The Hush-Hush News Report 07.07.09: Game Over, Insert Coin to Continue
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 07.07.2009
The Hush-Hush News Report puts video game movies in its crosshairs this week and picks apart where the studios go wrong when trying to adapt games to the big screen! Plus news on a prequel within the Blade universe, Shatner and T.J. Hooker coming to the big screen, an Enchantress cast for Thor, a Wicker Man sequel and more!
Howdy folks, and welcome to the Hush-Hush News Report. I'm your host Jeremy Thomas. We have quite a big batch of news this week and some good topics to cover to, so I think it best not to dally around…let's get right to it, shall we? I think we shall.
Before you start reading, have you bookmarked 411Mania.com yet? It's the easiest thing in the world to do, and it'll get you your daily dose of entertainment news that much quicker! Typing the URL out in the address bar is such a pain, don'tcha think? Hell, make it your home page and it'll be that much easier for you!
WB Takes On Midway Games
Variety is reporting that Warner Bros. has picked up most of Midway Games' assets in a bankruptcy court fire sale to the tune of $33 million, including the rights to some of their most popular video games like "Mortal Kombat," "Spy Hunter" and "Joust."
The Chicago-based video game developer started manufacturing arcade video games over 35 years ago with games like "Space Invaders" and "Pac-Man" before moving their focus to console video games. They declared bankruptcy earlier this year and Warner Bros. made a bid for the properties in May that was declined, as Midway chose to put out a call for other bids and hold an auction for its properties. Last week, a Delaware bankruptcy court judge okayed the deal after the initial objections were resolved.
Warner Bros. wouldn't disclose to Variety what their plans might be for the properties, although they decided not to buy Midway development studios in San Diego and England. Mortal Kombat already spawned two feature films as well as animated and live action television shows, but attempts at relaunching the franchise at New Line (now folded into Warner Bros.) have generally faltered, while a Spy Hunter movie has been in development hell at Universal for many years with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson attached. The last update had Paul W.S. Anderson, director of the first Mortal Kombat, taking over development of Spy Hunter, after a long line of Hollywood writers have tried to tackle a script. It's also interesting to note that the latest incarnation of the "Mortal Kombat" video game had them fighting characters from the DC Universe, of which the film rights belong to Warner Bros.
Midway and video gamers' losses are Hollywood's gains, it would appear. It doesn't need to be said that this is a huge coup for Warner Bros., who probably picked up the properties fairly cheap due to the bankruptcy. A quick scan of Midway's video game properties brought to immediate attention—besides the aforementioned Mortal Kombat, Joust, Pac-Man and Spy Hunter--such potentially filmable properties as Gauntlet, Bounty Hunter, Unreal Tournament, Galaga, Killer Instinct and Galaxian. Note that I'm not saying these would all be good movies, just potentially marketable ones. It's no secret that video game-based movies have almost universally equated to inferior films, but that doesn't stop the studios from trying to cash in on the built-in audience that they hope will follow. More on that later, but for now let me just say that if they even dared to make a Mortal Kombat vs. DCU movie, I'm pretty sure rioting would ensue. At least on the internet.
Dorff and Norrington want more Deacon Frost
The Sunday Mail reports that Blade director Stephen Norrington and Stephen Dorff, who played villain Deacon Frost in the film, are working on a prequel trilogy.
"It will be a prequel to the 'Blade' movies, Deacon's story," Dorff said, "It's a new trilogy the director has created. It will cool.
"We hope to shoot the first film next year. Frost is a character I have never been able to shake."
