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Editor’s Note: Shudder. Just the thought of movies based on games makes me cringe, but Jon does a good job of convincing me of a game that just might be able to pull it off. See if you agree…or perhaps have a better suggestion. -Greg
Recently I saw a Digg post about something I’d been considering lately. Every time a game sells successfully, you hear rumors of a movie being based off of it. Obviously, this is usually greeted with Uwe Boll jokes and — more often than not — moans and groans from gamers.
The problems with games being ported to movies are obvious: You watch movies; you play games. Your interaction with the main characters is completely different in games. You are the main character. You make his choices, you adjust his stats, you cause him to live or die. In movies, you’re just along for the ride.
Games also sell well because they are fun to play. Games can have completely lame (or even nonexistent) stories and still be popular and fun.
What a truly successful game-turned-movie needs to do is separate the parts that would be good for a movie from the parts that made the game successful. If they really ever wanted Doom to be good, the idea of a “first-person” view should have been nixed completely. House of the Dead never should have happened.
The game that I think would make for an excellent transition into a movie is — bear with me here — Assassin’s Creed.
Note: If you don’t want parts of the story for Assassin’s Creed ruined for you, just stop here, and concede that this is a fantastic idea.
Yes, a movie about Altair jumping through markets, collecting flags, and leaping from “scenic views” would be atrocious, so let’s cut those parts out right now.
Instead, take the behind-the-scenes story about the Knights Templar collecting legendary artifacts — such as the Ark of the Covanent and the Holy Grail — and using them to create illusions like parting of the Red Sea in order to shape the world into the one they desire. There is ample room to tell stories of races for the artifacts, corruption of “good” characters (not unlike Al Mualim in the game), and blow people’s minds by wondering if everything they’ve ever based their religion on is entirely made up. You could even work in some of the Animus stuff if it’s done in very small amounts, but only if you’re going to make multiple movies out of it.
Would it be a Best Picture winner? Probably not. But in the hands of the right team of talent, it wouldn’t take much to break into the top 10 best grossing videogame based movies. Even a lame movie like Land of the Lost has already earned more than the movies in the 8th, 9th, and 10th spots.
What do you think? What games would make good movies?