If you were given complete control over the film adaptation of your favorite videogame (or a videogame movie of your choice) how on earth would you go about it?

Who would be your ideal director and casting choices?

I don't understand the question... are you asking about How would we do things in a game that already exist if we had control of the plot? or how would we make our lives if we were the main character of a video game?

No I mean this

You're pissed off that Uwe Boll is making a Far Cry movie... so how would you do it better? Who would direct? Who would play Jack Carver? How would the story go? etc.

as in if we could how a game being made into a film, who would we want to direct it, who would play the characters, what would happen in the film, type thing?

I would make a scene by scene recreation of Halo 1, right down to each fire fight as if you were watching someone play the game on Legendary. Then everyone would realize how utterly boring such a movie would be and accept the fact that anytime someone adapts a videogame to film it's going to have massive changes to it in order to stay watchable.

Fire everyone, embellish all the money, move to the Cayman Islands, and live out my life secure in the knowledge that I prevented another of these worthless flicks from seeing production.

I'll do mine,

Bioshock directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Rapture before the end, a private eye has been hired to locate a missing child and ends up getting pulled into the politics and power plays of Rapture as the city falls apart around them.

It would be a great showcase for the setting and Jeunet does some excellent scene work and can really handle a good mystery film.

I'd probably hire JMS to write, since you know he's JMS or possibly Joss Whedon since he's worked with Jeunet before.

For stars I'd probably cast Adrian Brody as the PI (I really liked him in Hollywood Land)
Bruce Willis as Frank Fontaine
Joan Allen as Tennenbaum
Liam Neeson as Andrew Ryan (I just can't resist it)
Monica Bellucci as Jasmine Jolene

That's all I've really got settled but I think that would be pretty rockin.

I would make a movie of Gears of War, casting Vin Diesel or some generic bald-headed action-man to play that Marcus bloke.

The film would be so hilariously awful, that no-one would ever want anything to do with Gears of War ever again, and my life-long dream would be complete.

PedroSteckecilo:
I'll do mine,

Bioshock directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Rapture before the end, a private eye has been hired to locate a missing child and ends up getting pulled into the politics and power plays of Rapture as the city falls apart around them.

It would be a great showcase for the setting and Jeunet does some excellent scene work and can really handle a good mystery film.

I'd probably hire JMS to write, since you know he's JMS or possibly Joss Whedon since he's worked with Jeunet before.

For stars I'd probably cast Adrian Brody as the PI (I really liked him in Hollywood Land)
Bruce Willis as Frank Fontaine
Joan Allen as Tennenbaum
Liam Neeson as Andrew Ryan (I just can't resist it)
Monica Bellucci as Jasmine Jolene

That's all I've really got settled but I think that would be pretty rockin.

That... Could actually be pretty decent. The key thing most video game movie developers don't get (and you apparently do) is that we don't want to see a movie re-tread of the events in the game. Covering parts of the story not seen in the game is the best idea.

This generally goes both ways, now that I think about it. I've never liked a video game based on a movie unless it takes place away from the plot of that movie (i.e. I liked KOTOR because it had nothing to do with the Star Wars movies, except that it existed in the same universe).

FFVII live-action like LOTR (except better) with Guillermo del Toro as director, and three parts. They'd have to trim the character roster down, though, alter the plot to make it less convuluted (though still ambiguous), and cut out several of the less revelatory locations.

- Part I: Midgar & Kalm; would end in the swamp where Sephiroth spears the snake-thing (this is a good tension-builder)
- Part II: the protagonists travel to several locations including the casino place, the tower thing, and the ancient thing. This could end when Sephiroth blows a hole in the world or whatever.
- Part III: the climax of the game where the protagonists confront Sephiroth and Tifa nearly gets laid; this would be pretty sweet.

That or Conker's Bad Fur Day done like a Pixar film with celebrity British-comedian voice actors.

L.B. Jeffries:
I would make a scene by scene recreation of Halo 1, right down to each fire fight as if you were watching someone play the game on Legendary. Then everyone would realize how utterly boring such a movie would be and accept the fact that anytime someone adapts a videogame to film it's going to have massive changes to it in order to stay watchable.

Not all videogames would make crappy movies, for one you'd have to do something that isn't one giant Starship Troopers/Aliens reference like Halo or a Cop Movie/Noir parody/homage like Max Payne. Pick something with a more original premise like... I dunno... Persona 3, Teenagers become Super Powered Demons to save the world by committing simulated suicide over and over again? That would be some cool movie imagary.

Mega Man. Look up 'Maelgrim', 'Magus 523' and 'Erico'. Between them they have just about novelized the entire tale of the clans of Light and Wily from start to finish, far better than Capcom's writers ever could. But more than that, I'd actually want to do some freaking research on the current state of artificial intelligence and then make a 30-40 year leap ahead. No robot master except Rock, Blues and Roll have to be bipedal. Only the popular 'Guts' and 'Cut' models would be required as antagonists, plus maybe a few other fan favorites. Focus a good deal of the development on Rock as the first war transforms him from an aloof prototype (think Bicentennial Man) to a hardened warrior exploring new evolutions of AI while struggling not to lose his moral compass. At the same time Dr. Albert Wily gradually becomes more and more deranged and murderous with every setback until his ultimate defeat. Then comes his final scene, an 'epilogue' of sorts when he stewing in jail... and suddenly hears a five-note whistle, the owner of which quickly breaks him out.

EDIT: Oops, it looks like that's already gotten started. Quality will obviously hinge on actors, not special effects, but I like the look of the Metools.

