Planescape: Torment, Wasteland, any of the two Fallouts.. System Shock, Syndicate.. Heh, Populous II

Games can be made into movies and TV-serieses, they're quite successful with that in Japan (Well, they managed to capture the atmosphere of the games at least.. Even if the original games were a bit stupid .
But since the rest of the world seems to think that a movie must be live action with multi-million dollar budget, it becomes very hard. Especially since they always use all the money in the special effects instead of the plot..

Oh well. The one who makes is not the stupid one, but the one who pays..

It's mine - mine alone

It's true that most game-based movies made so far, have been about games with literally no plot and only paper-thin characters in the first place. However, I don't think that's necessarily an excuse for making a bad movie. On the contrary, in the hands of competent writers and directors this could even be an advantage, as they would have the freedom to develop the characters and stories in a way that suited the medium of film, instead of being constricted by the viewers pre-conceptions.

Another category of game-based movies is movies based on games that were in turn based on movies. Not necessarily on a particular movie, but on a film genre. For instance, Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. In this case, what the games usually do is to scavenge the movies' most sucessfull, tried and true set-pieces and clichés, reduce them to their essence and then make them (hopefully) interesting again by adding the element of interactivity. The problem is, when you revert the concept back to movie form, all you get is your old movie clichés in their unadultered form, which makes for movies as juicy and tasty as Christmas turkey leftovers on New Year's eve. (I really gotta stop using these food metaphors ).

I'm afraid Monkey Island, as adapted by a Hollywood studio, would quickly fall into this category. The only way I could see it work, would be as a small, independent production made just for the hell of it, and with complete disregard for the conventions of film-making (a sort of early Monty Python). Come to think of it, Mr. Creosote, if you manage to round up a couple hundred thousand dollars, you might just be in business. Call me if you need an assistant director .

1. That is exactly what I tried to express in my earlier post:If someone else than me would be responsible for it, it'd of course be bad

Edited by Mr Creosote at 18:26 on December, 13th 2002

1. Monkey Island: Actually, I can see it as a movie, but have absolutely no idea who'd be hired to play the main roles. Sorry, but there isn't a good enough person around. (And I'm afraid that if there ever will be such a movie, they'll hire DiCaprio or somebody like him to play Guybrush).

2. Grand Theft Auto - I must admit I've never played a single GTA game, and for some reason it doesn't attract me at all. I play lots of new games, and most of the time end up disappointed, but I'm not interested in GTA at all, which I consider strange.

Erm.... the computer game Driver is based on a movie of the same name, starring Ryan O'Neal and Bruce Dern. See here.

GTA would be like this car theft movie with Angelina Jolie and Nicolas Cage. And Projectyle.... that's basically just Rollerball.

First of all, where did I restrict myself to PC-games? I am aware that most Adventure games live from the 'wrong' pathes, but if you take Monkey Island, it also has a top quality 'right' storyline!

Another game which would work well is Star Control. In fact, I'm pretty sure the beginning of Star Control 2 would be the perfect 'Episode 4'

RPG's wopuld make the best movies something like silver would be good.

Monster rancher would make a good film outback cowboy type raises monsters for the big competition, that would be great.

Lord of the rings was a top film, true they left alot out and the books arew waaaayyy better, where was Tom Bombadill , but the Two Towers was my fav book and I have tickets to see it opening day

I had one more point oh right, Driver would make a good movie with the same people you had cast for GTA.

I think your being to harsh there... I personally liked LotR very much... there were some minor points I disliked but in the whole it was a job well done (yes, I know, I'm just another Tolkien-fan, sue me )

But to stay on topic, I don't think pc-games are a basis for a good movie... You couldn't translate MI to the big screen cause you can hardly show a flick where guybrush walks around trying everything and then giving his amusing comments... it wouldn't be interesting to watch 2 hours in a row without doing anything yourself... But that is what made the game so much fun...

