How would you make a video game into a movie?

[Arhra]

Originally Posted by NonCon

It's no secret that Hollywood fails to make awesome video games. If you were in charge of turning a video game into a movie, what game would you pick and how would you do it?

Mario, Kirby, Earthbound, or Mother 3: The only way any of these could be turned into movies is if they were cutesy CG movies by Pixar. It would be wonderful.

Metroid: Like Aliens, but with Samus!

Hmm, I could see a CG movie, although if they did something like play up Mario's accent, I could see it getting grating real fast.

Metroid though, I don't think would work at all. If you want to get anywhere close to what the games are like, you'd have lengthy stretches of a person travelling around on her own, wearing a suit that hides most of her expressions.

[Mirai Gen]

Picking good source material would be a good start. I mean lets be honest there are not very many ways you can make a Zelda movie, because taking Link out of the one-man Hero of (noun) role and including more characters doesn't work, and it wouldn't work for Gordon Freeman, or Faith, or the Vault Dweller/Chosen One/101, or whatever. You need costars for it to work, and many games focus entirely about isolation.

Whereas if they were going to make a movie out of, let's say, Star Wars: Republic Commando, I'd be much more inclined to say hell yeah.

Deciding when to redo the entire continuity/story/etc as opposed to 'keeping things close to source material.' I have to be honest and say that if they turned Mega Man X into a gritty, dark, 8-Man After anime movie style film I would be all over that shit despite its toss-aside of the previous games' story. I mean they do it with Batman and Superman and Transformers, where they toss aside backstory and try to make it a movie based upon the franchise rather than translate it directly into film form.

It would not work nearly as well in certain areas if they tried to 'reimagine' something like, oh I dunno, Doom. Much akin to David Hayter's script of Watchmen, for example.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Arhra

Metroid though, I don't think would work at all. If you want to get anywhere close to what the games are like, you'd have lengthy stretches of a person travelling around on her own, wearing a suit that hides most of her expressions.

Well, in MP3, you had the other bounty hunters and a bunch of other unimportant people as well. Using that as a base and just doing an action-horror movie with the Space Pirates, Metroids, and Mother Brain attacking a space station would have a lot of potential.

[Mirai Gen]

Honestly I've got a pretty good idea what to do with a Metroid script, and it less to do with Samus kicking ass than it does with her being raised by the Chozo.

I mean there would be Samus kicking ass, but it would be the obligatory action scene towards the end slash climax. Cause really when you make a Metroid movie it had better be all about Samus, cause as a game Metroid is all about isolation.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Mirai Gen

Picking good source material would be a good start. I mean lets be honest there are not very many ways you can make a Zelda movie, because taking Link out of the one-man Hero of (noun) role and including more characters doesn't work, and it wouldn't work for Gordon Freeman, or Faith, or the Vault Dweller/Chosen One/101, or whatever. You need costars for it to work, and many games focus entirely about isolation.

Link--Midna/Navi/whatever else, but made less annoying. Not to mention his interactions with town folk could be fleshed out, and the interactions between he, Zelda, and Ganon/Zelda and the royal family and the sheikah. There's plenty of supporting roles in Zelda. That said, this would probably be horrible because they'd have to make Link talk, and Link shouldn't ever talk. Ever.

Freeman--Freeman works alongside G-Man, the rebels, Barney, Alyx, etc. often enough. Again, plenty of potential interaction, but he should never be given a voice. May be able to subvert it by making him extremely quiet, as that other characters do comment on how he never fucking talks.

Vault Dweller/Chosen One/Lone Wanderer--They all had their potential side kicks. Quite a few of them at that, for each. In the earlier games you could have a tiny little army following you if your charisma was high enough (or at least a gang). This is the only one that MIGHT work, because the Vault Dweller/Chosen One/Lone Wanderer aren't silent heroes, nor is it the same hero/heroine through each game. I man, shit, Mad Max was like two steps short of Fallout already, except replace the 50's with the 80's. I wouldn't trust Hollywood anywhere NEAR the Fallout series, however. They'd fuck up the dark humor and depth of the gameplay so bad it's not even funny.

I've no idea who this Faith person is off the top of my head, I'm just pointing out that these people aren't as isolated as you seem to think they are. Especially the Vault Dweller/Chosen One/Lone Wanderer (which is hilarious considering the last's canon name).

[Mirai Gen]

You pretty much summed it up with

That said, this would probably be horrible because they'd have to make Link talk, and Link shouldn't ever talk. Ever.

which to me is kind of the point anyway, as far as Gordon/Link are concerned because for a hero to be completely mute and still be somehow connectible to the audience and secondary characters would just be godawful unless there's some miracle to happen. It works within the video game medium where you are the person; movies? Not so much.

Which was kind of the point I was making with 'isolation', I probably just wasn't very clear. But I'm also worn out and shouldn't even be awake right now, so I apologize.

Though I'm not convinced that you could use any of the established Fallout characters, honestly. They do have their sidekicks and all but the different things each game let you do with that character - not necessarily good or evil - just would fuck up so much in the long run. I'd prefer them getting tossed out in favor of just writing up something new, as mentioned in my second post.

