What's more upsetting: that rumored God of War director Brett Ratner thinks the Guitar Hero brand is good movie material or that someone actually pays this guy to consult on their brands? In an interview with the movie mangler, MTV managed to get Ratner to say (ostensibly with a straight face), "I would love to do a Guitar Hero movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie." Oh no, what could be bad about a movie based on a video game that tasks players with hitting colored dots in time with rock music? Wait, don't answer that. Joystiq spies report that Ratner is also considering adaptations of video game classics Pong and Tetris.
So there's that. Then there's this: Brett Ratner was paid real money to "come up with a name" for the latest Guitar Hero. Ratner says, "I did, and it became Guitar Hero: World Tour." In other words, the geniuses at Activision couldn't figure out a name on their own, so who better than the guy who directed Rush Hour? In other news, we're apparently in the wrong line of work.
You may recall that, a little over than a week ago, some purported concept art for a Halo movie based on Eric Nylund's Halo: Fall of Reach novel surfaced on the web. If you don't, here's a convenient link back through time. Pretty nifty, huh?
So it's going on 10 days later and a new, less "Spartans in Spaaaaace!" piece of art has sprung up, appearing to depict our finest future-soldiers in training. Make with the clicking on the image above or Source link below for a larger version ... and keep hope alive that the fight for a Halo film is eventually finished.
Well, Joystiq Biomass, we need your help. JustJared nabbed these, the first pics of Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan in the upcoming Prince of Persiafilm. What we need your help on figuring out is if we're excited by these pictures or not.
No, we don't mean sexually excited, that's obvious. (Look at him!) No, we mean from a fanboy point of view. Is this close enough to your vision of the Prince to let you be a little hopeful? Or is the director's disregard for the source material still a deal breaker?
It should come as no surprise that our favorite film around Joystiq HQ is Matthew McConaughey starrer Fool's Gold. We even have an adorable little Fool's Gold drinking game where ... well, we get really drunk and watch Fool's Gold. It's precious. Now, Ken Levine tells videogaming247 that, despite what we all assumed, the BioShock movie will be little to nothing like Fool's Gold!
"You're always going to be worried that in that first meeting they're going to be, like, 'OK, it's Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey on a desert island hunting for pirate treasure,' but it's not going to go that way," he said. Apparently, KennyL thinks director Gore Verbinski and crew "will very much honor the dramatic and thematic elements of the game."
... So you're saying there's not even room for Alexis Dziena as a ditzy heiress who proves to herself that she has something more to offer besides a killer body and a 1,000-watt smile? Why are you even making this movie?
Boogie Nights' well-endowed Dirk Diggler? Nope. The Departed's wise-cracking Dignam? Uh-uh. Maybe Planet of the Ap ... yeah, not that one obviously. We're just wondering what Mark "y Mark" Wahlberg's favorite role has been in his brief, but illustrious, career. Turns out we don't need to guess, big Mark is here to tell us. Comparing his "out of control" childhood and the accompanying life lessons it provided in the latest issue of Total Film magazine with Max Payne's inner demons, Wahlberg says, "Maybe that's why this character is my favourite role so far."
Great, more data. So now you're tasked with weighing the various pieces of evidence at your disposal – he hasn't played the video game; the posters are great; he loves the role; Beau Bridges is in it – and making a snap judgment on a movie that isn't out yet. Quick! Does it suck? Is it going to be great? Citizen Kane or Max Payne, pick one!
So there was talk about Stuart Beattie – you may know him better as that guy adaptingGears of War for the big screen – giving the stalled Halo movie some much needed TLC in the form of a new script based on Eric Nylund's novel Halo: Fall of Reach. The original source of that rumor now claims to have five pieces of concept art from the new script, which are all part of "an eventual presentation" to be given to the fat cats at Microsoft. Here's where you come in: they'll be dropping one a week on y'all for the next five weeks.
We've got some concept art for a Halo movie right here: it's called Halo 3 and it's a whole DVD full of aliens, 'splosions, and Master Chiefs. But if you've just got to see a larger version of the above concept art, we won't stop you from clicking that Source link below.
Though we would have thought that, in light of recent events, a draft of Grand Theft Auto would be more appropriate (What? Too soon?), it seems that Roger Avary is still plugging away at the script for a big-screen Wolfenstein feature.
id's Todd Hollenshead told Eurogamer that, though the recent writer's strike slowed things down, progress is being made, saying, "I've recently been in contact with Roger and he's actually working on the script right now." Hollenshead thinks that the progress is slower than id would have liked, but considering, oh, every other video game movie ever, we think we can find a way to hold out.
Sadly, we've gotten used to Hollywood muckety-mucks not actually playing through the source material when they're creating a movie based on a video game. But Mark Wahlberg's answer as to why he's avoided Max Payne while playing the title role in the film is almost breathtaking as both evasion and backhanded insult.
