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While I realise that generally when games are given big screen adaptations they turn out to be, well, quite frankly naff. For every Tomb Raider there was a Super Mario Bros, for every Mortal Kombat there was a Street Fighter. But should we give up of the notion that a game can be the inspiration for a good film - no.
The problem most of the films seem to stumble across is that they base it too closely on the game, a loose interpretation would be much better. 'The Fast And The Furious' was based on an article in a magazine called 'Racer X' that talked about illegal street racing, with powered up consumer cars, it featured nothing about any illegal activities other than the actual street racing (and the people the article focussed on had become professional drivers). But the film featured an undercover cop, a forbidden romance and high speed hijackings - these were not in the article, but they didn't have to be - the film was inspired by the article, it didn't take every single word as the gospel. It was loosely based on the idea. Taking my cue from this idea, here are some loose interpretations of games that can be made into films:
Wipeout:
The premise of high speed anti gravity racing could provide an adrenaline boost more extreme than ever the fast and the furious' street race sequences, and around these scenes you can build quite a good story. eg. How about a young rookie who although very talented clashes with the owners of his team who want him to focus more on the rating grabbing violence that they are trying to introduce to the sport. Tension mounts between our main protangonist and his team mate/rival who has no problem with taking shortcuts to gain victory. In racing each other the two team mates learn to respect each other, but once their peace is settled our protagonists team mate is killed in a race by a rival teams main star. This brings us to the final race of the season, where both the title and retribution is up for grabs - will the young rookie play it straight, keep his beliefs and race to win, or will he seek revenge by taking out the man who killed his teammate. As you may see, this keeps the concept of the wipeout games, but delivers a film with aspects of films such as top gun, fast and the furious and many others - and would feature anti grav racing, now that can't be bad.
Perfect Dark:
A real Rival for Lara Croft:Tomb raider, not only does Joanna Dark have the moves and the looks, she also has gadgets to make james bond look like a kid in a joke shop, and enough firepower to make an arnie film look pee wee's big adventure . Think Mission Impossible 2 meets The X Files and you have one big sci fi spy movie that would make Angelina Jolie pout(as if she ever stops).
Metal Gear:
Solid Snake was obviously inspired by Escape from New Yorks Snake Plisskin, so any metal gear movie would obviously have many of the escape from new york elements. Snake is drafted in by the government to stop a psychopathic criminal dictator from unleashing his weapon on the world. Snake goes in, he sneaks, he shoots, and he smokes his way around uncovering the truth about his governments involvement in the whole plot, and how he was sent in as a cover up. So now snake has 24 hours not only to stop a madman, but to avoid the assassins his own country have secretly sent after him, and to expose the whole conspiracy to the world. A Cardboard box cameo would be essential.
Castlevania:
Vampires. Vampire hunters. Big mansion. Action. Enough said.
Quake/Doom:
A no brainer really, this would most certainly make a big, loud, action film. With big guns, bigger monsters and snappy one liners. The games loose premises would leave the film open to create a story of its own. Basically, a group of space marines are mysteriously crash on an unexplored planet, you follow one of these marines, as he awakes to find most of his colleagues dead, and him stranded on a hell planet surrounded by blood thirsty monsters. So you just follow his attempts to find any survivors, and escape the planet whilst trying to work out why they crashed on the planet in the first place (lets just say it wasn't an accident). A Doom film was rumoured years ago with Arnie, and Im willing to bet It would have followed this basic premise. Still, the potential for big set pieces, and violence galore would at least make this an interesting idea to develop.