The original Blade, which starred Wesley Snipes, earned $131.2 million at the worldwide box office and was followed by two sequels. Norrington hasn't directed a film since 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Talk about news coming out of nowhere. By all accounts, the Blade franchise has been dead since David Goyer killed it with Blade Trinity, which was by far the worst in the movie series. Dorff, who is by the way a talented actor and was the best thing about the Marvel vampire franchise, hasn't done much on the screen lately, with his last big flick by a supporting part in World Trade Center. Before that was 2003'sCold Creek Manor, in which Dorff was actually quite good. I must admit that Dorff isn't my biggest concern, although I wonder if he's going to be too old to play a character that he played 10 years ago. My biggest concern is Norrington, who made one decent film in Blade before making The League of Extraordinary Gentlemenm a movie so bad, it drove Sean Connery's to retirement. To quote Connery on his specific reasons, "The time has come because of my rather unfortunate last movie. The cost to me in terms of frustration and avoiding going to jail for murder cannot have continued." He also called Norrington "insane" in the same interview. Since then he's been attached to write and direct the remake of The Crow, which is an entirely different set of worrying news. Even if Norrington can do this movie justice, is there a big enough audience that would want to see Deacon Frost's story? Right now I'm going to chalk this up to wishful thinking, and halfway hope it stays that way.
Coming To A Toy Panorama Near You…
"Fringe" scribe Brad Caleb Kane is set to pen a feature film based on the popular children's toy View-Master for DreamWorks Pictures says Greek Geek.
Kane revealed on a Twitter post that "Transformers" and "Star Trek" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are also involved on the project said to be in the vein of great 80's family adventure films like "The Goonies" and "Young Sherlock Holmes".
Kane is currently penning the sci-fi action-adventure Uprising for director Wolfgang Petersen over at Sony Pictures.
File this one under "another terrible toy-movie idea." I can't possibly see how they can make a View-Master movie without it being little more than a very obvious commercial for the toy. Hollywood is crass enough about its marketing; we don't need an hour and forty-minute long epic adventure Jumanji-style, which is what I imagine it would end up being. Magical glasses that transport kids to another world and all that; granted, it's a script that writes itself, but not all self-writing scripts should really be written. I've heard good things about Fringe and Star Trek was of course very good, but I don't think that there are many writers that could pump out something good from this.
T.J. Hooker To Ride Again?
"T.J. Hooker" is headed for the big screen as an action comedy with David Foster, Ryan Heppe and series creator Rick Husky producing, reports Variety.
Chuck Russell (The Scorpion King, The Mask) is in talks to direct. The writing team of Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson will script the story, which focuses on the relationship between the title character and his father.
The TV series, produced by Aaron Spelling, debuted in 1982 on ABC and ran for five seasons, the last on CBS. William Shatner starred as a no-nonsense patrol sergeant, with Adrian Zmed, Heather Locklear, Richard Herd and James Darren as co-stars.
Was the world really clamoring for a T.J. Hooker movie? I can't really imagine that it was. Don't get me wrong, the television show was good fun in the 1980's and helped pad William Shatner's bank account through that era, but I never thought it had that wild of a fan base that a movie adaptation was necessary. Still, if it's done right than I can see it working out okay. I don't know if Chuck Russell is quite the right guy to direct this film; while Scorpion King was all right for what it was and The Mask is a film I still enjoy, they don't seem quite the films that would lead to this particular project. Rumor currently has Shatner in talks to play Hooker's father, and while that should be taken with a heavy grain of salt until confirmed, it would at least keep him from complaining about not being involved the way he did with Star Trek.
Perabo Having a Covert Affair
Piper Perabo has landed the lead role in the spy thriller "Covert Affairs" for USA Network says The Hollywood Reporter.
The story centers on Annie Walker (Perabo), a CIA trainee who speaks six languages and excels at any endeavor she undertakes.
Walker joins the CIA while still reeling over a mysterious ex-boyfriend who appears to be of particular interest to her new bosses.
She vows never to let herself be hurt again, but that proves to be a tall order. Matt Corman and Chris Ord penned the script.
