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Video Games Adaptations Part 4 – Whats Coming Next
Nearly all of the videogame adaptations that we have covered so far have ranged from the bad, to the average, and unfortunately that is about as far as it gets. All of the adaptations that I feel have worked on some level are the ones that were well pitched, in tone and style, you have Silent Hill which hit the right kind of notes as far as creepiness and style, just the story itself was winding and confusing. Doom pretty much did to a tee what you thought it should, including a nice little homage to the game, with the FPS style scene at the end. DOA had its tongue firmly in its cheek, just as the game does, it knew it and didn’t try too hard to be anything too serious.
All the failisures shared common traits too, they didn’t really know what they were. Sporting half baked comedy moments in films which really should be somewhat serious, bad storylines and dodgy looking sets and extras. But we cant dwell on that too long so enough of the past, lets look at what’s coming up next? Surprisingly the adaptation market is definitely hitting a new gear here are some of the upcoming proposed videogame to movie adaptations.
Far Cry – The legendary pc FPS game which could make an okay movie in my opinion, however you should note it is being handled by Uwe Boll. Caution is advised.
Max Payne – One of my favourite adult and already rather cinematic film noir type style action games. Well this one is definitely hitting the theatres, headed up by Mark Whalberg in the role of Max Payne.
Street Fighter – This one we have already covered here at Movies Illustrated, but this time round the story follows Chun Li played by Smallville’s Kristen Kreuk. Here hoping its better than the original, lets be honest it can’t be worse. Admittedly they have a pretty solid crew and director involved who could make this a visually interesting movie with a good amount of flair and style.
Silent Hill 2 – While I’m not a massive fan of the game, the original movie had bags of style and the acting was okay, so ill probably give this a rental if nothing else.
Spy hunter – This is an old license, and I’m surprised its getting made, maybe they bought it a while ago and held onto it. At least from the studio’s point of view its not a completely new movie to promote. Dwayne the Rock Johnson is taking the role in this one.
Prince of Persia – Another upcoming film we have already covered at Movies Illustrated. This one could be classy and stylish just like the games. The game themselves already have a lot of atmosphere and a sense of a grand scale so as far as converting this to film it could be a somewhat easy job on the writers who should have a fair amount of freedom. The actual gameplay from prince of Persia will lend itself pretty nicely to some seriously stylish movement and stunts which could look great on film, think free running and rooftop chases.
Apart from the movies mentioned above there is a big list of rumored movies that are yet to be confirmed but you can be pretty sure they will be made. Some of the rumoured but almost certain ones include Halo, Doom II, Tomb Raider 3, God of War, Cold Fear, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania and Tekken. The questions is how many of these do you think will make good movies?
So good or bad video game adaptations are here to stay, lets hope that they do manage to move past the early teething stage they appear to be going through and mature in the way that the comic book licenses now have.