Soul Caliber:
Anyone who's played the games will realise that the games revolve around the soul edge, a demonic force that occupies the holder of the soul edge sword. So you would basically start with a flashback scene, describing how the sword came into being (anything from it falling from the sky, to a demon being trapped in the sword by a warlord will do), you are then told of how the blades handler was killed and the sword lost for centuries. A pirate by the name of Cervantes was rumoured to have taken possession of the blade, but he was killed, and now the location of the blade is unknown...end of flashback. [In a japanese village] the demon seed rains from the sky, one such piece hits a young man, kilik, who then slaughters his family and everyone else in the village, upon realising what he did he breaks down in tears. [In a Canyon] A japanes warrior Mitsurugi is walking through a canyon when he realises someone is stalking him, he walks on and when the assalient jumps out the two fight, Mitsurugi prevails holding his sword against the throat of his attacker, a barbarian called Rock. Mitsurugi lets rock live in return for for him helping him on his quest, to regain the soul edge for his master who prophecised that the blade was to appear soon after the demon seed rained. The two continue on Mitsurugi's quest to Europe, on the way Mitsurugi finds out about why Rock jumped him (Rocks son/wife was kidnapped by a man travelling alone with a sword, and he mistook Mitsurugi for that man). Upon arriving in Europe they realise that they are not the only ones looking for the blade, and are introduced to the others. Action persues as everyone heads to Germany, where sightings of the blade have appeared. Along the way they face challenges from various thieves, beasts and monsters (including lizardmen?). Upon arriving in Germany, a huge battle for the blade takes place, and action ensues. The major problem with a soul blade film would be choosing which characters to concentrate on and which to renegate to the background, still if done correctly, it could be very good (and sword and sorcery action films appear to be popular again thanks to lord of the rings).
Turok:
Imagine if conan the Barbarian had aliens with laser guns crash land on his planet. You now have Turok: The movie.
Crazy Taxi:
Just a stupid idea really, but playing the games the idea of a stoners taxi company comes to mind, possibly needing to raise enough money to keep the firm open in a certain ammount of time, hence the high speed racing to locations, and almost reckless driving. Throw in some high speed police chases, some comedy sections, and possibly an in film television station following the exploits of these crazy taxi's (the voice over could even feature the games catchphrases "He just made one, craaazyy jump!"), and you have one lightweight, but enjoyable sounding film to me. You could also add a rival taxi firm trying to put them out of business and you have one craaazy film.
If you have any other ideas add them to this thread.
The problem most of the films seem to stumble across is that they base it too closely on the game, a loose interpretation would be much better. 'The Fast And The Furious' was based on an article in a magazine called 'Racer X' that talked about illegal street racing, with powered up consumer cars, it featured nothing about any illegal activities other than the actual street racing (and the people the article focussed on had become professional drivers). But the film featured an undercover cop, a forbidden romance and high speed hijackings - these were not in the article, but they didn't have to be - the film was inspired by the article, it didn't take every single word as the gospel. It was loosely based on the idea. Taking my cue from this idea, here are some loose interpretations of games that can be made into films:
Wipeout:
The premise of high speed anti gravity racing could provide an adrenaline boost more extreme than ever the fast and the furious' street race sequences, and around these scenes you can build quite a good story. eg. How about a young rookie who although very talented clashes with the owners of his team who want him to focus more on the rating grabbing violence that they are trying to introduce to the sport. Tension mounts between our main protangonist and his team mate/rival who has no problem with taking shortcuts to gain victory. In racing each other the two team mates learn to respect each other, but once their peace is settled our protagonists team mate is killed in a race by a rival teams main star. This brings us to the final race of the season, where both the title and retribution is up for grabs - will the young rookie play it straight, keep his beliefs and race to win, or will he seek revenge by taking out the man who killed his teammate. As you may see, this keeps the concept of the wipeout games, but delivers a film with aspects of films such as top gun, fast and the furious and many others - and would feature anti grav racing, now that can't be bad.
Perfect Dark:
A real Rival for Lara Croft:Tomb raider, not only does Joanna Dark have the moves and the looks, she also has gadgets to make james bond look like a kid in a joke shop, and enough firepower to make an arnie film look pee wee's big adventure . Think Mission Impossible 2 meets The X Files and you have one big sci fi spy movie that would make Angelina Jolie pout(as if she ever stops).
