direct it. I think ideally it would be a movie where the main protagonist (and I’d prefer an unknown actor for Gordon Freeman because if you give anyone famous an iconic role they play it as themselves; see Judge Dredd for more details) spends a lot of time suffering on their own and, having watched Pi again recently, I think Aronofsky would definitely capture the emotional struggle side of the story as well as the action sequences.
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I’ve been reading the comments and see a lot of really awesome games mentioned. Most of them, however would be nearly impossible to make into films without destroying most of what made the game so dear in the first place.
My suggestion is Nocturnal Illusion.
Before you people crucify me and stick UN resolutions under my nails for suggesting a hentai game, let me explain myself. NI is already very similar to a movie script. It has everything that would make for a good movie.
1) A normal person placed in odd circumstances.
2) A bit of mystery.
3) An interesting location.
4) Sex.
5) Violence.
6) A lot of dialogue.
7) Character development.
8) Suspense.
9) A powerful, moving ending.
Basically I envision something akin to Spirited Away, but with more adult themes.
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@ inanimotion: Well they obviously couldn’t do ALL of WoW, but they could do something following one of the main stories that’s happened. There’s even some of the lengthier quest chains that could work as movies if they bulked the story a bit.
Hell, if they were to finish off the Scythe of Elune story I’d watch that. A werewolf(sorta) thriller/horror set in the Warcraft universe could totally work.
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@-F.: !!!
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Red Faction would work.
Mirror’s Edge, entirely done in the comic style of the cutscenes, so long as the writing is half-decent.
World of Goo? Geometry Wars? Tetris?
I’d bet a small amount of money that someone, somewhere is writing a script for a Rock Band or Guitar Hero movie.
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Guys.. guys.. guys… please.
The actor that make Kaine in C&C is not a actor, is the guy that do the casting. He was forced to take the actor position, because no one was able to fill the role.
This is *basic* C&C trivia. You guys are not honest true C&C fans.
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Thing on a Spring
Nicolas Cage to play the “Thing”
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@Tei: Er, no, he did acting work before joining Westwood. And it’s “Kane”, no “i”. Honestly, if you’re going to be obsessive, at least be right.
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@ Frans Coehoorn:
Of course… OF COURSE! This, my friends, is a winning (and plausibly realistic) idea.
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I’d watch an EVE movie as someone mentioned, but I’d prefer it to be more like ‘Day of Darkness’, you know, lot’s of narration and footage of Amarr getting artillery rounds shoved up their exhaust pipes by brave Minmatar pilots.
Joking aside, I think the only game that would really work as a movie would be an animated TF2 film. Of all the games I can think of that I was deeply involved with, mainly RPGs I don’t think I’d be able to watch some overpaid actor who probably never played the game before, trod on the same paths as I did.
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Pags:
If you’re going to make a Run, Lola, Run-style movie, then surely the game must be Mirror’s Edge?
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@ Matt: the LSL 1 / 2 version of Larry that is. I think 2 makes the best (road)movie out of the 6 LSL games. Or maybe part 5… or 7. Hmmm…
Here, compare them:
- http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3793/1521638731si1.jpg
- http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3203/largenn2.jpg
Really plausibly realistic indeed.
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Too bad he already did The 40 Year Old Virgin, which was – I have to admit – a funny movie similar to Larry. But still… It’s so possible!
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Wow. Yeah, he’s certainly got the smile.
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BioShock! It would make an amazing suspense/horror movie. Great story. So much atmosphere. So many great characters.
Director? Danny Boyle. Few do atmosphere as well. Maybe Cillian Murphy in the lead. Those two did a great job with 28 Days Later. Throw in Cate Blanchett as Tenenbaum and you got yourself a blockbuster.
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One of the things that makes Kane is how much better he is than the rest of the C&C cast. He reminds me a bit of a drama teacher I had once.
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Max Payne. But with Clive Owen this time. And a script.
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I love someone’s suggestion of Edward Norton being Gordon Freeman. Perfect look for the part.
