Game movies (LIST IN FIRST POST)

[MikeHaggar]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/ ... rlowe.html

With a movie version of Missile Command essentially set up at Fox and an adaptation of Asteroids in development at Universal, it was only a matter of time before a studio decided to take on the grandfather of all video games, Space Invaders.

And now it looks like one could.

Warner Bros. is negotiating to acquire feature rights to the landmark shooter from Taito, the Japanese company that originally manufactured the game. If the rights issues all work out, the project would bring on Hollywood fixtures Mark Gordon, Jason Blum and Guymon Casady as producers.

Gordon is a film veteran with experience at the big-budget art house ("Saving Private Ryan") as well as the big-budget commercial ("The Day After Tomorrow"). Blum is best known for producing horror breakout "Paranormal Activity," while Cassady is a manager-producer with a slew of high-profile clients.

It's not surprising that Warner Bros. would look to jump-start a Space Invaders movie; last summer the studio bought Midway, the video game's U.S. publisher (which does not control theatrical rights), and also is developing a feature of another video game, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."

[maf-me-quick]

^^ this will never happen. and if it does, then hollywood needs to get out more.

[MikeHaggar]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/62860

'Collateral' and 'The Soloist' star Jamie Foxx will play the violent James Lynch alongside Bruce Willis in the video game adaptation of IO Interactive's 2007 shooter Kane & Lynch, according to the movie's screenwriter Kyle Ward on Twitter.

"Done deal... Jamie Foxx is in," Ward wrote before clarifying the actor will be in Kane & Lynch, not the Uncharted adaptation or Hitman movie sequel he is also writing.

"It's not going to have every sequence from the game," producer Adrian Askarieh previously explained "but it's essentially the story of a mercenary teaming up with a schizophrenic psychopath to save his wife and daughter." Bruce Willis--playing family man Kane--has "called it one of the best action scripts he's ever read," Askarieh says.

[maf-me-quick]

[Sly Reflex]

I wonder if the audience in the cinema can make it past the Havana scene without having to walk out due to a spike in the story?

[MikeHaggar]

Kotaku takes a look at a version of the Kane & Lynch script:
http://kotaku.com/5497820/first-impress ... vie-script

The version of the Kane & Lynch script we got our hands on dates back to September 13, 2007, so what we're reading may not represent the final product.

The 112 page script follows the plot of the original Eidos-published game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men fairly closely, introducing us to the titular characters. The names have been slightly rearranged, Marcus J. Kane and Lester Lynch, respectively, with their backgrounds fleshed out over the course of two violent flashbacks.

As in the game, Kane and Lynch are on their way to death row when a group of mercenaries, The Seven, plow through their prison transport bus and snatch up the two convicts. The two are informed they have just a few days to hunt down Japanese crime lord Retomoto Matsahushi, retrieve an important MacGuffin, or Kane's wife and daughter will be executed.

Here's where things start to deviate. Kane's daughter hates his guts, a fact pounded into the viewer during the film's opening scene, a feeling made much more ambiguous in the game.

The script does have some action scenes that sound like potential highlights, including repeated use of construction equipment to destroy people, places and things.

Another potentially interesting set piece is the gunfight conducted in a crowded public place, both parties armed with silencers, resulting in a shoot out in which nearby bystanders are blissfully unaware of the bullets whizzing by them—and the people who are killed as a result of the quiet gunfire.

Some more stuff in the link.

[maf-me-quick]

that night club scene actually sounds like it could be pretty cool depending on how well it's directed, which of course, won't be very well at all.

[MikeHaggar]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111801 ... =1079&cs=1

Warner Bros. is game for "Spy Hunter."

The studio is developing a feature version of the vidgame with Dan Lin ("Sherlock Holmes") and Roy Lee of Vertigo producing. The story follows a highly trained spy hunter whose job it is to eliminate rogue spies when they become liabilities to their governments.

Chad St. John has been tapped to pen the screenplay. His scripting credits for Warner Bros. include "Days Before," "Sgt. Rock" and "Motor City." Doug Davison is exec producing and Stephen Gilchrist is co-producer. Jon Berg is overseeing for Warners.

"Spy Hunter" had recently been in development at Universal, where John Woo and Paul W.S. Anderson were attached to direct at various points and Dwayne Johnson attached to star. Scribes including Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Zak Penn and Stuart Beattie had all worked on "Spy Hunter" scripts.

Warner Bros. picked up most of Midway's assets in bankruptcy court last summer for the fire-sale price of $33 million, giving the studio rights to "Mortal Kombat," "Spy Hunter," "Joust" and several other game franchises -- with the intention of continuing them as games and extending the brands to the bigscreen.

