The Great WGTC Film And Gaming Crossover

What a time to be alive. With no fewer than 17 video game adaptations currently in development with movie studios of various descriptions – seven of which have planned release dates – it almost seems as if someone, somewhere, thinks they have found the secret formula that makes these endeavours potentially good. Why else would producers continue to pour their funds into a genre that has previously delivered such gems as DOA: Dead Or Alive, Wing Commander, Alone In The Dark, Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li and, of course, Double Dragon? Perhaps technology has a lot to do with it. Just as the technical quality of video games has increased exponentially in the twenty seven years since the release of Double Dragon, so film technology has also progressed in the two decades since the release of its film adaptation. It is not possible to create a great movie using only visual effects, however – a good story and script are also required. It could be argued that this has historically been the undoing of the video game movie adaptation - a point which goes to the heart of the problem of adapting video games for the big screen. While games and film have increasingly begun to overlap as art-forms – with game visuals becoming more cinematic, more dramatic storylines being developed for games, and many high profile actors providing performances for various video games – there is a fundamental difference between the two, and that is intention. The sole intention of a movie is to tell a story, while the intention of a game is to achieve a specific goal through interaction with the technology. In gaming, storytelling is always secondary to the user experience – the actual enjoyment of moving through the game and achieving an objective. While the story is, for some titles, an important element, it is the gameplay that builds a loyal fanbase for games. The problem with making that game into a movie is therefore two-fold – the experience is necessarily reduced to a passive one, and the emphasis is shifted onto narrative, which then feels artificial and forced. Truly, even the greatest visual effects ever conceived cannot overcome those issues when it comes to movie-making. So, the question becomes, how do we bridge the intimidating gap between these two creative arenas that are surely natural bedfellows? How do we make a film adaptation of a beloved game that will be embraced wholeheartedly by its loyal fanbase, while appealing to non-gaming audiences worldwide? In short, how do we make a good game adaptation film? With a confirmed movie release slate that now includes Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, Warcraft, Resident Evil: Rising, Splinter Cell, Ratchet & Clank and Angry Birds, there has never been a better time for the Film and Gaming sections of We Got This Covered to come together in their first ever crossover feature. Here, Sarah Myles, Michael Briers and John Fleury discuss those special ingredients that make up the video game adaptation secret formula, and try to determine what the projects of the future should learn from the projects of the past. Altering The Storyline Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Just as good things can come from hiring authors to adapt their own literary work for the big screen, it is understandable to experience a rush of cautious optimism when the creator of a video game is tasked with developing the story for its film adaptation. Such positivity waned with the release of Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, however, when it became clear that the story had been hacked around and altered. Although the film adaptation has a title that specifically correlates to a Prince Of Persia game, creator Jordan Mechner did, by his own admission, simply take elements of the story, and combine them with elements of other stories from the game series, creating this all-new cinematic tale led by Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. The result, it seems, was to alienate large swathes of game fans, as well as the critics – because, although it earned a respectable $336 million at the box office, the film has not reached the heights of popularity enjoyed by its source material. - Sarah Myles Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. is notable for being the first big-budget theatrical video game adaptation to come from Hollywood, and it's still seen as one of the most infamously misguided. Ignoring the bright and cartoony atmosphere of the games in favor of a dingy, Blade Runner-inspired city is a mistake made early on, but it doesn't stop there. The plot, involving dinosaurs evolved to the point of appearing humanoid, parallel dimensions, and a magic meteor, is all over the place, and bizarre casting decisions like Dennis Hopper as the antagonist don't work either. The film doesn't even try to feel influenced by Nintendo's iconic platform series so much as make forced references to it, like seeing signs in the background with a familiar character's name on it. Iconic enemies like the tiny brown Goombas are now six-foot-tall, trenchcoat-clad minions with tiny animatronic heads, and Yoshi - a trusty mount in the games - is demoted to being a miniature raptor