Edited by Pada1 at 06:21 on December, 13th 2002

A Monkey Island movie wouldn't be a bad idea, I think the jokes would translate quite well to the big screen, although Stan could become the next Jar-Jar if they overdid it; The scenario from the Fate of Atlantis could also easily be that of the next Indiana Jones movie if you ask me... But the more 'serious' adventures and RPGs would probably be movies I'd rather not see, or even hear of, at all, like the Lord Of The Rings...
As for more recent games, how about a 'Grand Theft Auto' movie by Quentin Tarantino starring all his favourite actors as drivers/robbers, and of course the likes of Robert de Niro and Marlon Brando as the mafia bosses? I'm sure he'd manage to sneak a storyline in there, connecting all the missions with flashbacks and such... They could even make a sequel 'GTA London 1969' by Guy Ritchie...

Hey, how about Projectyle? I mean, you could have a side story about love, an evil league CEO, and a moral story about team work. All the action sequences you could show them playing the game or something. Hell, I'd love to see giant metal slugs riding hoverdiscs in a movie.

Tuss

Dizzy: that is exactly the question I've bothered with for a long time: why do they make a movie out of something without any characters or story like Street Fighter? Mortal Kombat, too. It's incredibly stupid and all it achieves is feed the prejudice about computer games!

I can imagine a live-action Monkey Island very well in fact. Nothing can be translated 1:1 from one medium to the other of course. But especially Lucasfilm/Lucas Arts games have always been very 'cineastic' to start with! Monkey Island, made in the style of the old pirate movies with some guy who tries so much to look like Erol Flynn in the lead - it could work: imagine the training for the swordfighting at 'The Machine', imagine Guybrush stumbling through the woods treasure hunting only to find a huge X on the ground - but all presented in this very serious, uptight way.

Or take Maniac Mansion. It is basically a spoof of the horror genre and also sitcoms. The story is a bit thin, there would have to be more episodes of the protagonists to fill an entire movie. But why not?

Zak Mc Kracken - alien invasion movies as well as 'archeology horror' (you know, the stuff with the pyramids).

On the 'serious' side, all the mystery Adventures of Infocom would translate well to the screen if you ask me. That would be more of a series of non-related episodes than whole movies though.


Of course I see the problems arising. These movies would never be as good as the games, die-hard fans would hate them etc. But isn't that the same with films based on novels, comics or whatever? They're still made while the medium 'computer' is still widely ignored (apart from the working slave job of course). Why?

On a sidenote, I would of course hate to see any of these movies made now because all these games are so old they'd 'have to be modernized' (i.e. destroyed)

I say make a movie based on a popular coin-op fighting game. They could cast Jean-Claude Van Damme as the all-american hero. That'd be perfect! Also, how cool would it be if they could get a lesser known yet respected actor to dress up in a stupid costume and play the bad guy, and then that actor would die a few months later and that would turn out to be the last part he ever played? What's more, they wouldn't even have to bother with a script. I mean, most of it is just fighting (that's what the game is all about, right?) and for the rest they could just make up some stuff. Wouldn't it be great?

What's that you say? It's already been done? Well, I'll be... I that case, I guess the answer to your question would be: none, thank you very much.

Okay, joking aside, I know that it's technically possible (and even easy) to convert adventures into movies. However, quite honestly, I can't imagine a live-action Monkey Island or Space Quest. Maybe (only a very small "maybe") Gabriel Knight would be a decent movie, depending how sexy Grace would be, but I don't think that a movie could have the same level of humor, suspense and atmosphere than any good adventure game.

Er... no.

They did thanslate them into non-interactive movies. It's called "console games"

And if that is so, why not translate them into 'non-interactive' movies?

Tomb Raider with the nude patch. I can think of many people I'd like to see in the main role

But seriously: I would not want to see a movie based on a computer game anymore. Let's face it: if you make a movie out of a FPS game, you've got another Commando. A team-based strategy, and you have another Aliens or Delta Force. Adventures are movies by themselves, starring the player in the main role. Role-playing games would turn into a cheesy CGI movie, and simulations are not interesting enough to draw me to a movie theater. Strategy games - no idea how you'd make a Civilizaiton or Master of Orion movie. Let's keep games and movies nicely separated...

And whom would you cast if you had the choice?