I actually think Half Life (original) could make a very good film. The simplicity of the plot is instantly understandable for everyone (Gordon tries to escape the facility, but has saving the world thrust upon him), there is a buddy character already implemented through Barney and Valve made the scientists humorous, so the film could have some light relieve through them. Add some details that become apparent through HL2, such as Eli saving his daughter and the death of his wife, and you could expand the story quite nicely with some emotional moments. Themes of scientists playing god and the way the aliens are mostly only fighting to protect themselves are already present in the game and expanding them wouldn’t be too difficult to make the rare thing of an action film that actually means something (let alone a video game film that means something, which is even rarer.) I really think that a Half Life film would be great.
I think Bioshock has some good potential. I don’t have much faith in Gore Verbinski, but the world is so rich that there is certainly a good film in there.
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Daikatana.
Just to see how MetaCritic handles negative scores.
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i cant believe no one said it.
Nethack – The Movie.
A 8 hours long epic story of gruesome deaths.
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ok, someone said ZAngband.
But I still uphold the idea of an endless row of the most absurd deaths you can think of.
oh, and i second the idea of a Dw. Fr. movie
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Day of the Tentacle, Pixar
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I’d love to see a well-made Rainbow Six movie.
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I’m with Spinks on that one!
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Yes it finally shown that hell has frozen over and the movie companies can’t figure out how to be orginal
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The old SSI gold box Buck Rogers, with Guillermo del Toro at the helm.
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A movie of Warcraft, really? I would’ve thought the lore of Warcraft, throughout all the games, was generally far too immature, cobbled together, and playground to be properly incorporated into a movie. Though they have Raimi directing? Hmmm… this ha the chance of going one of two ways:
1) It’ll be based upon World of Warcraft somehow and it’ll be a cringeworthy disaster. “I’m an irradiated gnome and I’m gonna cut you!”, “Oh no, an irradiated gnome!”
2) It’ll be baed around the concept of the first game, but doing Raimi’s own take on it, which will probably be much more interesting and could have the chance of being very worthwhile.
And it really can’t hope to be anything in between, Warcraft is one of the mosts poorly written travesty’s of all time. Honetly, read the lore for all the games, it’s the kind of thing one would find in a cheap, slashy high-ea romance book picked up at an airport souvenir shop.
My only worry is that if it doe ignore the lore and turn out half-decent, it’ll actually trick some movie-goers into believing that the Warcraft games and World of Warcraft has the same level of plot prowess. Those poor fools.
That said, I’d much prefer to see an animated movie based on Monkey Island, not the Curse one, mind you, as the art tyle in that was absolutely horrible, and Escape followed that, but perhaps based around the VGA Secret of Monkey Island, Lechuck’s Revenge, or even the new Tale of Monkey Island.
So I’m with Cullnean and Mr. K, a Monkey Island film next, please!
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Outcast or System Shock (which would demand a sequel, for obvious reasons).
Stars? Since I’ve never entertained the idea of a decent game-to-movie adaptation (although the first Resident Evil wasn’t terrible), I’ll admit I’ve not devoted even a moment’s thought as to who should be cast.
If anyone else thinks either of these games could be translated effectively to the silver screen based on the quality of the script, the direction/production and the cast, I’m open to suggestions.
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I forgot most of the plot to System Shock 1 (whoops), but I have always thought the backstory to System Shock 2 would actually make a great film (the bits you read about in the emails in game). The actual events of the game proper as well as the protagonist are somewhat boring for a film, I think.
Likewise with Half-Life – the best half-life film, imo, would not feature Dr Freeman in the flesh at all, and instead take place between the two games – after all, he doesn’t talk and spends most of his time pushing buttons and shoving boxes onto elevators. As the player and the hero, he is the least interesting character.
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“Day of the Tentacle, Pixar”
Day of the Tentacle, Valve, with Tim Schaefer directing.
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Halo should be made into a movie, directed by Neil Blomkamp.
This is what he did for the advertising for Halo 3. This could easily be a feature-length film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyKSaXsg-PE
Neil Blomkamp is amazing, and District 9 is going to be awesome.
