Shadow of the Colossus: the movie

[Thyroid]

Oh come on.

The movie will be written by Justin Marks (Disney's in-development "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li').

:tdown:

Edited April 8, 2009 by Kroms

[DanJW]

Terrible idea.

[Nachimir]

[elmuerte]

It could be interesting. It probably won't. It will probably have some crappy love story attached to it.

[gdf]

Why not get Team Ico to do it, half of them originated from the film industry.

These stupid American cunts will just fuck it up.

[Nachimir]

Who are you calling a cunt?

[gdf]

Hmm, that sounds racist.

I meant Hollywood in general.

As opposed to the Japanese.

I don't...

Eh...

[DanJW]

It will have a dastardly human antagonist.

It will have a loveable comedy human sidekick.

It will have swashbuckling action.

It will probably have parkour.

I will have too many people!

And too much dialogue.

The damn game is about loneliness. Writing in a star-studded cast will totally ruin the quiet contemplation of desolate beauty.

There is absolutely no way they will nail the atmosphere, and even more upsetting they probably don't even know what that atmosphere is.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

Maybe we should actually wait to hear details about what they're doing with the property, rather than simply jumping to conclusions?

I mean not that the writer of The Legend of Chun Li deserves the benefit of the doubt, but films can go through a dozen different iterations before they reach the screen. He's the first writer assigned to the film, but almost certainly not the last. And until a director is attached, really this is a total vacuum of information.

[DanJW]

I rather not take the risk, and just have the film canned. It might turn out well, but it will more likely be terrible; and then it becomes even more difficult to tell non-gamers what is so special about the game. They will just say "but the film was so bad".

[Marek]

I should probably bust into Phil Harrison's office right now and plead with him to use his old contacts at Sony to somehow put a stop to this movie. It's worth a shot, right? Yeah, it'll work. I'll fix this.

.....

[James]

One time I wrote a massive sprawl of shit that nobody read about the relationship and disrelationship between games and films, which mentioned Shadow of the Colossus in passing. In a sense, the changes of direction mentioned in the podcast conform to my claim that significant changes are pretty much essential; on the other, they seem to completely miss all the themes and moods that were so integral to the game. I think that it's a mistake to assume that a game which is impressive and cinematic would necessarily make a good film. The things which make good games stand out from other games are often things which distinguish them from other media. Some of the most interesting and engaging things you can do in any medium involve exploring its unique qualities. If a straightforward translation into the language of films was possible, it probably wouldn't have been interesting in the first place. At least, that's what I think.

I'd like to make sounds about this subject at length, but it's a busy day at work and I'll probably forget about this before I get home.

[DanJW]

I think I know what you mean JamesM. For instance, the horse-riding controls in Shadow of the Colossus communicate to the player that the horse, Agro, has a mind of his own. You can steer him, but not drive him (indeed many early - stupid - reviewers of the game complained about this).

Since anyone not playing the game can't see this, in a film adaptation we would need different ways to show Agro's personality and importance as a character.

In most holiwood stuff this would be a heavy handed scene where he does something comical to Wanda, like knock a bucket of water over his head and then people laugh and say "that horse, he has a mind of his own ahahaha"

In a way, a lot of the game is about a boy and his horse, all alone except for each other (like the best bits in the I Am Legend movie). That's exactly the kind of theme that the scriptwriters are likely to miss.

[OssK]

One time I wrote a massive sprawl of shit that nobody read about the relationship and disrelationship between games and films, which mentioned Shadow of the Colossus in passing. In a sense, the changes of direction mentioned in the podcast conform to my claim that significant changes are pretty much essential; on the other, they seem to completely miss all the themes and moods that were so integral to the game. I think that it's a mistake to assume that a game which is impressive and cinematic would necessarily make a good film. The things which make good games stand out from other games are often things which distinguish them from other media. Some of the most interesting and engaging things you can do in any medium involve exploring its unique qualities. If a straightforward translation into the language of films was possible, it probably wouldn't have been interesting in the first place. At least, that's what I think.

I read it, pretty interesting thoughts, although I found it to be pretty loosely defining story, I was at a really interesting conference on Monday and one part was by Emmanuel Guardiola who said "I personnaly care about one single story: the one that players tell after playing, that is not necessarily the one you wrote into the game."

[DanJW]

Yeah having read through your post, I think we disagree slightly. Like with your reference to Lord of the Rings, and recently the Watchmen movie - you claim that bits should be rewritten, whereas I think the original story could work fine as long as it is shot well.

Some parts of Colossus will not work well in a movie. I don't think they should re-write those parts though, I just think they should film them differently. In Hollywood script is king, but I think I appreciate good cinematography more.

Everyone turns games into action movies, but maybe their best bits would come across as mood pieces, in the ouvre of No Country For Old Men.

[James]

Yeah, I don't necessarily think what I said at the time applies in all cases. My point isn't really about story in particular, anyway, although I'd say that what works in a game's story might not work in a film's. Games tend to require a framework in which some basic player actions (shooting, jumping, etc.) can be repeated an awful lot, albeit with a certain degree of variation. Films, on the other hand, tend to do better when moving things along. Which may mean that the very idea of a translation doesn't make much sense in the first place. Like you alluded to, much of the story of SotC is conveyed wordlessly through interaction, and I'm just not sure that can be made to have the same impact without some sort of audience input. Then again, I could be wrong. I mean, Pixar managed to make an extended period of solitude completely lacking in dialogue engaging and arguably better than the rest of Wall-E. I shouldn't disregard the capabilities of those with talent, just because I have none.

