Shadow Of The Colossus Movie Slated For 3D
Shadow of the Colossus looks like it may soon be dealt a final blow with the sword of profit by writer Justin Marks. In a conversation about 3D in films with the LA Times he said:
If you don’t have an action tentpole that can conceivably be thought of in 3-D, you may as well make small indie movies because the studios aren’t going to be that interested.
By triangulating our knowledge of logic, syntax and Hollywood we can estimate that what he’s saying is “We’re going to 3D the shit out of this b*tch” followed by a slow sideways grinding movement, rubbing of the thumbs and forefingers, and rapid flicking of the tongue. You may think I’m being too harsh on the aspiring young writer, but bear in mind, this is the man who wrote Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li and described it as ‘œa gritty, realistic character piece’ and ‘œa very different game-to-movie adaptation’.
‘¦Colossus has a small history with films, being described by Guillermo Del Toro as one of only two games he’d call a “masterpeice”, the other being companion piece Ico. We could take Del Toro’s experience with vast, epic and vertically exciting stories and hope that he might use his sway in Hollywood to come on as director, but if he’s any sort of gamer it’s likely he’ll steer well clear. It also appeared as a fairly central part of the film Reign Over Me, as an emotional crutch for Adam Sander’s lead character after he loses his family in the attacks of 9/11. There’s a great article about how this came to be here, which details a rare example of a positive and organic interaction between the awkward step-brothers of game and film.
As far as I’m concerned this is as far as Shadow of the Colossus needs to go in Hollywood. For me, it’s a perfect game. It’s one of the very few games that manages to use gameplay that relates directly to an original and captivating story, with a level of subtlety and finesse that outstrips any other game I’ve ever played. Add to that an incredible score, animation that requires no suspension of disbelief and graphics that evoke more than the most stunningly rendered games of the current generation, and you have a masterpiece of its medium, which can only be ruined by the interference of another. Perhaps I’m being too precious, but I can’t help but be overly protective thinking about that bad man’s dirty, sweaty hands man-handling one of the important media experiences I’ve had since I saw my first film in the cinema at the age of 5 (Jungle Book).
It should really be left alone. It’s a huge, architectural, sprawling meta-narrative, with a minimal amount of speech and an unforgettable story. As soon as you start trying to climb all over it and pull it apart it’ll all collapse. And then all this weird black goo will come out and spike you, and then you’ll wake up in the temple again’¦
(That said, if anyone at Sony wants to re-release Ico and …Colossus in a nice box in HD with a 3D option at 60fps in time for The Last Guardian I might be more happy to forgive any consensual bastardisation of my cherished IPs.)
Via: CVG
trying to make a movie out of a game yields a higher chance of entertainment than not to try.
And if it sucks, ignore it.
@NoZart: of course, but it’s about something that’s been very finely crafted that’s going to be pulled apart and put back together again in some sort of westernised frankenstein, why do it at all? why not fund an original script that stands on it’s own merits? if the film is good, great, but it can never be as good as the game for so many reasons. there are a million games that would work well as films, but this is one of the few that would lose something in the conversion.
I get your point. But still, let em have at it, there is a slim chance of it actually being good.
Silent Hill is a game where people shuddered at the idea of having a movie about and it turned out pretty fine.
Also Tomb Raider, but thats a guilty pleasure ;-)
@NoZart: i actually think colossus would be a very good use of 3D considering the visuals, but so far there hasn’t been a single 3D film that’s been lauded for it’s story, the films they chose to make in 3D are always played safe in order to secure a return on the investment, the LA times article referenced is an interesting idicator of how Hollywood is treating 3D and how it relates to genre and story.
Personally I thought Silent Hill was pretty bad and Tomb Raider was functional, but I’ve hardly played either game.
Silent Hill is a bad movie. But it is a very good game movie. If one has played Silent Hill and enjoyed it, he finds lots of elements in that movie.
Game movies will always have a hard time being good movies, because movies are in big part about characterization and games are mostly about the story. I always consider that when watching “game movies”, plus i somehow watch them as hidden cut scenes or the like :)
About the 3D-thing: at the moment its completely true that the technology acts as a stand in for content quality, but as more and more movies go 3D (and cinemas need to do that because its their last line of defense vs. HDTV) and it becomes a “quasistandard”, the scripts will improve again.
But until then, i just take them as what they are: 2 hours of eye-candy where i can shut of my brain and bask in the technicalities :)
This is one of the reasons why I hate video game movies. Don’t select games that would be good cross media stories. They need to pick games with little story and plot points but with a solid narrative foundation like Gears of War (I think very little would be lost in a Gears movie).
A Shadow of the Colossus movie will have almost no impact due to the story’s reliance on actually making you kill the colossi. Hollywood has much better options to go with for a more commercial success so this is probably being driven by a select group of people who want to make it and will be fresh targets for mockery and persecution later.