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Which Movies Were Game Changers?
Hollywood has been mining literature for source material for years, often with excellent results — 11 literary adaptations were nominated for Academy Awards in 2012 alone — and comic books have inspired several of the most popular and successful movies in recent years. Video games, on the other hand, have proven to be difficult to successfully translate to film. Gamers are often more interested in a game's graphics or the ability to earn achievements than in its plot, so there is often little for the screenwriters to draw upon. As Corey May, co-founder of Sekretagent Productions explained to CNN, "It often comes down to money, as movie studios frequently choose to make films based on the franchises that sell the best, not those with the most cinematic potential."
Still, the success of the Resident Evil franchise — $893 million worldwide and counting— and the prospect of enticing the hundreds of millions of gamers around the world to turn out to see a movie based upon their favorite game keeps Hollywood going back to the video game well for more. Only days ago, it was announced that Ubisoft and New Regency's Assassin's Creed adaptation is moving forward with Michael Fassbender headlining, and there are dozens of other adaptations currently in development, which should be great news for movie fans and video game fans alike. Have there been some turkeys? Absolutely. More than a few, but, despite what CNN's video game expert may think, movies based on video games don't all "stink". In fact, some of them are downright badass. Help us select the video game movies that defied expectations by entertaining us instead of making us groan.
Rate the Top 10 Best Video Game Movie Adaptations >>
Posted 10.26.12 by BrentJS -
Back in 1995, enthusiastic audiences showed up for the adaptation of Mortal Kombat, based on the popular video game series. Two years later, those same audiences stayed home for the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
Fast-forward 11 years and a reboot is now in the works. Warner Bros. has brought in a huge action director for the job — Kevin Tancharoen, who directed the Fame remake and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie. Wait, what?
Tancharoen was aware of his own reputation, and set out to prove himself with a non-authorized, 8-minute Mortal Kombat short, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which led to the authorized 10-episode web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. "I knew nobody would risk putting my name in front of a genre movie," the director recently told The LA Times. "There would be an outcry by fans with everyone asking, 'Why are you getting the guy who did Fame to make Mortal Kombat?' I knew I had to get some credibility." The result is helming the Mortal Kombat reboot.
fans can look forward to a "darker and grittier" Mortal Kombat >> Posted 10.04.11 by Ryan -
Fans of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise are finally getting a big screen reboot.
The franchise suffered a "fatality" (ahem) with 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation the sequel to the successful, though cheesy, 1995 original. A third installment was planned but never came to fruition after Annihilation bombed — and after Warner Bros. announced a reboot in early 2010 that ended up in a lawsuit a month later. It seemed like another Mortal Kombat was never going to happen.
what changed? >> Posted 09.30.11 by Ryan -
Game website Kotaku found what looked to be an extended trailer for Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which the site speculated was either for an upcoming Mortal Kombat game or movie, but they weren't sure. Appearing in Rebirth was actress Jeri Ryan, known to sci-fi fans from her work on the TV show Star Trek: Voyager, who used her Twitter page to explain.
Okay, so ... Mortal Kombat. It's not a game trailer. Actually was made for the director to sell WB on his vision for a reimagined MK film.
More MK FAQs: I did it as a favor to a friend. No idea yet what WB's reaction to it was.
Who else is in the trailer? Watch it to find out >> Posted 06.09.10 by Ryan -
Less than a month after the news broke that Warner Bros. planned to reboot the Mortal Kombat movie franchise, the project may already be dead in the water. Or, to use an expression from the popular fighting game that inspired the movies, the reboot may have suffered a "fatality."
Warner Bros. purchased Midway Games for $33 million last year after the company filed for bankruptcy, giving Warner control of a library of video game franchises that includes Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, Joust, and many others. According to Variety, Threshold Entertainment has now filed a lawsuit against Warner for breach of contract regarding the planned reboot, citing property ownership stemming from an agreement the company claims to have made with Midway Games prior to Warner's purchase. The lawsuit accuses Warner of "failing to cooperate and respond" to Threshold's claims to the property in an effort "to cut out" Threshold from any potential profits resulting from the planned movie.
Warner Bros. has not publicly commented on the lawsuit, but the Variety article states that this is the third lawsuit filed against Warner Bros. by Threshold since 2008. The previous two lawsuits apparently accused Warner and its subsidiary, New Line Cinema, of failing to properly account for the proceeds from the first Mortal Kombat movie, released in 1995. The outcome of those lawsuits was not mentioned.
Posted 02.21.10 by BrentJS -
Just as one video game-to-movie adaptation bites the dust, news of another video game making the transition to the big screen (again) pops up. Recently, producer Michael de Luca said that the long-planned adaptation of Konami's Metal Gear Solid video game was not going to happen because it was "impossible to get the agendas" of the movie studio and Konami "to match up." Now, BloodyDisgusting reports that Warner Bros. is interested in rebooting the Mortal Kombat franchise that spawned out of the Midway Games video game series, but stalled out after only two movies.
The Mortal Kombat video games from Midway were a series of popular "fighting games" that were big on "special moves," but very light on story. The first Mortal Kombat game, which debuted in 1992, followed seven warriors as they fought in a gladiatorial tournament to secure the freedom of the "Earthrealm." Midway Games was sold to Warner Bros. for $33 million in cash last year after declaring bankruptcy and Mortal Kombat, along with Spy Hunter and many other games, are now controlled by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
The only other news offered up about the planned reboot is that Warner Bros. is looking to hire unproduced screenwriter Oren Uziel to pen the script. Uziel wrote the script for Shimmer Lake, which was picked up by Fox Atomic but never made.
Posted 01.27.10 by BrentJS