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Final Fantasy 6 with David Bowie as Kefka, Christian Bale as Shadow, Val Kilmer as Edgar, Nicole Kidman as Chestle (probably spelled her name wrong it’s been a while) Natle Portman as Gau, Jude Law as Locke, directed by Sir Steven Speilburg
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Shadow of Memories (or Shadow of Destiny in the US), made by Darren Aronofsky, starring Simon Cowell (for the exceptionally tall pants on Eike Kusch) or Sawyer from Lost.
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Not Chestle , her name is Celes :P Saban can be played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, Umaro can be played by the Octo Mom, more to come.
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Mog played by Vern Troyer in a Mog Suit, Relm can be played by some random unknown 10 year old with green hair if one can be found. Strago MUST be played by Christopher Walken,
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Well, that should be career damaging. Pity, by and large I like Raimi even if the Spiderman movies (especially 2 and 3) haven’t really been my thing.
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WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
THIS MEANS BRUCE IS GOING TO PLAY ARTHAS, RIGHT?
RIGHT?
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I loved Spiderman 2, didn’t care for Spiderman 3 as much but I still liked it just because I love anything to do with Spiderman. That having been said I don’t think he’s the right guy for this movie, would probably be better off in the hands Sir Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame. If anyone can arrange an epic battle involving orcs,trolls, and wizards it’s him. Of course that might make people realize Warcraft is just a rip off of Lord of the Rings even faster than they would otherwise :P Or is it a rip off of Warhammer, or both, who cares it’s fine on its own IMO.
Still waiting for David Bowie dressed as Kefka
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The make up department will be over flowing with hair-lip kits.
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Christian Bale is going to play Arthas, aduh. and Burt Reynolds is going to play the older Paladin that teaches him in the start of warcraft 3 ;P
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Or Tom Selleck
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The problem with doing a mission-based game, or a game with tens of hours of gameplay, is that a movie adaptation will make the threat seem kind of sad. X-Com the movie would be an alien abduction, a terror mission, and next thing you know they’re kicking down the door on Mars.
Now things that would be good: System Shock 2 leadup/survival movie following Delacroix, Polito and the rest of the resistance, then following Tommy Suarez and Rebecca Siddons as they escape the ship (Alien/Aliens style).
I’ll second a fairly direct adaptation of STALKER, I’d also think that a properly stompy Mechwarrior/Battletech movie would be fun times, as long as it stays more Mechwarrior and less RobotJox…
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Dig Dug: Rise of the Pookas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wt9Gse7KGw
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Or John Rhys-Davies.
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Wing Commander should be made into a GOOD movie. Or a TV series.
Monkey Island would be great, but Pirates of the Caribbean has already been made… so it could be a cartoon TV series! It would be great!
Another game that could be a good movie is Fallout. Is it being made already?
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@Fede
Fate of Atlantis would have been a much better fourth film than Crystal Skull. It IS a better film even if it is a computer game!
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Ewe Boll directs “Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox”
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Michael Mann doing a Thief movie. Coen brothers doing a Fallout movie.
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The Witcher
(apparently there was a dire 2001 movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hexer_%28film%29 )
Here’s a thread full of suggestions on the Witcher forums: http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=3885.0
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Spiderman 3 is going to be a cult classic. I know this because the Spiderman trilogy followed the exact same pattern as Evil Dead: Good, straightforward movie, then a bigger, more complex one, and then a balls-out, totally ludicrous finale that doesn’t take itself at all seriously. It’s not up to Army of Darkness standards because it was a MUCH bigger film, so the studios had more influence, which led to all the muddling with the Sandman and Venom and such, but the madcap insane spirit is there. The bit with Bruce Campbell cements this theory. And Peter Parker being an emo-mafia-retro-chic-hipster? Genius.
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The ultimate political thriller with vast amounts of Vodka, Tetris the Movie ; Blocs of Power (Get it I did a pun with Soviet Bloc and Blocks like in Tetris, wrarahahaha)
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Captain Blood (bonkers French space adventure) directed by Terry Gilliam and starring six Johnny Depps.