"I didn't want to play because I have an addictive personality," he told People Magazine. "I got more responsibility now than I've ever had with the kids and everything else. I don't want to be spending 14 hours on the videogame and then eight hours on the set. It's not going to work out."
That's right, video game fans: With one wrong decision, Mark Wahlberg could have turned into you, and that's just not a risk he's willing to take.
We always think it's so bizarre when fanboys and girls start filling up our tips box with vitriol about the latest unpopular decision made by Sega, Square, Microsoft or practically anyone involved in the gaming industry. "Where do they get all that hate?" we wonder aloud, before going to donate more hugs down at the clinic. They would be a complete mystery to us were it not for Brett Ratner, who, according to a passing mention in a recent press release from MGM, has been tapped to direct the God of War film.
See, we hate Brett Ratner. Well, no, we don't hate the person. We're sure he's a perfectly nice man. But we hate everything he's ever put on film from Money Talks to X3 aka Brett Ratner's First-Person Theatrical Abortion. ... You know what? Forget what we said, we do hate Brett Ratner as a person. And if he directs God of War, it'll be awful, because all of his movies are awful and we don't know why he keeps being allowed to make them.The end.
If there's one entertainment genre that has a worse track record than movies turned to video games, it's video games that have been transformed into movies. At least movies to games have a few bright spots; when people have to summon up Mortal Kombat as the most admirable adaptation of a medium, you know something's gone awry.
So it's with a spirit of mild skepticism that we present the first two posters for Mark Wahlberg vehicle Max Payne. The problem is that we think the above poster (and the one after the jump) look pretty outstanding. AICN has some bigger versions; take a look and let us know what you think.
In a season of Hollywood blockbusters, it's no wonder why Electronic Arts would want to sink its teeth into the movie industry's delicious celluloid pie. This morning the company announced that it signed with talent and literary agency, UTA, to help catapult its properties onto the silver screen.
EA currently has a movie deal in the works for The Sims, as well as plans to bring an animated version of MySims to TV. In addition, earlier this year EA signed a deal with Starz Media to develop an animated prequel to Dead Space, as well as other unspecified franchises. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as EA notes that this new deal will "significantly ramp up" efforts to bring its IP to other forms of entertainment, such as movies and television, as well as online, print, and social networks. With some of these projects likely to surface this week in San Diego during Comic-Con, are there any EA properties you could see yourself sitting through with a bucket of popcorn in your lap?
We're putting two and two together and getting ... Lost Planet. First we were tipped by a source close to Capcom that the company would have a movie-related announcement at next week's E3, and that it would involve someone "well known to gamers." Next we read that David Hayter, voice of Solid Snake and screenwriter for such films as X2: X-Men United and the upcoming Watchmen, was talking Lost Planet at last week's Anime Expo '08. It all adds up.
As reported by IGN, Hayter said he is "just closing the deal with Warner Bros." to pen a Lost Planet flick while speaking at AX08, although "nothing is confirmed yet." Of course, Capcom's E3 announcement could always be concerning another movie, but the evidence before us is compelling.
This morning, we've received more proof that given enough time, Joystiq is always right (except when we're wrong). You may remember back in August of 2007 when we told you that Len Wiseman, director of Underworld and Live Free or Die Hard, was in talks to direct a film flick based on Epic's Gears of War. Now, The Hollywood Reporter says New Line has signed Wiseman for the gig.
We're guessing that original writer Stuart Beattie is out, as THR says the picture will be written by Chris Morgan, who has previously worked on the screenplays for Wanted (encouraging!) and The Fast and the Furious 4: The Furiousening (troubling!). So there's your crew, what kind of Gears movie are you expecting?
Variety reports that the live-action Turok movie is not being handled by Disney, which publishes the video game series through its Touchstone Pictures label. Instead, the film rights are being handled by Classic Media, the same IP management firm that handled the direct-to-DVD Turok animated film.
What does this mean for the dinosaur hunter's big-screen debut? Variety's Ben Fritz warns us that without the backing of a major studio like Disney, it's likely that Turok won't be on par with major film adaptations like the upcoming Prince of Persia and BioShock flicks. Let's just keep it out of the hands of Uwe Boll, shall we?
Turokdidn't make so much a splash as a dull thud when it landed on consoles earlier this year, but that doesn't mean we don't still all love the idea of a Native American warrior killing dinosaurs. In fact, it's one of our all-time favorite premises, right after immortal guys trying to cut one another's heads off and Arnold Schwarzenegger being pregnant. That's why we're happy to hear that actor Adam Beach (who played the Son of Stone in the animated version previewed above) says that a live action version of the story is in the works.
"We just finished the animated movie and now we're going into the feature film movie [which should lens] hopefully in a couple years. We're about to set up meetings to develop a script and put it out there," Beach told MTV. Sounds great, but we just want to go on record: If the Cerebral Bore doesn't make an appearance, we're getting our tickets refunded.
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