I'm not at all sure about the premise as listed above; it seems like a whole host of worn-out movie clichés thrown together into one film. Matt Corman and Chris Ord's only released film to date has been the fairly terrible Deck the Halls with Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick and they have two minor films in development; this is not what I would call encouraging news. Piper Perabo is an actress I've always had a soft spot for since Coyote Ugly. As flawed as that movie may have been, she did a good job in the lead role and she's been more or less waiting for a breakout role since while doing supporting work in films like the Cheaper By the Dozen films, The Prestige and—sadly—Beverly Hills Chihuahua. If this keeps her away from doing talking dog movies, I'll be optimistic for now.
Statham Goes For A Blitz
Jason Statham will play a sociopathic, destructive cop named Brant in the upcoming film adaptation of Ken Bruen's novel "Blitz" reports Crimespree Cinema.
Set in South East London, the book follows three different police officers who must deal with their own issues alongside hunting down a serial killer hunting down cops all over the city in a quest for tabloid immortality.
Paddy Considine will be playing Sergeant Porter Nash, an openly gay cop that works with the homophobic Brant. Nathan Parker ("Moon") adapted the script and Elliott Lester ("Love is a Drug") is directing.
Gee, this is a role we haven't seen Statham in before. What disappoints me about this is that Statham has shown he's clearly capable of handling more serious acting in The Bank Job. Still, just because he's not stretching himself doesn't mean this is going to be a bad movie. I will say this for the man, he does his typecast role very well and if this has the same frenetic energy he's shown in films like the Crank franchise and the first Transporter then I'm betting this will be just as much fun.
Collins Out, Biel In Thor?
Clifton Collins Jr. told The Dead Bolt this week that he's no longer a part of the upcoming Thor movie, as was long rumored.
"That was a long time ago. I wasn't really getting into it, I was just preparing stuff. It's a fantastic director, a great piece, but I have absolutely nothing to do with it."
Meanwhile Jessica Biel is now being rumored to be playing a female character and love interest to the titular hero in the project according to Nuke the Fridge.
The site's source also says the role is likely to be that of Amora The Enchantress.
I like Collins, but this is probably a good thing for him as I can't currently imagine a character he really would have worked as within the Thor storyline. I'm sure he'll be missing the payday that comes along with but don't worry for him, he's doing just fine after signing onto The Experiment which is based off the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. If you're not familiar with it you should look it up online, it's a fascinating story that inspired a great German movie, upon which the new film is based.
Meanwhile, the casting of Biel is an excellent choice, as she has the right look to play the Enchantress and will add a little star power to the otherwise relatively-unknown cast. Biel is a talented actress who has been in a few duds as of late between Home of the Brave, Next and the financially successful but critical flop I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. With her most recent film Powder Blue being forced off to direct-to-video, Biel could use a big hit and Thor may be just the ticket.
Wicker Man Sequel Finally Off the Ground
ShockTillYouDrop have been informed that Robin Hardy's long awaited Cowboys For Christ is finally in production. Some shooting has already taken place in the US and the filmmakers are reportedly in the midst of the Scottish shoot right now.
Hardy's 1973 directorial debut The Wicker Man is truly one of the most jubilantly beloved films in the pantheon of British genre pictures. I still see it doing abundant business as late night screenings, and pretty much everybody I speak to holds it close and dear, including those of us all too aware of its shortcomings. For a good few years now, Hardy has been touting Cowboys as a kind of follow up, a 'spiritual successor' to feature a number of the same ingredients as Wicker Man: a clash between pagans and Christians, a remote rural location, Christopher Lee as a mysterious aristocrat.
The story was published in novel form, and therefore the major plot details would seem to be very much out in the open. Two Texan Christians, Beth and Steve, come to the Scottish community of Tressock while on a mission to spread Christianity. There they are hosted as guests of Sir Lachlan and Delia Morrison, with Lachlan to be played by Christopher Lee and, when Hardy last tried to mount the film, at least, Delia being played by Joan Collins.
The studio also reported today that the film has actually been renamed from Cowboys for Christ to The Wicker Tree.