Metal Gear:
Solid Snake was obviously inspired by Escape from New Yorks Snake Plisskin, so any metal gear movie would obviously have many of the escape from new york elements. Snake is drafted in by the government to stop a psychopathic criminal dictator from unleashing his weapon on the world. Snake goes in, he sneaks, he shoots, and he smokes his way around uncovering the truth about his governments involvement in the whole plot, and how he was sent in as a cover up. So now snake has 24 hours not only to stop a madman, but to avoid the assassins his own country have secretly sent after him, and to expose the whole conspiracy to the world. A Cardboard box cameo would be essential.
Castlevania:
Vampires. Vampire hunters. Big mansion. Action. Enough said.
Quake/Doom:
A no brainer really, this would most certainly make a big, loud, action film. With big guns, bigger monsters and snappy one liners. The games loose premises would leave the film open to create a story of its own. Basically, a group of space marines are mysteriously crash on an unexplored planet, you follow one of these marines, as he awakes to find most of his colleagues dead, and him stranded on a hell planet surrounded by blood thirsty monsters. So you just follow his attempts to find any survivors, and escape the planet whilst trying to work out why they crashed on the planet in the first place (lets just say it wasn't an accident). A Doom film was rumoured years ago with Arnie, and Im willing to bet It would have followed this basic premise. Still, the potential for big set pieces, and violence galore would at least make this an interesting idea to develop.
Soul Caliber:
Anyone who's played the games will realise that the games revolve around the soul edge, a demonic force that occupies the holder of the soul edge sword. So you would basically start with a flashback scene, describing how the sword came into being (anything from it falling from the sky, to a demon being trapped in the sword by a warlord will do), you are then told of how the blades handler was killed and the sword lost for centuries. A pirate by the name of Cervantes was rumoured to have taken possession of the blade, but he was killed, and now the location of the blade is unknown...end of flashback. [In a japanese village] the demon seed rains from the sky, one such piece hits a young man, kilik, who then slaughters his family and everyone else in the village, upon realising what he did he breaks down in tears. [In a Canyon] A japanes warrior Mitsurugi is walking through a canyon when he realises someone is stalking him, he walks on and when the assalient jumps out the two fight, Mitsurugi prevails holding his sword against the throat of his attacker, a barbarian called Rock. Mitsurugi lets rock live in return for for him helping him on his quest, to regain the soul edge for his master who prophecised that the blade was to appear soon after the demon seed rained. The two continue on Mitsurugi's quest to Europe, on the way Mitsurugi finds out about why Rock jumped him (Rocks son/wife was kidnapped by a man travelling alone with a sword, and he mistook Mitsurugi for that man). Upon arriving in Europe they realise that they are not the only ones looking for the blade, and are introduced to the others. Action persues as everyone heads to Germany, where sightings of the blade have appeared. Along the way they face challenges from various thieves, beasts and monsters (including lizardmen?). Upon arriving in Germany, a huge battle for the blade takes place, and action ensues. The major problem with a soul blade film would be choosing which characters to concentrate on and which to renegate to the background, still if done correctly, it could be very good (and sword and sorcery action films appear to be popular again thanks to lord of the rings).
Turok:
Imagine if conan the Barbarian had aliens with laser guns crash land on his planet. You now have Turok: The movie.
Crazy Taxi:
Just a stupid idea really, but playing the games the idea of a stoners taxi company comes to mind, possibly needing to raise enough money to keep the firm open in a certain ammount of time, hence the high speed racing to locations, and almost reckless driving. Throw in some high speed police chases, some comedy sections, and possibly an in film television station following the exploits of these crazy taxi's (the voice over could even feature the games catchphrases "He just made one, craaazyy jump!"), and you have one lightweight, but enjoyable sounding film to me. You could also add a rival taxi firm trying to put them out of business and you have one craaazy film.
If you have any other ideas add them to this thread.
Good topic me thinks.
Game franchises CAN be turned into movies, but if the wrong games are chosen there would be some pretty crap movies on the big screen...
...I mean wasn't 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' bad enough?
Game franchises CAN be turned into movies, but if the wrong games are chosen there would be some pretty crap movies on the big screen...
