56 Video Game Movies Are Currently In Development

Megalith

Megalith

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Fifty. Six. Now that is funny. I am not going to count them all to ascertain the headline’s authenticity, but I do see a very long list of movies that are probably destined to fail based on prior efforts such as Mario Bros. and Assassin’s Creed. I guess Hollywood would rather take financial losses than come up with something more original. Actually, making flicks based on existing properties is a sensible idea, as they already have an established group of fans—it’s just that they always manage to hire screenwriters who couldn’t care less about the source material.

Out of the hundreds of thousands of films in the world currently in development, a large number of them serve as adaptations for (mostly) successful video games and video game franchises. Some have been seen on our screens before either via a previous adaptation or television series, while some are just getting their first shot on the big screen. Whichever category they fall into, they still have to navigate their way through the difficult world of filmmaking, with many of them inevitably forever damned to development hell.
 
Misleading title is misleading. The article also lists movies that are already in development hell.
 
some of them i could see being good, some just look like movie companies snatching up rights to things so no one else can have them, as long as they claim they are in production they can continue to hold those rights. but i'd definitely like to see borderlands done as a tv series through either netflix or amazon though, trying to fit that game into a movie seems a bit hard given all the different regions within the game.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
some of them i could see being good, some just look like movie companies snatching up rights to things so no one else can have them, as long as they claim they are in production they can continue to hold those rights. but i'd definitely like to see borderlands done as a tv series through either netflix or amazon though, trying to fit that game into a movie seems a bit hard given all the different regions within the game.
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And if they do, please god, aim it at the same audience as the game... dont bastandized by making it a kid movie or such.. that universe has the variety and humor to really make a solid tv show.
 
I can't believe people are still raving about borderlands, it was a shitty game when it came out it is a shitty game now, and the sequel was even shittier.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
some of them i could see being good, some just look like movie companies snatching up rights to things so no one else can have them, as long as they claim they are in production they can continue to hold those rights. but i'd definitely like to see borderlands done as a tv series through either netflix or amazon though, trying to fit that game into a movie seems a bit hard given all the different regions within the game.
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it would have to just be a move within the world and not trying to recreate anything from the known story line. I could see something smaller being made into a multi movie story line.
 
Pretty sure Assassins Creed is at worst going to break even. It's worldwide haul is 200+ million and it's budget was 125 million. One day, they're going to figure out how to take these ideas and make compelling movies, but that day is not today.
 
I would actually love to see a movie based on XIII, the Ubisoft game. Yes, I know there's source material that the game itself is based on... Through a Scanner Darkly was awesome, so I'd love to see someone make a quality film, rotoscope it, and find creative ways to use the quirky words-with-sound-effects idea that made the atmosphere of XIII so memorable to me.
 
nilepez said:
Pretty sure Assassins Creed is at worst going to break even. It's worldwide haul is 200+ million and it's budget was 125 million. One day, they're going to figure out how to take these ideas and make compelling movies, but that day is not today.
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It wasn't that bad of a film if you went into it expecting a Hollywood spin on a video game movie.

That's the kicker, die-hard game fans want the movie version of their game. But that version tends to only appeal to the fans of the original content (the game) in a lot of instances. Certain modifications are necessary to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. Many game storylines just won't translate to the big screen as written.

AssCreed did a halfway decent job of bridging the gap. On the flip side of the coin, the Resident Evil franchise was basically in name and (some) characters only. Certain games have strong enough storylines that they can cross over to the movie genre relatively intact, I think RE was one of them. Yet Paul W.S. "I'm here to just film my wife" Anderson offered a bastardized version of that franchise.
 
Spidey329 said:
AssCreed did a halfway decent job of bridging the gap. On the flip side of the coin, the Resident Evil franchise was basically in name and (some) characters only. Certain games have strong enough storylines that they can cross over to the movie genre relatively intact, I think RE was one of them. Yet Paul W.S. "I'm here to just film my wife" Anderson offered a bastardized version of that franchise.
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And he filmed his wife. Indeed he did. It was most good. Indeed.
 
ChefJeff789 said:
I would actually love to see a movie based on XIII, the Ubisoft game. Yes, I know there's source material that the game itself is based on... Through a Scanner Darkly was awesome, so I'd love to see someone make a quality film, rotoscope it, and find creative ways to use the quirky words-with-sound-effects idea that made the atmosphere of XIII so memorable to me.
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I have not played that game so can't comment on that but there was a made for TV movie that was 2 parts long and a few years later a TV series. XIII was played by Stuart Townsend in the series and Stephen Dorff in the TV Movie. Movie gave XIII a different name, series has the same name as the game from what I can see looking it up.

I recall having watched the movie and series back when it was on. It wasn't till later that I learned it was a game. Even here when you brought it up it was the movie and series that I thought of and had already forgot it was a game.
 
Spidey329 said:
It wasn't that bad of a film if you went into it expecting a Hollywood spin on a video game movie.

That's the kicker, die-hard game fans want the movie version of their game. But that version tends to only appeal to the fans of the original content (the game) in a lot of instances. Certain modifications are necessary to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. Many game storylines just won't translate to the big screen as written.