[MikeHaggar]

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/halo ... ys-bungie/

Speaking to IndustryGamers as part of an in-depth interview, Bungie's Brian Jarrard told us that, if anything, following Halo: Reach's launch later this year, the market should be even more ripe for a Halo movie.

"Are there more stories to be told in the Halo universe? Absolutely. Do I think Reach will be the biggest game ever and probably attract an even larger audience to the fan community? Yes, I actually do. I would think that the marketplace for a movie would be more ripe post Reach than it even was after Halo 3, so I'm willing to bet that it's not a matter of if, just when," he said.

"I'm just speculating here since it's Microsoft's decision, but looking at how Halo Legends went and the release of that animated feature, definitely there's demand for it, and I do applaud them for not rushing into it and waiting until they find the right people and the right creative ideas and the right time frame. I think all of us at Bungie would love to see the right movie still get made with the right people; we're just going to have to wait and see, just like all of our fans!"

Microsoft's Frank O'Connor also told IGN this February, "I do work every week connected to when a movie, or if a movie, is eventually made, are we ready to go? And the answer is very much so, yes. But we can afford to bide our time and wait for the exact perfect time and the exact perfect partner."

[MikeHaggar]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/wonderco ... p?id=64716

Sony's Screen Gems has revealed these first photos from Resident Evil: Afterlife, hitting 3D and 2D theaters on September 10.

Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the fourth installment stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Spencer Locke, Wentworth Miller, Shawn Roberts, Boris Kodjoe, Kim Coates, Norman Yeung and Kasey Barnfield.

In the film, Alice continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead leads them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

Photos in the link.

[MikeHaggar]

Video interview with Jake Gyllenhaal about the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/wonderco ... p?id=64701

[MikeHaggar]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... ?id=241220

Red Faction is set to get the movie treatment, which will come in conjunction with the next game, THQ's core VP, Danny Bilson has revealed.

Speaking to CVG in New York City last weekend, the games boss revealed THQ's new 'trans-media' strategy, which will involve developing movie projects in conjunction with its games.

"What you're going to see from us in how we're going to see original IP is going to be different," he said. "We're going to be doing the most robust trans-media plays anybody's ever seen in the games business.

"Other companies are, 'oh, we just license this IP to this studio' and you never see anything, or at the most you see some bad Mario Bros. movie. Nobody has ever made it work."

Bilson told us that THQ's soon to announce "some really interesting stuff" in relation to the trans-media strategy. When asked which games the announcement will be related to, he said simply, "Red Faction".

"My game is going to get made either way but what I do is I'm giving these movie guys the opportunity to meet me two or three years at the end with a triple-A, awesome game and a triple-A, awesome movie that compliment each other - and certainly don't repeat each other - and start to build a world and a fiction and all of that.

"You're going to see some announcements from us soon that are very robust in that area and it's nothing like you've seen before."

[MikeHaggar]

Resident Evil Afterlife trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-deR34VdJ5k

[MikeHaggar]

Intverview with producer Jeremy Bolt about Resident Evil: Afterlife:
http://shocktillyoudrop.com/news/interv ... p?id=14753

ShockTillYouDrop.com: Are the zombie dogs going to be CG in the movie?

Jeremy Bolt: A combination of CG and then real Dobermans. We have real Dobermans covered in makeup. Then, we do a CG take over. Their head will literally explode – will flair open, the jaws will come here and this is very much part of the new game, Resident Evil 5. We were very, very impressed with the Resident Evil 5 game. It's probably the best game since the first game. It's been a massive success. I think apart from being pretty grotesque, it's a piece of art as well.

Shock: How are the undead and the zombies different in this movie than in the previous ones?

Bolt: They're becoming a bit more intelligent. They also have mandibles, tentacles that come out of their mouths.

Shock: That's from the game too.

Bolt: Yeah, more intelligent, physically evolving and there was a character, one of them becomes quite a big character in this version of the film. As I said, we really looked at the last game, although it's set in Africa, we're not in Africa. We did take a lot of their characters from that game and worked them into this ‘cause we were very impressed with it.

Shock: Is this envisioned as the final chapter in this?

Bolt: We try to make every one a satisfactory movie and if the movie does well enough and we feel there's a demand and Paul and I and my colleagues are creatively excited enough, we would do another one. I think that we try to view every one as it could be the last one. We're not presumptuous enough to think it will just keep going. But, one of the things that's pretty exciting is now we are working very closely with Capcom, so we have a very strong relationship and my dream is that I actually will make a version of this film that properly integrates a game and a movie, which has never been done to my knowledge.

More stuff in the link.

[MikeHaggar]

List in first post updated.