The immediate good news is this; this is in fact a sequel to the originalWicker Man and not the Neil LaBute garbage that starred Nicholas Cage. For those who have only seen the more recent film you are missing out, as the 1973 Wicker Man is a classic B-horror film. The new film, if it can capture the feel of the original, should be much of the same. The title change can only help too, as "Cowboys for Christ" will likely draw it unneeded controversy while The Wicker Tree will provide immediate mental association with the original film. If Christopher Lee is in fact coming back then I'll be very excited to see how this one develops. It might even erase the image of Cage in a ridiculous bear suit punching out a crazy pagan girl from my mind.
Check below for some of the excellent work here on-site you should be reading if you haven't already:
Ask 411 Movies: Leonard Hayhurst tells Monster Bash stories and answers questions about Christian Bale's scant publicity for Public Enemies and black Ghostbusters outfits, identifies horror films and more! Alternate Takes: Sean Lealos talks about the history of the gangster genre from 1915's Regeneration all the way through GoodFellas! The Movie Zone Top 5 - Best Directors Working Today: One of Trevor Snyder's best topics yet that I was dumb enough not to get in on; the staff provides some great answers! Around the World in 24 Frames: It's more great work from Len Archibald as he discusses the phenomenal Pan's Labyrinth! A Bloody Good Time: Joseph Lee covers the great Jaws franchise! The McGuffin Review: Cory Johnson reviews the third episode of True Blood's current season, titled "Scratches!"
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From The Great Capt. Smooth:
Thanks for including Dave on the list. It's such a sweet movie.
Happy to do so, Mon Capitan. Dave is one of those movies I can watch over and over, and I've always felt it's underrated. Glad to know I'm not alone!
From JP:
Rocky IV is the best 4th of July movie for sheer patriotism.
Well, it's the most blatantly patriotic, to be sure. The problem here is that had to be a good movie to make it onto the list. Hmmm...should I start dodging and weaving the hate comments now, or give them a few free shots for that one?
From Spaghett:
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors i'm currently reading Good Omens which he co-wrote. Really good article.
Good Omens is one of my favorite Gaiman novels, right up there with American Gods; both of them made it onto my Top 5 for books that needed to be adapted to films. If you haven't read Gods Spaghett, you absolutely need to.
From Doom Hands:
Jaws is a family tradition for the 4th
Interesting choice. Certainly not a bad film! Ultimately whatever tradition works for you, go for it! Just stay out of the water...
From Dave:
If you're going to include Independence Day/National Treasure might as well include The Patriot. Its says it all right in the title.
Oh and Almost forgot Team America
Confession time, Dave...The Patriot bores me to death. It's a well-made film, but it just goes on and on forever and I was never able to get into it. Otherwise it would have made the list for sure. And Team America is more facetiously patriotic as opposed to being really sincere about it. I love that movie but it wouldn't have fit in this list.
The Hush-Hush Editorial Section: Game Over, Insert Coin to Continue
As I reported above, Warner Bros. now has a veritable treasure trove of video game properties thanks to Midway's recent bankruptcy and some judicious timing on their purchasing. That being the case, I thought this might be an opportune time to point out the pitfalls of making a movie based on a video game franchise, in the desperate and vain hope that someone who might be involved with the creation of one of these movies might see it and have some ray of light, some moment of clarity that helps them avoid all the problems that seem to befall nearly every similar film that's come before. Hey, a guy can dream, right?
At this point, it almost seems unfair to criticize movies based on video games. The genre, if it can be called that, has been a failure from the beginning when Super Mario Bros. was released in 1993, flopped financially and provided a permanent stain on the resumes of Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper. After that came Double Dragon and Jean-Claude Van Damme's Street Fighter, both of which somehow managed to be worse films and bigger financial disasters than the movie about plumbers in Koopa Land. While the subgenre has had some successes in the first Mortal Kombat, the Resident Evil franchise, the first Tomb Raider, Silent Hill and even Hitman—from a financial perspective, at least—the failures far outweigh the misses. Even if you remove ever abomination of a video game adaptation directed by the infamously bad Dr. Uwe Boll, the failures far outweigh the success and some have ended careers. One, the infamous bomb Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, very nearly killed an entire company when it nearly but the kibosh on the merger between Enix and Square.