with little to genuinely add to the plot. To give the film credit, some of the bizarre departures from the game are still visually creative, and Bob Hoskins is a good fit if you want a live-action Mario. The film can be enjoyable if you're a B-movie fan, but anyone willing to defend it as a genuinely good movie or adaptation faces an uphill battle. Nintendo took the film's failure so seriously that, outside of Pokémon movies based on the already-successful TV series, they've refused to license any more of their games for films ever since. Seeing how Super Mario Bros. turned out, it's not that hard to blame them. - John Fleury Mimicking Camera Angles Doom Just because a property stands as one of the most well-regarded and prestigious titles in one medium doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll succeed in another. Case in point: Andrzej Bartkowiak’s big-screen rendition of Doom in 2005. Starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in one of his earlier forays into cinema, Bartkowiak’s CG-heavy feature had the former wrestler play the part of Sarge, a member of the famed Rapid Response Tactical Squad. Putting all of its failures to one side for the time being, the one scene in Doom that resonated the most with fans of the original video game was when it flipped filmic conventions on their head and entered first-person. Channelling the spirit of id Software’s seminal series, the gloriously violent segment boasted all of the qualities of a corridor shooter — jump scares, pulse rifles and a pulse-pounding soundtrack. It proved to be a delightful, overly bloody slice of fan service that was ultimately bookended by a mediocre B movie. Would Bartkowiak’s feature have benefited from sticking with the POV angle for the entire film a la Cloverfield? Who knows? - Michael Briers Introducing New Characters Hitman: Agent 47 Barely eight years since Timothy Olyphant sported the chrome dome as the titular agent, Aleksander Bach’s Hitman: Agent 47 landed in theatres late last month with a new leading man and was, by and large, an underwhelming experience. Despite slick editing and an impressive cast, Bach’s soft reboot failed to elevate itself above its middling predecessor, swapping world-building for glitzy and hollow CG sequences. Unperturbed by its box office shortcomings, word is that 20th Century Fox is keen on pushing ahead with a sequel, with the biggest clue arriving in the form of the film’s post-credits sting. Such a ploy would see Rupert Friend’s man-made killing machine lock horns with Mark Parchezzi III (aka The Albino), who is a stalwart of IO Interactive’s eponymous video game series. For a film that largely set itself apart from its source material, Fox looks set to align the sequel closer to the long-running Hitman franchise. Whether those sequel plans pan out, though, is another question entirely. - Michael Briers Resident Evil Admittedly, Paul W. S. Anderson’s video game movie franchise is not exactly high art, but it does continue to hold the world record for ‘Most Successful Movie Series To Be Based On A Video Game’ - so it must be doing something right. In examining all the elements that go into creating a film, it could be argued that the success of this series hinges on the introduction of Alice, played by Milla Jovovich. This character is an original creation for the films – essentially taking a new figure, and dropping her into the Resident Evil environment that is so familiar to gamers. This narrative choice has been crucial, specifically because of the genre of the piece. If a main obstacle for video game adaptations is the removal of the user experience of being in the game, then Resident Evil goes some way to addressing that, by giving us what is essentially an audience proxy. Were we playing the game, we’d have the sensation of racing down those corridors ourselves, but since we cannot do that in our cinema seats, Alice does it for us. This is achieved by making her into a character we want to get behind – a single point of focus that takes us into the action, and guides us through the plot, giving rise to an entire franchise. - Sarah Myles Casting Tomb Raider When you have a beloved video game that brings with it legions of fans, you need the film adaptation casting to be flawless. Tomb Raider struck a home-run in that respect, with the casting of Angelina Jolie in the main role. Critical opinion of the achievements of the film as a whole pale in comparison to the achievements of the lead performer in this video game movie. While there are excellent casting choices to be found among the supporting players, too – in particular, the appearance of Chris Barrie as one of Croft’s staff members, Hillary – it is Jolie that possesses every inch of the screen with her rendition of the essence of Lara Croft. Aside from an impeccable British accent, Jolie manages to create this iconic video game character in living flesh – making her every bit as capable and impressive as her digital origin. - Sarah Myles Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Although Hironobu Sakaguchi’s directorial effort based on his own game creation is considered to be the most expensive video-game-inspired movie of all time, as well as one of the biggest failures of that genre, it is