Pathologic by Guillermo Del Toro in art-house mode, with Sean Bean and Daniel Craig.
Quentin Tarantino’s N.
Boiling Point by Michael Bay.
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Anything with six Johnney Depps is two thumbs up from me.
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Yeah, TF2 would have to be animated. There’s no way RL people could capture the look. Plus, the current cast are only voice actors — chances are they look nothing like the characters they portray. But hey, I’m all for an animated version.
You could probably do something interesting with the Fallout universe. But then, since it’s a universe that already has deep roots in existing movies, it seems a bit redundant.
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I think he should make a movie out of Evil Dead: Regeneration. Something tells me he could do a good job of that…
As I was typing that, the episode of the X-files with Bruce Campbell in has just come on TV. I declare this to be a sign from God.
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Beyond Good and Evil, Anachronox, No-one Lives Forever (1 & 2!) and Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines.
Actually, thinking about it, i’m surprised that VTM hasn’t had more TV/film made about it. There was a half arsed American TV show that bombed a while back, and the Underworld series wants to be VTM when it grows up, but still-one can live in hope…
Of all of those, most probably Anachronox and Bloodlines could work best plotwise, seeing as you’d have to cut out a sizeable chunk of the fighting, wandering, questing etc. to focus on the characters and story. Someone’s already tied together all the cutscenes from Anachronox into a 2hr machinima, not a bad start!
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I say Overlord, since expecting a video game movie of any substance only leads to disappointment.
Assuming they can make something good out of it, though? Any of the Thieves would make an interesting film, like so many had already said above.
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System Shock 2. Directed by Ridley Scott.
Shodan would be played by Susanna Thompson(the Queen from Kings).
I think it should really be pre-SS2 just because that’s where a lot of the action is going to be involved. Also it would allow the casting of multiple people, preferably no F***ing love triangles which hollywood loves to throw in everything. It would be cool to see those events take place as a gamers point of curiosity to see what happened before I (the hero) took the lead. Also you don’t see too many movies anymore where everyone would die at the end which would then lead up to the hero maybe stepping out of Cryo and talking to Shodan.
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Duke Nukem Forever, following the plot Yahtzee lays out in his ZP review, directed Takashi Miike, produced by Luc Besson.
A Boy & His Blob, via Hayao Miyazaki.
& my ultimate: GORDON & BARNEY ARE HALF-ALIVE, A FILM BY TOM STOPPARD [with gary oldman & tim roth, natch]
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Not that excited about the film (I think an animation would’ve been better) but I’m looking forward to the Bruce Campbell cameo.
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This will follow in the steps of the Final Fantasy film.
But hey, can’t be worse than that transformer 2 film, right?
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Thinking about it, I know how exactly one scene from Half-Life: The Movie should go.
Having cunningly escaped from being dumped into a trash compactor by marines, Gordon Freeman once again engages them in mortal combat. We see the Black Ops command centre, constant radio chatter. In the centre of the room stands the G-man, disinterested, his back to us. Suddenly there is a new voice on the radio, “We think it’s Freeman, sir!” The G-man stops. We pan up from his feet, taking in his considerable girth which is slowly starting to shake with anger. As we move further up his magnificent beard comes into view, filling the entire screen until we see his face, screwed up and purple with rage. Screaming at the top of his voice, spittle flying from his enormous mouth, Brian Blessed (for it is he) screams with a voice like the coming of the End Days: “GORDON’S ALIVE?!”
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Il-2 sturmovik. Let it be made by russian action director. if it gets english language track, heavy russian accent is most mandatory. be sure. if director and script writers are daring, 1946 campaign should be used for plot. dreamworks for cgi.
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I’m more basing this on the books than the game but oh well.: Discworld, specifically the City Watch series with Hugh Laurie as Sam Vimes. Insta classic, provided it has a Lord of the Rings sized budget rather than the piddly amount they spent on the Sky movies.