...I mean wasn't 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' bad enough?
Havent read it but I have two things to say:
Why isnt this in Prime
+
DONT LIE!
:p
Why isnt this in Prime
+
DONT LIE!
:p
While I realise that generally when games are given big screen adaptations they turn out to be, well, quite frankly naff. For every Tomb Raider there was a Super Mario Bros, for every Mortal Kombat there was a Street Fighter. But should we give up of the notion that a game can be the inspiration for a good film - no.
The problem most of the films seem to stumble across is that they base it too closely on the game, a loose interpretation would be much better. 'The Fast And The Furious' was based on an article in a magazine called 'Racer X' that talked about illegal street racing, with powered up consumer cars, it featured nothing about any illegal activities other than the actual street racing (and the people the article focussed on had become professional drivers). But the film featured an undercover cop, a forbidden romance and high speed hijackings - these were not in the article, but they didn't have to be - the film was inspired by the article, it didn't take every single word as the gospel. It was loosely based on the idea. Taking my cue from this idea, here are some loose interpretations of games that can be made into films:
Wipeout:
The premise of high speed anti gravity racing could provide an adrenaline boost more extreme than ever the fast and the furious' street race sequences, and around these scenes you can build quite a good story. eg. How about a young rookie who although very talented clashes with the owners of his team who want him to focus more on the rating grabbing violence that they are trying to introduce to the sport. Tension mounts between our main protangonist and his team mate/rival who has no problem with taking shortcuts to gain victory. In racing each other the two team mates learn to respect each other, but once their peace is settled our protagonists team mate is killed in a race by a rival teams main star. This brings us to the final race of the season, where both the title and retribution is up for grabs - will the young rookie play it straight, keep his beliefs and race to win, or will he seek revenge by taking out the man who killed his teammate. As you may see, this keeps the concept of the wipeout games, but delivers a film with aspects of films such as top gun, fast and the furious and many others - and would feature anti grav racing, now that can't be bad.
Perfect Dark:
A real Rival for Lara Croft:Tomb raider, not only does Joanna Dark have the moves and the looks, she also has gadgets to make james bond look like a kid in a joke shop, and enough firepower to make an arnie film look pee wee's big adventure . Think Mission Impossible 2 meets The X Files and you have one big sci fi spy movie that would make Angelina Jolie pout(as if she ever stops).
Metal Gear:
Solid Snake was obviously inspired by Escape from New Yorks Snake Plisskin, so any metal gear movie would obviously have many of the escape from new york elements. Snake is drafted in by the government to stop a psychopathic criminal dictator from unleashing his weapon on the world. Snake goes in, he sneaks, he shoots, and he smokes his way around uncovering the truth about his governments involvement in the whole plot, and how he was sent in as a cover up. So now snake has 24 hours not only to stop a madman, but to avoid the assassins his own country have secretly sent after him, and to expose the whole conspiracy to the world. A Cardboard box cameo would be essential.
Castlevania:
Vampires. Vampire hunters. Big mansion. Action. Enough said.
Quake/Doom:
A no brainer really, this would most certainly make a big, loud, action film. With big guns, bigger monsters and snappy one liners. The games loose premises would leave the film open to create a story of its own. Basically, a group of space marines are mysteriously crash on an unexplored planet, you follow one of these marines, as he awakes to find most of his colleagues dead, and him stranded on a hell planet surrounded by blood thirsty monsters. So you just follow his attempts to find any survivors, and escape the planet whilst trying to work out why they crashed on the planet in the first place (lets just say it wasn't an accident). A Doom film was rumoured years ago with Arnie, and Im willing to bet It would have followed this basic premise. Still, the potential for big set pieces, and violence galore would at least make this an interesting idea to develop.