notable for its lead character, Aki Ross - voiced by Ming-Na Wen. Ross became so popular that she was, somewhat controversially, the first fictional woman to be included on Maxim’s (albeit exploitative) ‘sexiest women’ list in 2001. While the popularity of the character had much to do with her digital rendering, it is Ming-Na Wen’s vocal performance that breathes life into Ross, leaving her imbued with depth of personality and a complex characterisation. The casting of Ming-Na Wen had such a positive impact on the character – despite the troubled reception of the film – that Ross was considered to be viable for use beyond Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. - Sarah Myles FUTURE FILMS Altering the storyline Assassin’s Creed Director Justin Kurzel, and performers Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender are riding the crest of a wave ahead of the release of Macbeth, with early reviews hailing it as a dark, furious and incredibly stylish rendition of the classic Shakespearean play. Why do we reference this particular trio, you ask? Because it’s the creative team spearheading a live-action Assassin’s Creed film. Taking the reins of a deeply historical video game franchise that spans aeons will be no mean feat, but perhaps the one tenet that has us excited for Kurzel’s vision is the fact that it will stand on its own two feet - after using its Eagle Vision to scout the area, of course. As revealed via the film’s debut image, Fassbender will play Callum Lynch, a character that is an entirely new addition to the Assassin’s Creed lore. Flitting between the present day and 15th Century Spain, the storyline will still revolve around the nefarious Knights Templar, though whether elements such as the Animus or canonical characters will appear remains to be seen. Then again, could Kurzel and Co. (Exodus: Gods and Kings’ Bill Collage and Adam Cooper are on board to pen the script) benefit more from leaving the nest? Rather that aping what has come before, Kurzel’s Assassin’s Creed could act as an extension of this most intriguing universe. The Spanish Inquisition is as rich a setting as they come, and there’s no doubting the film’s credentials. Kurzel. Cotillard. Fassbender. A creative dream team for Hollywood big wigs. History has taught us that this hasn’t always panned out - one need only take a look at fellow Ubisoft game-to-film adaptation Prince of Persia. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Assassin’s Creed is immediately consigned to the garbage bin left brimming with other botched translations. - Michael Briers Casting Warcraft It’s been a long time coming, but Legendary’s Warcraft movie is primed to muscle its way into a crowded blockbuster season come June 2016. Helmed by Duncan Jones — fan-favorite director behind such hits as Moon and Source Code - the high-profile take on the fantastical realm of Azeroth is promising to marry elements from Lord of the Rings with those found in the sci-fi spectacle of Avatar. But what’s a CG-heavy film without a core cast underpinning the action? A turkey, that’s what. Nevertheless, Jones and Legendary have cast the net far and wide with this one, as they look to fill the ranks of the Alliance and The Horde - two warring factions that have locked horns for generations. To date, such a creative process has drafted in the likes of Travis Fimmel, Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, Rob Kazinsky and Fantastic Four alum Toby Kebbell. Divided between the Orcish horde and The Humans of Stormwind, pockets of Warcraft’s star-studded ensemble will channel their role via performance capture. And though the undisputed veteran (also known as Andy Serkis) isn’t involved to our knowledge, technology is at the point now that the nuances of an actor’s performance can be portrayed with relative ease. This, perhaps more so than anything else, is the one tenet that could make or break Warcraft. With such a sweeping scope, Duncan Jones’ feature needs memorable characters to anchor the fantastical action. He’s already assembled his cast, now all we need is for the performances to deliver on that promise. - Michael Briers Introducing New Characters Minecraft The thing about these Open World games is that there is no storyline, as such, and there are no specific characters, really. With Minecraft, there is 'Steve' – instantly recognizable to any one – but mostly, players create their own characters, with their own ‘skins.’ This means that, when making a Minecraft movie, filmmakers are essentially starting with a blank canvas – an empty build-space, ready to turned into anything at all. In that respect, the recently announced Minecraft movie is actually an exciting prospect – despite its status as a video game adaptation. A loose plot has been publicly described, detailing that a leading male character will face the challenge of slaying a dragon to take back his Minecraft world. Presumably that character will be 'Steve,' but beyond that, anything could happen. We can expect many new characters to be introduced, to add to the drama and either help or hinder the hero of the story. It will remain to be seen what impact these new additions will have on the game itself and, of course, the Minecraft merchandising empire. - Sarah Myles