Anything W40k (i.e. Dawn of War) related stands a good chance if they go for an 18 rated, action flick. Probably animated and quite stylised
Speedball 2 has potential but I would make it darker and more serious unlike the game
Oh and the people who made the Mark of Chaos video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_KlINBUYc4 – deserve the chance to make a few 30 minute TV episodes to see if they can make it fly
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@Serondal
I thought Gau was male?
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Re: Planescape: Torment – I will see your Ron Perlman and raise you a del Toro directing.
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Gau is male! I was saying more about Natille Portman than about Gau :P
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People seem to be forgetting that the Warcraft movie was announced in 2007. The news here is just that they’ve chosen a director. The movie has been confirmed to take place between Warcraft III and WoW and not featuring any established character as the protagonist (it has been hinted that the protagonist may be the brother of Varian Wrynn). It has also been described as “more of a war movie than a quest movie”.
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Sounds like Lord of the Rings minus the quest, whatever that means.
Starcraft,
Diablo would work. Blizzard have a way of convincing you with their cinematic. Lately though there haven’t been many big fantasy/medieval setting movies I can recall, lately…
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OK, so I lied in my last post.
I don’t think games should really be made into films. Good narrative in games is significantly different from good narrative in film, and so in translating one to the other, a good conversion might well be quite liberal with the storyline. Since anyone with a remotely decent imagination can come up with a setting for a story, why set it in a game universe? Other than making money, of course. But then that’s not an artistic reason to make something. But then it’s apparent from past form that game->film conversions are never made for artistic reasons.
So an ideal game to convert to a film would be Guitar Hero or Call of Duty or something that would be tripe but make a huge bucket of money.
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@We Fly Spitfires:
Aren’t we all?
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Return to Castle Wolfenstein, directed by Peter Jackson. I was going to say Tarentino, given the current film he has out, but I really can’t stand him or his movies (most overrated director in film history).
BTW, Spidey 2 was a genuinely decent film and was, up to TDK, the best comic book film.
I assume anyone suggesting Uwe Boll be allowed anywhere near a soundstage again is joking…right? I mean, seriously….right?
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Damn you Theoban+Mym, I hate you forever for suggesting something so glorious that I’ll never, ever, ever get to see happen.
Nethack/Zangband as anthology films with each too-short life by a different director/cast?
There is a FarCry movie, I found out. By Herr Boll. If it was previously known about, I had completely blocked it from my memory until a coworker was watching it on a slow Sunday afternoon. So, so bad.
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Bonus question: How many Duke Nukem Forevers could Boll have produced in the same amount of time / for the same development costs as 3D Realms?
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No games should be made into movies, it just doesn’t work.
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I will go and see this diabolical film, if:
1. It features Leeroy Jenkins.
AND
2. Matt Damon is cast for the part.
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Since, as people noted, game-to-film adaptations almost always butcher the game (so, Super Mario Brothers: The Movie, anyone?), I’d be more interested in an adaptation of a game with a weird backstory that the scriptwriters could mess around with. (The Doom movie could have been really good, from this perspective, if they’d kept the Hell angle, whilst keeping the ditching of the gameplay angle).
On that basis, if we’re allowed almost-pre-PC games, I remember a lot of arcade games + shoot’em-ups having sometimes exceptionally odd backstory (later ‘R-Type’s, for example, with their Bydo-superweapon-from-the-future, and the implication that the Bydo are sort-of-infection-like; or the really trippy Amiga shooters like Agony (magical owl vs enemies) or Apidya (magical wasp vs enemies) ).
That, or The Chaos Engine. Done with the proper nod-and-wink, it could be a brilliantly fun bit of Steampunkery (like a good version of the LXG movie, even…).
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We need only one game series converted to a movie:
Red Alert
There. I’ve said it. With Frank klepacki on the music side(Hell March, Crush, In Deep) and somerandomguy doing the directing. Also, i want my general Fatty Mc Fat back to scream “there throwing all they got at us, sir”.