Soul Caliber:
Anyone who's played the games will realise that the games revolve around the soul edge, a demonic force that occupies the holder of the soul edge sword. So you would basically start with a flashback scene, describing how the sword came into being (anything from it falling from the sky, to a demon being trapped in the sword by a warlord will do), you are then told of how the blades handler was killed and the sword lost for centuries. A pirate by the name of Cervantes was rumoured to have taken possession of the blade, but he was killed, and now the location of the blade is unknown...end of flashback. [In a japanese village] the demon seed rains from the sky, one such piece hits a young man, kilik, who then slaughters his family and everyone else in the village, upon realising what he did he breaks down in tears. [In a Canyon] A japanes warrior Mitsurugi is walking through a canyon when he realises someone is stalking him, he walks on and when the assalient jumps out the two fight, Mitsurugi prevails holding his sword against the throat of his attacker, a barbarian called Rock. Mitsurugi lets rock live in return for for him helping him on his quest, to regain the soul edge for his master who prophecised that the blade was to appear soon after the demon seed rained. The two continue on Mitsurugi's quest to Europe, on the way Mitsurugi finds out about why Rock jumped him (Rocks son/wife was kidnapped by a man travelling alone with a sword, and he mistook Mitsurugi for that man). Upon arriving in Europe they realise that they are not the only ones looking for the blade, and are introduced to the others. Action persues as everyone heads to Germany, where sightings of the blade have appeared. Along the way they face challenges from various thieves, beasts and monsters (including lizardmen?). Upon arriving in Germany, a huge battle for the blade takes place, and action ensues. The major problem with a soul blade film would be choosing which characters to concentrate on and which to renegate to the background, still if done correctly, it could be very good (and sword and sorcery action films appear to be popular again thanks to lord of the rings).
Turok:
Imagine if conan the Barbarian had aliens with laser guns crash land on his planet. You now have Turok: The movie.
Crazy Taxi:
Just a stupid idea really, but playing the games the idea of a stoners taxi company comes to mind, possibly needing to raise enough money to keep the firm open in a certain ammount of time, hence the high speed racing to locations, and almost reckless driving. Throw in some high speed police chases, some comedy sections, and possibly an in film television station following the exploits of these crazy taxi's (the voice over could even feature the games catchphrases "He just made one, craaazyy jump!"), and you have one lightweight, but enjoyable sounding film to me. You could also add a rival taxi firm trying to put them out of business and you have one craaazy film.
If you have any other ideas add them to this thread.
The problem most of the films seem to stumble across is that they base it too closely on the game, a loose interpretation would be much better. 'The Fast And The Furious' was based on an article in a magazine called 'Racer X' that talked about illegal street racing, with powered up consumer cars, it featured nothing about any illegal activities other than the actual street racing (and the people the article focussed on had become professional drivers). But the film featured an undercover cop, a forbidden romance and high speed hijackings - these were not in the article, but they didn't have to be - the film was inspired by the article, it didn't take every single word as the gospel. It was loosely based on the idea. Taking my cue from this idea, here are some loose interpretations of games that can be made into films:
Wipeout:
The premise of high speed anti gravity racing could provide an adrenaline boost more extreme than ever the fast and the furious' street race sequences, and around these scenes you can build quite a good story. eg. How about a young rookie who although very talented clashes with the owners of his team who want him to focus more on the rating grabbing violence that they are trying to introduce to the sport. Tension mounts between our main protangonist and his team mate/rival who has no problem with taking shortcuts to gain victory. In racing each other the two team mates learn to respect each other, but once their peace is settled our protagonists team mate is killed in a race by a rival teams main star. This brings us to the final race of the season, where both the title and retribution is up for grabs - will the young rookie play it straight, keep his beliefs and race to win, or will he seek revenge by taking out the man who killed his teammate. As you may see, this keeps the concept of the wipeout games, but delivers a film with aspects of films such as top gun, fast and the furious and many others - and would feature anti grav racing, now that can't be bad.
Perfect Dark:
A real Rival for Lara Croft:Tomb raider, not only does Joanna Dark have the moves and the looks, she also has gadgets to make james bond look like a kid in a joke shop, and enough firepower to make an arnie film look pee wee's big adventure . Think Mission Impossible 2 meets The X Files and you have one big sci fi spy movie that would make Angelina Jolie pout(as if she ever stops).