So what is it about these movies that fail so terribly? A lot of theories have been posited over the years, most of them having to do with the agreements between the studios that purchase the rights to the film and the video game company selling the rights. The general feeling is that many video game companies only want to make the money off the film rights so they can compete within the cut-throat gaming market and get the name of the film out there in order to spread awareness of their product. If Electronic Arts were to theoretically sell of the rights to the sci-fi action role-playing Mass Effect, for example, they might well consider the amount of promotion for the video game worth sacrificing the artistic integrity that would enforce some kind of quality control on the film itself. After all, video game movies aren't exactly Oscar potential here and critical reviews is likely not to correspond to added money for the game company. So they sell off the rights cheap to whoever is buying them, using the capital to work on their next revolutionary game project and leaving the studio with more or less free reign to make the movie the way they want.
And how does the studio want to make it, you ask? Very simply, they want to make it in a way that will make them the most money. By now, the movie studios know that a video game franchise is not likely to attract positive reviews, and most of them are action, horror, and/or science fiction films which can all tend to be critic-proof anyway. So the studios hire starting-out writers to put a script together and put it in the hands of an inexperienced director…or someone who will just work cheap (that's where Dr. Boll comes in). The cast is similarly short-changed because the studios know they can cut together a semi-decent trailer and the name alone will guarantee a built-in fan base of gamers who will come and see it—if only to complain about it. It's important to note that this isn't always the case when it comes to studio or video game company attitudes, but when you look at the Boll films like BloodRayne and Alone in the Dark or films like the two Street Fighter movies and Max Payne, that justification is clearly the case at least some of the time.
In fact, I would say the above reason is one of the biggest reasons for studios to fail at adapting video games. The video game industry can look at comic books to see what I mean here. For years, Marvel Comics sold off the complete film rights to their characters. Sometimes it worked such as the first X-Men film, but more often the end result was the Roger Corman Fantastic Four debacle, the Captain America film or the made-for-television Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. starring David Hasselhoff. Starting with Iron Man the studio decided it had had enough, and it decided to produce the films on their own and simply find distributors to get their movie into theaters. Since then the studio has had a renaissance of sorts, and many Marvel projects that failed as film projects are considered viable again. The same concept can be applied toward video games; one studio is actively doing this in Blizzard Entertainment who is holding on tightly to their blockbuster property World of Warcraft. A Warcraft movie has been in the works for five years, all handled in-house by Blizzard who have a preliminary distribution deal with Warner Bros. This is, of course, no guarantee that the movie will be good, but at the very least the company that has put so much care into the Warcraft world's creation will be the people involved with making the film, meaning they'll care about what goes into their movie and what changes are necessary as opposed to just for the sake of a quick flash of skin or a new hot actor.
The other problem that can occur is the question of who a filmmaker should be gearing their film toward. Sometimes even when a film has a studio that stands behind it and a director who has a passion for the project, the film can fail drastically because the makers can't achieve that delicate balancing act of satisfying the hardcore gaming audience as well as mainstream fans who may not care that Command and Conquer is a real-time strategy game and how that character should be voiced by X voice actor and not Y; the mainstream fans just want a movie they can enjoy. This is an incredibly tricky high wire act to keep going,, and even talented directors and producers don't figure out how to do it sometimes. It's a feat very similar in nature to dealing with fandoms, and requires keeping true to the spirit of the source while making changes when needed to facilitate a better film—but only when needed. This does not mean changing out the lead male cop character for a sexy female cop because Megan Fox or Mila Kunis need another hit. If the story can be kept somewhat the same, do so. If not, then don't…but don't change it so drastically that is an video game adaptation only by virtue of little more than sharing character and location names (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, I'm looking at you).