AssCreed did a halfway decent job of bridging the gap. On the flip side of the coin, the Resident Evil franchise was basically in name and (some) characters only. Certain games have strong enough storylines that they can cross over to the movie genre relatively intact, I think RE was one of them. Yet Paul W.S. "I'm here to just film my wife" Anderson offered a bastardized version of that franchise.
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The largest issue is time. Metal Gear Solid games from what I hear (never played any) normally have around 4-5 hours of cut scenes and MGS5 finally broke that with less than 4 hours. MGS4 has the record for the longest cut scene which is over 70 minutes long. If the game needs 4 - 5 hours of cut scenes to explain what is going on there is no way a movie can do it justice. Quantum Break was very similar. you have four 45 minute "tv show" episodes between acts to show fill in background of what was going on. With current blockbusters being around 2 - 2.5 hours you are a little closer to something that would work. However more than likely you will need to go with a huge payoff and have something more like that Hobbit where a single story is broken up into 3 or 4 movies and then hope that people are willing to stay with you for years and see each part to get the full story knowing there will not be any closure at the end of the first movie.

Honestly I have no idea why people gave RE the pass that they did. Personally I think the movies are good and own them all, but like you said it is one of the few series able to make the jump and not be perfect. From what I could recall from the Silent Hill game I had thought that the movie did ok with the story. Some stuff was changed around some but it did a good job making the story into a movie I thought and yet that was hated by everyone for anything that wasn't exactly like the game. So no idea what makes some people decide to give some movies a pass and others to tear to shreds.
 
Really the only game I see being able to hit movies is Rainbow Six. But more than likely, it should be based off the book. That's written like a movie. The rest, it's usually someone who doesn't know anything about the game, re-writing the story to fit into a movie, and doing a piss poor job of it. Some are better to be written into like a 12 episode series. Others, I can see being possible to make into movies as the story isn't really all that long. Like Dragon Age has a short story, it's just a long game cause of side quests.
 
Spidey329 said:
It wasn't that bad of a film if you went into it expecting a Hollywood spin on a video game movie.

That's the kicker, die-hard game fans want the movie version of their game. But that version tends to only appeal to the fans of the original content (the game) in a lot of instances. Certain modifications are necessary to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. Many game storylines just won't translate to the big screen as written.

AssCreed did a halfway decent job of bridging the gap. On the flip side of the coin, the Resident Evil franchise was basically in name and (some) characters only. Certain games have strong enough storylines that they can cross over to the movie genre relatively intact, I think RE was one of them. Yet Paul W.S. "I'm here to just film my wife" Anderson offered a bastardized version of that franchise.
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Take AC:Unity. Remove the modern day portion of the game and the story is practically The Count of Monte Cristo. I think it is possible to make a good movie out of some games, but they need to break away from trying to make them action movies.
 
M76 said:
I can't believe people are still raving about borderlands, it was a shitty game when it came out it is a shitty game now, and the sequel was even shittier.
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i mostly played online co-op so i had a ton of fun playing the game. i didn't care for borderlands 2 though, really didn't feel like starting over. i think i got out of the starting area and got bored with the game.


Spidey329 said:
It wasn't that bad of a film if you went into it expecting a Hollywood spin on a video game movie.

That's the kicker, die-hard game fans want the movie version of their game. But that version tends to only appeal to the fans of the original content (the game) in a lot of instances. Certain modifications are necessary to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. Many game storylines just won't translate to the big screen as written.

AssCreed did a halfway decent job of bridging the gap. On the flip side of the coin, the Resident Evil franchise was basically in name and (some) characters only. Certain games have strong enough storylines that they can cross over to the movie genre relatively intact, I think RE was one of them. Yet Paul W.S. "I'm here to just film my wife" Anderson offered a bastardized version of that franchise.
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yeah i know absolutely nothing about the assassin creed games and story so i actually enjoyed the movie. same with the RE movies.. i don't enjoy playing single player story line games but to each their own. though i will say watching the animated series for RE that's been done along with the live action movies are quite good.
 
I hope the warcraft2 movie does fine. Otherwise we'll never get a Starcraft movie
 
If they do it right, the ones I think have great potential are
  • Bioshock
  • Farcry
  • Half-Life
  • Mass Effect
  • Warcraft 2
  • The Witcher
 
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The Elder Scrolls and Fallout universes would probably work well as TV shows. Diablo universe could easily make a lot of money as a horror movie franchise. I have no interest in modern horror movies, but make it out of those games and I'm there.
 
Anyone remember the maniac mansion tv series? Just me huh? hmm
 
How did they do it?

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M76 said:
I can't believe people are still raving about borderlands, it was a shitty game when it came out it is a shitty game now, and the sequel was even shittier.
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Just sounds like not your cup of tea. You dont have to like a game to understand its a solid game underneath.
 
Zohar78 said:
Just sounds like not your cup of tea. You dont have to like a game to understand its a solid game underneath.
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Yeah, as far as bullet sponge enemies are not my cup of tea, cartoon graphics are not my cup of tea, annoying characters are not my cup of tea, linear corridor maps are not my cup of tea.
But in reality there is no objective measure to tell if a game is good or not. If I don't like it at all, then it's a shitty game to me. If I like it then it's not a shitty game. Borderlands happens to be on the wrong side of the fence to me, and quite far from the fence at that.

So I do think you have to like a game to consider it a good game.
 
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