Game to movie or Movie to Game.

[kaneda]

Just interested to see people's thoughts on movies they've seen that would make good video games, or vice versa. In both cases it almost never seems to work. There have been a handful of good movie to game adaptations, but almost no (at least none that I can think of) good game to movie adaptations. So give me your ideas for possible titles (either movies or games) in this genre. Here's a couple I'd love to see.

Movie to game: 20th Century Boys. It's a sweeping sci-fi that would translate well into the RPG genre of games. A lot of characters, an intricate plot and it spans 4 decades. The movie is based on an extensive manga, but is cut into three chapters, which could also translate to the game.

Game to movie: Chronotrigger. This would work better as CG kid's movie. The idea of time jumping and the amount of kid friendly characters could possibly make it work. I realise it smacks of sacrilege, but with talking robots, prehistoric amazonian women and time travel - a kid's movie is about the only option.

Movie to game: Avatar. Now I know what you're about to say - there already was a game. Yeah, but it sucked. I'm thinking along the lines of an MMORPG, much in the vein of WOW. The biggest drawcard of the movie was Pandora, so allowing players to live within that world just seems like a recipe for success. Make it extensive and interactive, where a player could take on the role of a Na'Vi from any number of clans.

Game to Movie: Bioshock. You'd have to change the title, and rework the plot a hell of a lot, but Bioshock has such beautiful design that it would fit right into a movie. Bioshock is also a stand-alone title, where the back story is played out in the game itself. Really I just wanna see a Big Daddy thrown up onto a huge screen.

[Beat]

I'd love to see Assassins Creed as a movie, with all the aspects of the game including the modern/ancient parts. I know UBISOFT tried to make such a thing but it only featured the early ancient of the game and it totally sucked overall.

Actually I'd love to see it done in the style of Nolan's movies, adapted to meet the AC feel. I'd totally watch that several times.

[Noah]

It's simple, the reason they make movies out of games and the other way around is in 99% of cases almost entirely to make profit. They also rush the production like crazy, ever noticed that games usually come out only a few weeks after the movie premier? A good game will take up to several years, not a few months, to make.

It always makes me rage hard when I see these shite games being made simply because the movie was a success, especially when there are so many good ideas in need of nourishment. I'm highly certain that I'll be working within the video-game genre developing games, because it's an incredibly easy market for people willing to dedicate alot of time combined with the ability to think and move outside the very limited platform on which most games are made today.

Game development companies are like late 18th century gold diggers, with their fancy pickaxes and the rest. Once they hit gold they just keep digging and digging, extracting and extracting, selling and selling. I just hope this generic shooter goldrush will end soon, it's starting to get on my nerves.. Imagine the great games we could've had if everyone hadn't played World Of Warcraft and Call Of Duty 24/7. Still waiting for Blizzard to release Warcraft 4, but I doubt they ever will since they put the end of the Warcraft storyline in WoW, so they'll have to develop an entirely new storyline for the original f**king game. Again, all about milking the golden veins of their sweet sweet ore until they're completely drained, don't even get me started on the never-ending amount of expansions Blizzard releases in order to make profit.

Bottomline is; the gaming industry consists of a bunch of sissies who are afraid to move into uncharted territory and take risks, they need to stop safing their shit.

[Genyus]

Most games are like playing a movie, so a lot of games can be 'translated' to movies.

I've been re-playing the Max Payne games lately and every time I think there should have been a movie about it (which there actually is, but I've heard it sucks. Didn't see it myself though so I could be wrong).

[kaneda]

@Noah: In a lot of cases the games are greenlit only weeks after the movie is. Studios can predict a hit long before it hits screens, and 9 times out of 10 hit movies will be action or sci-fi, or a combination of the two. But I do agree that the games are made solely for the purpose of increasing profit on the coat tails of a successful movie. Also, they're normally farmed out to cheaper game companies, so the end result is cheap and not well thought out.

@Beat: Yeah, I've heard rumblings of Assassin's Creed becoming a feature film. The problem is that with a game to movie adaptation, you really need to strike while the iron's hot. Assassin's Creed's popularity is slowly dying off, so unless a movie is greenlit in the next few months, it'll be too late to capitalise - considering the movie could take years to finish.