Metal Gear:
Solid Snake was obviously inspired by Escape from New Yorks Snake Plisskin, so any metal gear movie would obviously have many of the escape from new york elements. Snake is drafted in by the government to stop a psychopathic criminal dictator from unleashing his weapon on the world. Snake goes in, he sneaks, he shoots, and he smokes his way around uncovering the truth about his governments involvement in the whole plot, and how he was sent in as a cover up. So now snake has 24 hours not only to stop a madman, but to avoid the assassins his own country have secretly sent after him, and to expose the whole conspiracy to the world. A Cardboard box cameo would be essential.
Castlevania:
Vampires. Vampire hunters. Big mansion. Action. Enough said.
Quake/Doom:
A no brainer really, this would most certainly make a big, loud, action film. With big guns, bigger monsters and snappy one liners. The games loose premises would leave the film open to create a story of its own. Basically, a group of space marines are mysteriously crash on an unexplored planet, you follow one of these marines, as he awakes to find most of his colleagues dead, and him stranded on a hell planet surrounded by blood thirsty monsters. So you just follow his attempts to find any survivors, and escape the planet whilst trying to work out why they crashed on the planet in the first place (lets just say it wasn't an accident). A Doom film was rumoured years ago with Arnie, and Im willing to bet It would have followed this basic premise. Still, the potential for big set pieces, and violence galore would at least make this an interesting idea to develop.
Soul Caliber:
Anyone who's played the games will realise that the games revolve around the soul edge, a demonic force that occupies the holder of the soul edge sword. So you would basically start with a flashback scene, describing how the sword came into being (anything from it falling from the sky, to a demon being trapped in the sword by a warlord will do), you are then told of how the blades handler was killed and the sword lost for centuries. A pirate by the name of Cervantes was rumoured to have taken possession of the blade, but he was killed, and now the location of the blade is unknown...end of flashback. [In a japanese village] the demon seed rains from the sky, one such piece hits a young man, kilik, who then slaughters his family and everyone else in the village, upon realising what he did he breaks down in tears. [In a Canyon] A japanes warrior Mitsurugi is walking through a canyon when he realises someone is stalking him, he walks on and when the assalient jumps out the two fight, Mitsurugi prevails holding his sword against the throat of his attacker, a barbarian called Rock. Mitsurugi lets rock live in return for for him helping him on his quest, to regain the soul edge for his master who prophecised that the blade was to appear soon after the demon seed rained. The two continue on Mitsurugi's quest to Europe, on the way Mitsurugi finds out about why Rock jumped him (Rocks son/wife was kidnapped by a man travelling alone with a sword, and he mistook Mitsurugi for that man). Upon arriving in Europe they realise that they are not the only ones looking for the blade, and are introduced to the others. Action persues as everyone heads to Germany, where sightings of the blade have appeared. Along the way they face challenges from various thieves, beasts and monsters (including lizardmen?). Upon arriving in Germany, a huge battle for the blade takes place, and action ensues. The major problem with a soul blade film would be choosing which characters to concentrate on and which to renegate to the background, still if done correctly, it could be very good (and sword and sorcery action films appear to be popular again thanks to lord of the rings).
Turok:
Imagine if conan the Barbarian had aliens with laser guns crash land on his planet. You now have Turok: The movie.
Crazy Taxi:
Just a stupid idea really, but playing the games the idea of a stoners taxi company comes to mind, possibly needing to raise enough money to keep the firm open in a certain ammount of time, hence the high speed racing to locations, and almost reckless driving. Throw in some high speed police chases, some comedy sections, and possibly an in film television station following the exploits of these crazy taxi's (the voice over could even feature the games catchphrases "He just made one, craaazyy jump!"), and you have one lightweight, but enjoyable sounding film to me. You could also add a rival taxi firm trying to put them out of business and you have one craaazy film.
If you have any other ideas add them to this thread.