Angry Gaming 02.26.07: From Screen to Screen

Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 02.26.2007

Angry Gaming is going to Hollywood, but not for the reasons you might think.

Welcome to Angry Gaming, where we keep a constant jab in the game industry's face, then raise our hands in victory long before we win. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I was up late last night doing THIS. The battle begins anew.

From Screen to Screen

Let's say you're a gamer, and an avid fan of a particular and popular game series. In fact, let's say you are such a fan of this series, that you don't just stop at playing the games but you jump at the chance to purchase any merchandise or visit any events related to this game. If a series that popular has you so enamored with everything involved with it, wouldn't you be overjoyed to hear that a big name movie production company has purchased the licensing rights to your game, which they will use to make a summer blockbuster epic on the silver screen?

Surprisingly, for most gamers the answer is a firm no. In fact, hardcore gamers tend to cringe at the though of any new movie releases based on popular video games. You can hardly blame them. In the past, most games based on video game licenses tend to be both awful movies overall and do their source material a great injustice. While casual gamers and action movie fans might be somewhat satisfied by these lackluster productions, for the most part a game license attached to a movie is a prewritten death sentence. Filmmakers might as well place a warning on their promotional posters stating that the film will likely leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Since long before the 16-bit era, we've seen plenty of games get butchered into Hollywood scripts, and it would be all too easy to gather together a collection of these sorry excuses for film and rant on them. We at Angry Gaming love nothing more than an obvious target, but just like in the games we adore, no challenge equals no fun. So instead, we're going to look at something a bit less grim but a bit more interesting: the game based films that didn't get released.

There's actually quite a few of them. In fact, some of the game-based scripts that have not been released seem like they would be a bit better than the ones that have. All this is not to say that every movie with ties to a video game does suck outright, but even the good ones tend to be a matter of opinion; there is no one universally agreed upon good gaming flick. Usually, production companies know that fans will pay money to go and see these movies based on their name recognition alone, and with the game industry growing as it is, there are always a few more suckers willing to pay extra money to enter the darkened theater.

So here are three movies that should or should not have been released, as we look once more into an overview of what could have been. Would these movies break the curse of the video game movie license? You decide.


Fatal Frame



The only truly good series to come out of Tecmo in a long time, Fatal Frame's production companies teased fans with the announcement of a movie for about five years before finally throwing it in the can. The movie was supposed to focus on the basics of the first game, where a young girl trying to find her brother used a magical camera to battle ghosts in an ancient haunted Japanese mansion. The plot seems simple enough for a horror flick, and fans of the series went into deep speculation over which actors and actresses would reprise each character straight from the game.

To make matters even more interesting, DreamWorks, who purchased the rights for the movie, insinuated several times that the movie would forego any attempt to westernize the Asian-style horror element that made the games so popular. Since the movie was slated to showcase a predominantly Asian cast, Courtney Webb was speculated as playing the lead role in the project. In 2003, rumors abounded that DreamWorks was actually going to speed up production on the movie and release it by 2004. By 2006, fans pretty much gave up hope and the movie was removed from most databases documenting upcoming films.



The question still remains how good the actual movie could have been. Though Fatal Frame does feature deep and intriguing murder plots, much of the appeal of the game comes from wandering around the haunted halls in first person and barely catching glimpses of ghosts that wander throughout the mansion. A movie would be hard pressed to capture that sense of anticipation and pack that many random encounters into a 2 hour plot. More importantly, the game lacks a large amount of characters as the main heroine is pretty much on her own for most of the story.

When all is said and done, however, the use of a camera to combat ghosts is just too intriguing. Yes, in order to keep the horror in the game the idea of fighting against evil spirits with a camera might need to be trivialized, but a good writer could possibly forgo the use of isolation to create fear altogether and focus on the legend behind the camera instead. So yes, we do mourn the loss of this movie, even though there's a 50/50 chance its gimmick would have worked in a script.