Another interesting idea would be translating Half Life's story to a movie. The story's origin as played out in the first Half Life probably wouldn't cut it (it plays out more like a B-Grade sci-fi), but the second game delved much deeper and had much more scope. It's almost like a modern retelling of 1984.

[disciplo]

Metal Gear Solid into a movie. It would probably be a 3h movie but I'd still see it

[Jubito]

^Definitely Metal Gear Solid and Assassins Creed as BeaT aforementioned.

[灰野 敬二]

None.

Fahrenheit - a movie AND a game at the same time.

[Artifex]

I'd love to see Skyrim as a movie & Red Dead Redemption

The trailer already looked sweet

Skyrim Live action Trailer The Dragonborn comes

[RedX]

Rubber | trailer US (2011)
This as a game would be so retarded, and possibly fun.
I guess the concepts of the series Dexter, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones could possibly work as games.

As for game into movie adaptions... just doesn't sound right, RPGs are the games that provide the most rewarding stories, and they often take 20-50 hours to play, so cramming the story into a movie could be a mistake. The only games I've seen movie adaptations from were Final Fantasy VII: AC and Tekken: Blood Vengeance, animation was cool but it didn't really work for me.

All in all I guess there's a reason movies are movies and games are games, they have such different elements that make up the entertainment, that adapting between the two isn't such a good idea... Maybe games like SSX or NFSU could make for some mindless entertainment (sick riding/driving skills)

Can anyone state some truly great movie to game, or game to movie adaptations? I haven't heard of one.

[kaneda]

The old Dune games weren't terribly bad. They were basically RTS games, but tended to be based more on the novels than the movie, even though the movie was the real catalyst for their production.

It's tricky because a lot of movies adapted from games have come really close to the mark. Silent Hill had great art direction, and had the potential to bring the game to life, but fell short. The same is true of the Resident Evil films, until they just decided to go off on their own tangent. As you say, the problem is that they're two different beasts. It's invariably easier to do a game based on a movie, and there has been successful examples of this (Robocop, Ghostbusters - the new one, not the old 8 bit one, Lego Star Wars, etc). It's a different story when you have to strip the product bare in order to put it on screen. Advent Children was a sidestory, and not really a re-telling of FFVII, but did manage to incorporate a lot of the game's elements, if only briefly.

Oh, and while I'm posting - District 9: The Game. The movie plays out so much like a video game that the translation would be just a matter of joining the dots. Great setting, great weapons and a pre-established fan base.

[Simon]

I'd totally love to see a shadow of the colossus like movie, if they do it right. That feeling of that it's just him and his horse and a great deal of these Colossie that he has to fight. I doubt they'd get 16 fights in a movie though, three might be a good number.

The same goes with Portal, but they'll have to stay true to certain of the games designs, or else it would ruin it for me

[kaneda]

Shadow of the Colossus is another good one, yeah. The game featured prominently in Reign Over Me, but more as symbolism pertaining to overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds.

Portal would be tricky, it's essentially a puzzle game. Can't help but think that would make a better Saturday morning kid's cartoon 

[Neotec]

BioShock Movie (2013) - Trailer

Its a fake but it would be really awesome to see a Bioshock movie. Bioshock fucking rocks. 
Or a Duke Nukem movie. 

[kaneda]

I have no idea how game adaptations actually come about. I know the number crunchers would be concerned most about the fan base. The only studio films that were based on games were titles that had enjoyed tremendous success, and were primed for adaptation - the Resident Evil franchise is the most recognisable example.

A game like COD (any of the franchise) is much more successful, but isn't really primed for adaptation. One, because it's like any formulaic war movie, and two, because it's subject matter can be a little controversial. A game like Bioshock, on the other hand, doesn't have the same 'household name' status. It's fan base is what might be considered adequate for the gaming market, but it's in no way a phenomenal hit like COD.

There are most likely a tonne of other factors that go into the decision making process, which may be why so many games that seem like adaptation 'no-brainers' never see the light of day. The amount of paper pushing that plagued the planned Halo movie has basically eaten into the time when Halo was still popular among gamers. Now, even if the movie did come out, I doubt it would have the pull it would have about 2 or 3 years ago.

There's also the factor that someone already mentioned - that games are so lifelike now that doing a film adaptation could be a little redundant. Somebody also mentioned Skyrim as a movie, but the game is so movie-like, with the added appeal of interactivity. Why would you passively watch a movie, when you could be telling the story yourself?