Since gaming has finally garnered its rightful place as another staple in pop culture, many writers have dipped into the plethora of amazing video game stories in hopes of making the next big franchise, some have been….pretty decent to say the least. Others, however, have been so bad that a majority of gamers just refuse to acknowledge their existence.
*cough cough* Super Mario Bros. *cough*
There are some that have yet to be fully tackled by any production company.
With that being said, here are some of the game to movie adaptations that I believe should happen.
Before I start of with this list, The Last of Us is not going to be included. That property is already in its early stages of development into becoming movie. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead movies) is set to produce the film adaptation, and Neil Druckmann (creator of The Last of Us) will be writing the screenplay, along with casting and choosing a director
It’s been praised time and time again for being one of the greatest games in recent years. Personally, I found the game to be pretty boring to play, but there’s no doubt that this game left a big impact on the gaming community, so of course this would be the game movie producers try to get their hands on.
Anyways, to start of this list is:
Bioshock
The dark and hopeless atmosphere along with the steampunk aesthetic of this game would make a perfect setting for any director who wants to comment on today’s america while still scaring the pants off of anyone who sees it.
I’m not going to spoil anything just in case some of you have yet to play this wonderful game (c’mon, it’s been 7 years, go buy it and play it), but to say the least, the character development of the already interesting characters you meet in this game leave no room for boredom, and the metaphors scattered throughout will give any movie going novice something to hold their attention towards.
There’s no doubt that any director and writer who’s seasoned in the making of a good horror movie would do this game to movie adaptation justice, but the aesthetics would definitely be a challenge to get right and satiate the fans of the game series.
About a year and a half ago when this game was in the works of being developed into a movie, tensions were rising between the director and the production company about the budget and rating of the movie, so it was eventually canned.
However, recently more rumors have been popping up in regards to bringing this movie back and possibly getting back into production. Nothing solid has been released, so all we can do at the moment is sit an wait.
Dead Space
This game already owes a lot of it’s inspiration to John Carpenter and his film 1982 film The Thing, along with some added inspiration from Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien, so there’s no doubt that a movie adaptations of this game would find it’s rightful place among the two aforementioned horror movie staples… With the right director, writer, producers, and cast of course.
Personally, I think John Carpenter would be able to seamlessly adapt this movie and scare the bejesus out of everyone who sees it. After all, he is essentially the father of the cringe-worthy and gut-wrenching necromorphs you face in the game.
Sadly, seeing that John Carpenter isn’t really showing any motivation to make anymore movies, I would give the runner-up position to Fede Alvarez. The practical effect he used to make his rendition of Evil Dead so bloody beautiful will definitely aid in making the Dead Space movie as disturbing to look at as the game was to play.
Fallout 3
This game to movie adaptation would be much better suited if created as more a spinoff of the games. Of course, retaining the atmosphere of the game would make a great post-apocalyptic, western, noir, action movie with comedic and satirical undertones (man, that was a mouthful).
Given that setting of the game would make for a fun play field of ideas for writers and the creation of a new character would bring something fresh to the franchise, this movie, if handled correctly, would make a very fun and over-the-top action movie for the summer.
In addition, with the very anticipated Fallout 4 coming in late 2016, a movie would be a nice way to bring attention back to the franchise and maybe add some small introduction to what fans are going to be experiencing with the new installment.
Earthbound
Admittedly, I have not played this game. However, I do have a friend who talks of this game with the same love and intensity as I have when I talk about The Legend of Zelda, so there must be something there.
From what I’ve read this story revolves around a child named Ness. After investigating the crash site of a meteor, Ness discovers an alien creature who starts making things go haywire. Ness is then tasked to find a way to defeat this alien and all his creations in order to save the world. With the help of 3 other children, Paula, Jeff, and Poo, they set off to find melodies to put into the Sound Stone.
As I said before, I have not played this game before, but this sound like the type of sci-fi epic that has the chance of becoming a possible franchise spanning 3 or so movies.
One company comes to mind when reading the synopsis of this game. Disney. We all know that Disney is a big fan of milking things until everyone grows to hate it, but you cannot deny that Disney can make some really good blockbuster movies.
Now obviously this game does cater to a very specific audience, but the child-like atmosphere and look to this game can be utilized in making its movie adaptation into a family friendly movie.
Also the concepts behind the 3 other main characters of this game aren’t that strongly tied to their race, so it will be nice to see if this movie is produced with a ethnically diverse group of kids.
This last entry isn’t necessarily a game as it is a side mission to a game:
Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies
The developers over at Treyarch probably didn’t envision their little side mission of killing zombies in order to have senseless fun would catch on when they created Call of Duty: World at War, but when it did, they gave fans another chance to rain metal bullets on zombies in their next game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Only this time, they had a story behind the senseless killing.
Man, was it a good one. At the surface, it’s the story of four people from four different countries involved in WWII (US, Russia, Japan, and Germany) killing zombies that arose from Nazi experimenting gone wrong. Once you get into the game and take your time to play around with the many missions you end up unwrapping a very twisted and epic story involving deeply rooted conspiracies, children experimentation, time travel, and so many twist and turns in the story that you forgot that what you’re playing is only a mere side quest to another game.
Of course the movie wouldn’t succeed if approached as a standard horror movie with Nazi zombies. What made this game so entertaining was the chemistry between the four characters. Being of different nationalities each character brings their own unique sense of humor into the game. Nikolai the drunk, womanizing Russian, Dempsy the smug American who sticks to his gun to prove his masculinity, Takeo the Japanese soldier with the heart of warrior and pride of a king, and Richtofen the possibly homosexual, derrnanged Nazi scientist who enjoys the spilling of blood and ripping of flesh.
It even spawned additional DLC that included playable characters like: Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), John F. Kennedy, Nixon, and although not playable you fought against the godfather of zombies himself, George Romero, as this sentient, electric power wielding monster.
When you weren’t busy solving the story, these characters shared some very funny back and forth banter that I feel should be a main focus in making this movie into the successful, action packed, comedy blockbuster it deserves to be.
I’m not a Call of Duty fanboy in anyway. Mountain Dew is good, but it’s not my prefered soft drink. I was just so pleasantly surprised when I bought this game and started playing the the zombies option with no other expectations than to be tasked with killing zombies.