[Meister]

Movies are so different in execution from video games that pretty much any game needs to be reduced to its bare-bones defining premise. From there, you can start building a movie; it's important to never lose track of those defining features, though. Of course, some games can be reduced more than others.

A MGS3 movie would have to follow the cutscenes closely and replace the gameplay sequences with film scenes accordingly. You'd have to rearrange or rewrite things here and there to accomodate the pacing of something that's supposed to be watched rather than interacted with, but at the end you'd have something that's unarguably MGS3. So much, in fact, that it's almost pointless to make the story into a movie when the game does it perfectly well and is already right there.

(I'm assuming a proper transition here instead of the usual practice, i.e. write a really bad spy movie and replace some character names and traits to trick nerds into giving away their money.)

On the other hand you have games that can be reduced to a single sentence like Doom (A soldier shoots up the entirety of the legions of Hell) or Street Fighter (there's a fighting tournament and, well, there's a fighting tournament). There's definitely room to build an original story on those. The problem, I think, is that writers tend to build too much of a story. These games don't need more than their bare-bones premise. Street Fighter would work best as an ordinary kung fu flick with a touch more special effects. Pick one character Ryu and follow him as he fights through the tournament and you've got your Street Fighter movie. (Hey, Ong Bak producers. Do this. You're halfway there already.)

[CelesJessa]

If I made a Metal Gear movie... I would just hire these guys to do it.

In general, if I made a movie based on a video game, I think it would have to be not exactly the same story. There's just too much room for people to be like "well this wasn't right, and this wasn't right" and that story worked well as a game. I think rather it would have to be a sequel/prequel, or set in the same world, or something of the sort.

I wouldn't try to go for a Hollywood blockbuster I don't think. I'd try my best to make something all of the fans would enjoy, even if that means it won't be in theaters for long (if at all). Kind of how anime movies are done.

As far as the voice actors translating to live actors - maybe if they don't translate well, and you can't find a damn close replacement, maybe you could have them do voice over for the actor playing the role. Do some realistic lip syncing.


And I think a Mother 3 movie would have to be hand animated(or at least in that style) but that might be just because the oversaturation of 3D animation nowadays bugs me. But I can totally see a cute 2-D animated Lucas and Claus before a 3-D render.

[Jagos]

On the other hand you have games that can be reduced to a single sentence like Doom (A soldier shoots up the entirety of the legions of Hell) or Street Fighter (there's a fighting tournament and, well, there's a fighting tournament). There's definitely room to build an original story on those. The problem, I think, is that writers tend to build too much of a story. These games don't need more than their bare-bones premise. Street Fighter would work best as an ordinary kung fu flick with a touch more special effects. Pick one character Ryu and follow him as he fights through the tournament and you've got your Street Fighter movie. (Hey, Ong Bak producers. Do this. You're halfway there already.)

*Remembers Raul Julia and Jean Claude Van Damme in a movie resembling Street Fighter*

*shudders*

That kinda matches DoA but it was too many wires to be believable. Mortal Kombat 1 did a great job IMO. I'd rather it be more about the rivalries during the tournament than an evil dictator taking over the world. Seriously, Ken and Ryu... Vega and Ken... Ryu and Guile vs M. Bison. It would work a lot better than what Hollywood tried to force feed us as good.

Given half a shot, one would think that most of them could appear on screen, but then it's really up to the individual, I suppose.

Once you're typecast as a VA, it's harder to find other work. Think about the voice of Piccolo for anime or even the Scout (Nathan Vetterlein) for games. Granted, there's always gonna be a Mustafa among them. It just gets harder once everyone knows your voice for a certain role.

[Arhra]

Originally Posted by NonCon

Well, in MP3, you had the other bounty hunters and a bunch of other unimportant people as well. Using that as a base and just doing an action-horror movie with the Space Pirates, Metroids, and Mother Brain attacking a space station would have a lot of potential.

Yeah, its mainly the fact that suit's so obscuring. I remember hearing people saying it was something that could kill that Halo movie back when there was talk about it. Samus' visor is a little better in that respect at least; most of the face is visible. And they've managed some pretty effective use of body language in the Prime series.

I suppose one way to do it might be to have an in media res opening to establish things then get Samus out of the suit for a while. That woul be a fun little reference to Metroid's old twist ending actually. Could do something a bit like Zero Mission and have it damaged maybe? That way you can bring it back for the finale. Hmmm, I don't know. Supporting cast is definitely the bit that would need to be done right for it to work.

I'd have to agree it's the same issue for any movie based on a game with a heavy isolation element.

Link--Midna/Navi/whatever else, but made less annoying. Not to mention his interactions with town folk could be fleshed out, and the interactions between he, Zelda, and Ganon/Zelda and the royal family and the sheikah. There's plenty of supporting roles in Zelda. That said, this would probably be horrible because they'd have to make Link talk, and Link shouldn't ever talk. Ever.

Ever seen the Ocarina of Time manga? From my fuzzy memory of many years ago, it's actually quite good. Link acts pretty much as you'd expect.

Well, aside from the speaking...

It helps they cut down the dungeons and increase the character interaction. For example, all you see of the Fire Temple is Link duking it out with Volvagia in the ruins of the Goron city.

Also he knew Volvagia as a kid... uh... that bit's better than it sounds.