PedroSteckecilo:

Not all videogames would make crappy movies, for one you'd have to do something that isn't one giant Starship Troopers/Aliens reference like Halo or a Cop Movie/Noir parody/homage like Max Payne. Pick something with a more original premise like... I dunno... Persona 3, Teenagers become Super Powered Demons to save the world by committing simulated suicide over and over again? That would be some cool movie imagary.

I didn't mean to say they'd make bad movies, I agree with you on Bioshock and can rattle off plenty of other examples. I just think you have to acknowledge that even with something like Persona 3, you're going to have to do some pretty extensive overhauling of the plot once you take away the interactivity that made countless scenes watchable.

klakkat:

PedroSteckecilo:
Wall of Text!

That... Could actually be pretty decent. The key thing most video game movie developers don't get (and you apparently do) is that we don't want to see a movie re-tread of the events in the game. Covering parts of the story not seen in the game is the best idea.

Now imagine a sequence where you first see a splicer in the film, our hero is beaten up by Ryan's men for digging to deep and then thrown into the slums of rapture, he then awakens and stumbles down a dark alleyway when he hears something moving behind him, he turns to see a mad junky, hopped up on Plasmids, with those horrible bug hives all over him gradually stumbling towards the PI hero in a mad daze.

first of it would be in cgi with the voice actors from the game, second off it wouldn't deveate from the game, you know what, the heck with it, just take the cutscences from the game and put them on the big screen...

klakkat:
The key thing most video game movie developers don't get (and you apparently do) is that we don't want to see a movie re-tread of the events in the game. Covering parts of the story not seen in the game is the best idea.

This generally goes both ways, now that I think about it. I've never liked a video game based on a movie unless it takes place away from the plot of that movie (i.e. I liked KOTOR because it had nothing to do with the Star Wars movies, except that it existed in the same universe).

Exactly. The thing with games is that there a lot of long, drawn-out fights and/or platforming sequences you have to go through, which is fine when the media is interactive, but which does not translate well to film. The converse is true for movie-to-game adaptions. I think producers are actually starting to realize this; Dead Space wouldn't have made a very good movie (actually,it might have worked, but shut up, I'm trying to make a point here), but they did make Dead Space: Downfall which actually looks pretty good (haven't seen it yet, but definitely want to.) What they realized is that if players want to go through the game's story, they'll play the game. What producers need to keep doing is making stuff like prequel or epilogue movies (like Downfall), or, if the game universe is expansive enough, starting with that and creating an entirely new story.

Once he's done with the Monopoly movie, I would shit my pants if I heard that Ridley Scott was working on a Half-Life movie set during the Seven Hour War. A bunch of unknowns, perhaps. Tell us the story of some military squad or even a bunch of civilians as they finish dealing with the fallout of the Black Mesa incident and start getting their asses handed to them by the Combine.

Left 4 Dead: No Mercy

Will Smith as Louis, Jeff Bridges as Bob, Vin Deisel as Francis, Uma Thurman as Zoe.

Movie begins 2 weeks before the start of the game. For the purposes of story and introduction, all the survivors will meet each other BEFORE infection. They all meet each other through the gun club/shooting range that Bob runs, or through the diner Zoe works at as a waitress.

Things that will absolutly not be in my movie:
1. An Explaination
2. A Romance. Well, maybe later

The first half of the movie will detail the initial infection and the break down of society, the second half will take place during the events of the game and follow their mad dash to Mercy Hospital. The movie of course ends with them escaping on the helicopter...

Which will promptly crash outside Riverside at the beginning of the next movie. Special infected (with the exception of the Tanker who will be set piece for the first movie) will be saved for the sequel.

PacMan directed by Tarentino.

Chuck Norris plays Pacman.
Brad Pitt playing Pinky
Orlando Bloom playing Inky
Johnny Depp playing Orangy (I forget their names.)
Other crap actor Z playing last ghost.

Plot is self explanatory. I just want to see crap actors getting eaten up :>

Hearthing:
PacMan directed by Tarentino.

Chuck Norris plays Pacman.
Brad Pitt playing Pinky
Orlando Bloom playing Inky
Johnny Depp playing Orangy (I forget their names.)
Other crap actor Z playing last ghost.

Plot is self explanatory. I just want to see crap actors getting eaten up :>

Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.

Assassins creed

It would be set in the present, and would be slightly hitman-ish.
Story:Uwe boll has created a machine which can brainwash people into thinking that his movies are pretty good. The assassin must find Uwe boll and kill him before Boll uses the machine.

What do you think?

I'd like to do a movie based on the classic arcade game Defender. Since the game itself has an almost non-existant plot, I could write up a story of my own about colonists who go to Mars to terraform it and settle on it, but end up being attacked by aliens from another dimention who want the planet too. The hero who saves the colonists from being abducted and incorporated into the alien ships bio-mechanical systems could be played by French Stewart (why not? He was good in Stargate and Third Rock from the Sun). It could be an "all-star" cast for that matter with all kinds of famous actors playing the colonists and people back on Earth. As far as directors go, I'm not sure who I'd pick. It would have to be someone who I could work with and who would not go and change my screenplay past all recognition like happens so often in movies. The actual aliens themselves would not be revealed, just their ships. I think it's cool when the villians of a movie are more mysterious.

I think the obvious would be to use games that *had* great stories to begin with. Other than that, maybe flesh out the story in games where it's not well-presented (fighting games, say what you will about the Street Fighter movie, I thought the Mortal Kombat movie was awesome).