Spyhunter: Nowhere to Run



I have a theory. Somewhere floating around on some movie mogul's desk over at Universal pictures is a completed copy of Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Doubtlessly, in the past few months, said executive has stared out his/her window while tossing the film from hand to hand while quietly muttering to themselves "Do we release it or not?" In the long romance that the game and movie industries have had for one another, the most oddball offspring to be produced is Spyhunter: Nowhere to Run. Unlike other game licensed movies that haven't hit the big screen, this movie has actually been filmed, but the oddities don't stop there.

This is an unreleased movie, based on a game that was released a long time ago. Yet there is a different game that was recently released which happens to be based on the movie, which was not released. Got all that? Well, if you don't, no worries, because the films plot certainly won't add to the confusion. The story behind the film is that an ex-fighter pilot turned secret agent must use his super powered car to save the world from an evil cartel from achieving world domination. In other words, the movie was supposed to be a special effects bonanza with a video game and popular action hero attached to it, which would rake in big bucks without any need for a solid plotline at all.



Production for Spyhunter began in 2004, but went through several changes at the creative helm as several writers and producers swapped in and out of the project. Most notably, in 2005, legendary director John Woo abandoned the project and production continued for a short while without a director. When a replacement couldn't be found, production was halted in August 2006 and no plans to continue filming have been made, despite the movie's promotional video game being released that same month.

We say good riddance. The original Spyhunter game is a classic, but Nowhere to Run was one of the worst games of 2006 altogether. Spies in super cars are nothing new to the action movie scene, and while I am not one to doubt the Rock's acting ability, any movie that needs that many writer changes can't possibly have a plot that would hold anyone's interest. You can hardly blame the writers. Spyhunter never had much of a plot outside of its car to begin with, which means its license doesn't leave much to the imagination. Big explosions and Dwayne Johnson to not a profitable movie make, and we can be happy that this one didn't butcher the Spyhunter legacy any more than a worthless 3D game that didn't go anywhere.


Alice



This movie is currently scheduled for tentative release in 2007. Bullshit. American McGee's Alice was originally slated to make a jump to the big screen seven years ago when popular horror director Wes Craven signed onto the project with the Dimension films production company. However, due to writing personnel issues, the script for the movie was not completed until three years later. However, in 2004 production was moved from Dimension films to 20th Century Fox, and the next year it was moved again to Universal pictures. Universal, in turn, attached a new director and popular actress Sarah Michelle Gellar to the film for the lead role, but no other information has been made public since then.

The story behind Alice is quite intriguing to say the least. The film, which follows the same plot as the PC game, is set as a dark sequel to Lewis Carroll's famous Alice in Wonderland series. In the game, years after her experience in Wonderland, Alice becomes institutionalized while in a catatonic state due to the death of her family in a vicious fire. In an attempt to save her sanity, Alice retreats back to Wonderland in her own mind; only to find that it is equally just as dark and twisted.



American McGee created a masterpiece with this game, but the story is still quite linear. The story behind Alice plays out pretty much in the same fashion as its predecessor, just in a much darker fashion. One can expect that this game would make just as smooth a transition to the big screen as the original books did, yet there is no planned production on this movie for now. That's probably the worst part, because the western horror film genre is crying for a dose of something new and domestic. Alice is both of those things, and I dare say Gellar does have the potential to nail the role perfectly.

Of all the movies we've looked at, I mourn the loss of Alice the most. If you can, dig up a copy of the game online or at a bargain bin and play through it. Preferably get a legit copy as the game's instruction manual is an interesting read all its own. Whether on the PC or in the theater, Alice is a twisted experience you can't afford to miss.


The Anger

If there's any truth to the rumors, we will be seeing plenty more Hollywood renditions of our favorite games in the near future, including another Resident Evil flick as well as Castlevania's series debut among many others. There's no question that movies made from games need a serious overhaul and cannot get by on special effects and licensing alone in order to actually be considered good. Yet it's important to note that even the movie industry is not necessarily seeing 100% of its own capability. Perhaps the above scripts might have changed the way we think about game licensed movies, but perhaps not. For now, we can only wait and hope for a decent flick in the near future, or hope for more crappy flicks if throwing popcorn at the screen is more your thing. Until next time, embrace the hatred.