By Jeremy Hannaford (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: October 2, 2013
No matter how many times they fail, Hollywood will continue to make decisions that just seem really stupid. Remakes to classic films that turn out bad, unnecessary sequels (or prequels), and the current favorite – reboots. But one fad that did almost die was the video-game-based films. Sure, there have been a few here and there in the last decade, but not many. Aside from Paul W.S. Anderson’s unkillable Resident Evil films, many studios have been walking away from such projects.
Last week, a new trailer was released for the upcoming Need for Speed movie. Within one day of its upload, it garnered over 1.5 million views. This poses one of two possibilities: Either the Need for Speed franchise is still as popular as ever despite Electronic Arts over-publishing titles for the series, or everyone just wanted to make an Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad joke reference. The biblical-esque voice-over may come across as glossy cheese rather than intended interest but the budget certainly doesn’t cut any corners. Bugatti, Lamborghini, McLaren, and the works appear to be featured in the car lineup. Though directed by only a seasoned stunt man, Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks company is backing the production. This is one serious investment in a video game movie!
But Need for Speed isn’t the only game getting a film adaptation. The highly acclaimed Assassin’s Creed series from Montreal’s Ubisoft Entertainment is also getting a high-budget film. The story will focus on assassins playing pivotal roles in key moments of history, with Michael Fassbender as main character. While it is intriguing to imagine Fassbender donning the white cloth and armour of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, it does raise an eyebrow: what is Hollywood really thinking? Tom Hardy has been cast as Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell, Paul Walker for the Hitman reboot. Even Colin Farrell is looking at being in the Warcraft film. These things seem to be coming out of the woodwork.
While the subject of Hollywood’s decisions could be talked about for ages, this new investment really begs the question, what changed? Mark Walhberg’s Max Payne was in development hell for a decade and it was awful. Mortal Kombat took years to make and was mediocre at best. Battleship (albeit based on a board game) was a more than $250 million disaster! So once again, what has changed? Maybe Hollywood is listening for once, just not in the right way.
Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, games were still regarded as lesser entertainment compared with today. Sales were good but marginal and the demand for additional media content wasn’t as high. Today there are comic books, trading cards, endorsement items, even lunch boxes coming out for every major game on the market. This extra media is available because the games are more recognized and the budgets are much larger. So a movie sounds like a great idea. But just because they take a property doesn’t mean they will stay loyal. And even if they do, it doesn’t mean that it will fail. Brad Pitt’s World War Z is a perfect example: completely different from the novel, but it garnered a decent box office return. This is what Hollywood probably intends for these game-based films.
While these prospects do sound entertaining, it all falls into the producers’ laps whether or not to stay true to original content. But if items like the Need for Speed trailer gather so much attention in such little time, this will probably be only the beginning of what is to come.