So what else can an aspiring filmmaker do if they have a video game property in their grubby little hands to ensure that they won't become the object of hate from gamers worldwide? Well, call me crazy here folks, but you could always try listening to the fans. Much like fandoms, the gamers are the people who will help pull people into the theaters or driving them away. Poor reviews from the die-hard fans are sure to keep some people away. The other thing to keep in mind—and I realize that this is a crazy thing to say in the current economic market—is to put enough money in it to make it look like an actual movie, and not "just a video game movie." It may look and feel exactly like playing the game, but if the plot sucks and the special effects are somewhere right around the level of visuals required by a PlayStation 2…well, video game or not, a bad movie will be recognized as a bad movie.
And that, I think, is the bottom line. For a video game movie to succeed, it has to be looked upon as a movie first and a video game adaptation second. It sounds disgustingly simple, but it's true. Movie execs…take a moment and look at those video game licenses you hold. Ask yourself if you bought them because you thought there was a story there, or because you thought you could make money off of it. If it's the second, I'd suggest reconsidering. The backlash may do you much more harm than good.
Well, that's all for now, folks. Join us next week when we'll have more news, more rants, more mail, more links and more everything! Until then this is Jeremy Thomas, off the record, on the QT…
WHOA! I think that may be the best words written about the video game/movie subject I have ever read.
Biel in Thor? I'm still not sold on her yet.
Posted By: stevethegoose (Registered) on July 07, 2009 at 01:03 AM
I still remember going to see the first MK movie on opening day in 1995. I was 15 at the time and it had been the first movie that I had seen in a theater in about 8 or 9 years. The biggest thing I remember about it was the standing ovation it got as soon as it was over. As a kid who was too poor to get a lot of things when they first came out(NES, Ninja Turtles, etc.) or go to the movies at all, it had been one of the best moments of my life. Maybe that's why I love going to the movies today.
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 05:47 AM
I think you are looking in the wrong direction with the WB/Midway thing. Sure they could make the films, but I looked at them acquiring Midway more as a way to push the DC video games, and other Warner Brothers Interactive games out of their own house, instead of having to go through a Triple A publisher. Like you said there are some definite movie properties worth exploring. read up on The Suffering, and tell me that wouldn't make a great movie?
But I still feel that this move is primarily to give WB an easier way to push their interactive media's without sharing the wealth. Either way, it is a fairly smart move. With the right team behind Midway, they can be a force again.
And for the record, if they ever made an MK vs. DCu movie, I would be first in line to see it. No matter how silly the premise is. Great editorial section this week man.
I was going to say Jumanji style about a potential view finder movie, but you beat me to it. NICE!
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on July 07, 2009 at 09:50 AM
I still remember going to see the first MK movie on opening day in 1995. I was 15 at the time and it had been the first movie that I had seen in a theater in about 8 or 9 years. The biggest thing I remember about it was the standing ovation it got as soon as it was over. As a kid who was too poor to get a lot of things when they first came out(NES, Ninja Turtles, etc.) or go to the movies at all, it had been one of the best moments of my life. Maybe that's why I love going to the movies today.
One of the best comments i've ever read on this site. Yes MK has rubbish acting and a horrible plot, but for young gamers Mortal Kombat was the pure shiz. Amazing.
Please Warner Brothers, plaster in 50million for a P.O.S. remake and i'll gladly take my 25 year old ass to theatres to see it. Look for guidance of what is happening with the new Tekken film, using MMA superstars Cung-Le and Roger Huerta. They both fit their respective characters looks to a tee, also being legit matial artists you can expect the fight choreography to be off the chain = b-grade goodness
Posted By: Guest#9590 (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 09:53 AM
I just bought American Gods, I'll probably start reading it when I finish Omens. Thanks for the response.
Posted By: Spaghett (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 01:51 PM