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Phil H: Oooh, now that’d work. Each writer/director only gets 20 minutes a piece of something like that.
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Sigh.
That was meant to be “or something like that.”
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The Dig!
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Psychonauts, theme music by danny elfman… henry selick to direct, tim burton to adapt…
And isn’t Mass Effect already a movie? just one with lots of clicking?
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Spiderman 2 could have been great, but the script was a complete mess. It’s always massively disappointing when that happens, because the script is the relatively cheap part of making a film. I can only presume that they scheduled the film before they actually had a script, and then didn’t have time to get it right.
The other two were loads of fun :)
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Spiderman 3 was hilarious.
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minesweeper! roman polanski (dir) & ben kingsley (main)
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well Astoroids is taken so ill go for Bubbel Bobbel
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David Lynch, Silent Hill. End of…
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Spiderman 2 WAS good. That is all.
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Moichandising! Moichandising! Where the real money’s made! Warcraft the T-shirt! Warcraft the colouring book! Warcraft the lunch-box! Warcraft the breakfast cereal!
WARCRAFT THE FLAME-THROWER!
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I can’t wait for:
Warcraft: The Game of the Movie.
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Anyone remember a game called ‘Dark Earth’? That would make a great movie i think. :)
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This is going to be made purely for the kids. The spiderman movies were absolutely horrible. Compared to all the good superhero movies lately, Spiderman was bloody horrible. I guess it’s cool if you’re 13 years old and also liked the Transformers movies, but if you’re old enough to have grown a brain.. Not so much.
Can’t really say I’m going to be shedding a lot of tears if this movie sucks though. Don’t really want to see a movie based on a game with ideas stolen from another game (yeah that’s right, i’m playing the warhammer card).
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Oblivion would make a pretty great movie. Only, it may end up being just another fantasy film, and wouldn’t be amazing due to lacking the great elements that made the game awesome. But you could have Sean Bean (of course) as Martin–he’d certainly look better than he did in-game. I don’t think it would be hard to write lines for the protagonist, although I’m not sure who they’d choose as an actor.
And if they were very, very careful, Half-Life would make an excellent movie. The problem is Gordon and his mute nature. Who knows, maybe that could be worked in somehow, or maybe he has like four or five lines throughout the whole movie. But done right, it would be amazing. The second game would make an even better film.
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And on the subject of the Warcraft movie, Blizzard’s constant merchandising is sickening. This film damn well better be awesome to make up for it.
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Hitman 1 had a great story. His origins and the end where he kills his father/creator.
They had to screw up the movie. Seriously, WTF was that movie.
Max Payne 1 had a great story too.
Also screwed up.
For these reasons I am wary of game adaptations.
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Part of the problem is, when a game has a story good enough to translate it to film easily, the writer(s) may prefer to try to do something original with it – maybe they don’t like the story, maybe they want to actually write a more original story instead of purely piggybacking on the existing one – and the story they write is, no surprises, not quite as good. Or at least that’s what I suspect happened with both Max Payne and Hitman.
Also, wrt/ Halo movie: http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/07/24/no-halo-movie-from-neill-blomkamp-even-if-hes-offered-it/
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What game should be made into a movie?
Every single Final Fantasy game so I don’t have to spend hours upon hours fighting battles that are more annoying than entertaining, just to get 30 seconds of cut-scene and the occasional cinematic.
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Cant recall seeing a shout for this before, but how about Pathologic directed by Lars Von Trier, Darren Aronofsky or someoneelse who can conjure up a sense of place or atmosphere? In fact I’d vote for Chris Nolan instead.
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Splinter Cell
Director – Ridley Scott
Sreenplay – Tony Gilroy
Sam Fisher – George Clooney
Lambert – Dennis Haysbert
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A “half-life” movie, set in the period between the first and second games – the portal storms; earth being slowly and randomly populated by xenian species. It’d be a movie about everyday people trying to cope with an alien invasion, and not in a half-assed “war of the worlds” way either – think more like stephen king’s story “the mist”, which was a massive inspiration for half-life in the first place.
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