I think with things like Shadow of the Colossus and Portal games are taking steps to defining their own language, independent of the language of film or books or music or whatever. There will always be connections, and I welcome them; I just want to remind the world (which clearly cares very deeply what I think) that there are some fundamental and sometimes insurmountable (or not satisfactorily surmountable) obstacles. But it's a mistake to see these as obstacles. To think of it as a problem is to assume that one medium should ape the other. There are things in SotC that could be very good in a film, but as a whole it wouldn't really work unless you're in the business of making arthouse epics.

I'd agree that cinematography can be as important as script, by the way. You could see the predominance of the latter over the former as a similar struggle films have to go through with preconceptions held over from novels as games have to go through with preconceptions from films. And I'd also agree that for a Shadow of the Colossus film to work, cinematography would be key. Perhaps it come across a little too much like I'm advocating major rewrites. I'm not. What I'm trying to say is "know your environment". And I'm saying it badly and over and over again, so I'll stop now.

[MonkeyWrench]

Since anyone not playing the game can't see this, in a film adaptation we would need different ways to show Agro's personality and importance as a character.

Horse personality is important, like Artax in Neverending Story, he was a right card, until the stupid dickhead got depressed and died in black mud in the swamp of sadness.

I once saw a film about a boy and his horse...made me sick to the core. Definitely not something you would show to your mum.

Either way, I don't even feel this is worth discussing because it's going to end up a steaming pile of shit like every other game-to-movie adaptation, especially as it's written by the guy behind that dire Chun Li movie. It's only ever going to end in disappointment.

[Ben X]

I think video game movies need to push boundaries and be a bit more bizarre, rather than try to crowbar their plot elements into a genre blueprint.

Can we do a bit of an exercise? Let's suggest a game and how we'd adapt a film of it. I'll do Half-Life, as I've already written about it on the ZC forums

If I wrote a Half-Life movie, I would have Freeman as the lead. He wouldn't speak at all, in the manner of a Sergio Leone anti-hero. The film would just be non-stop action so he wouldn't really have a reason to speak, I'd strip the plot and dialogue right down. It would be live-action, but with lots more CG backgrounds, and a mix of CG and proper Del Toro style creatures by Rob Bottin. Score by Clint Mansell. Directed by Gendy Tarkovsky. And I'd just jig around the timeline/conspiracy details so it could go straight from Black Mesa to City 17 to Xen.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

If you wrote the Half-Life movie, you wouldn't have a say in who would direct, or do the effects, or the score. That's how it works. Which is exactly why I'm not too bent out of shape about the screenwriter of Shadow of the Colossus. He really has only so much influence over how the thing turns out.

I understand the instinct to imagine your own film adaptation of your favorite video game; hell, I actually wrote a Grim Fandango screenplay once just for fun, I'm slightly embarassed to say (and not in an "I copied all the dialogue from the game, put it in screenplay format and slapped my name on it" kind of way either, though there was some of that). But unless you're in a position to actually pitch the thing to someone, it's really a futile and pointless exercise. That way madness lies.

[DanJW]

If you wrote the Half-Life movie, you wouldn't have a say in who would direct

Unless you were one of those writer-directors. You know, like the ones that exist.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

If I wrote a Half-Life movie [...] Directed by Gendy Tarkovsky.

I was responding to this, not speaking in the general sense. Regardless, speaking now in the general sense, a screenwriter could conceivably accept a job on the stipulation that he himself will direct, but a screenwriter can't accept a job on the stipulation that so-and-so-his-favorite-director will direct. Which is clearly what I meant.

[Ben X]

If you wrote the Half-Life movie, you wouldn't have a say in who would direct, or do the effects, or the score. That's how it works.

I know that, ffs. I was talking about how I'd adapt the film overall, as if I were, say, a producer.

And I don't think it's a futile and pointless exercise to discuss how we'd adapt certain games, just because we're not all film producers with the rights to those games. I think it's a fun and interesting exercise. Feel free to preserve your sanity by not joining in.

Edited April 12, 2009 by bbX1138

[twmac]

Personally I'd like to see a Speedball 2 movie written by the guy who did the 'Blade Runner' and 'Salute of the Jugger' scripts. A 3 hour epic sports film with a hint of 'Any Given Sunday' where it isn't just important what is happening on the pitch (although those scenes would have to be brutal) but the dealings between the owners, the coaches, the advertising companies and the bodies that govern the rules.

Maybe something less generic would be fun too (I shudder at the thought of Jason Statham getting cast in it).

[Ben X]

Personally I'd like to see a Speedball 2 movie written by the guy who did the 'Blade Runner' and 'Salute of the Jugger' scripts. A 3 hour epic sports film with a hint of 'Any Given Sunday' where it isn't just important what is happening on the pitch (although those scenes would have to be brutal) but the dealings between the owners, the coaches, the advertising companies and the bodies that govern the rules.

Maybe something less generic would be fun too (I shudder at the thought of Jason Statham getting cast in it).

I recommend the original Rollerball - not spot-on, but damn close and a brilliant film.

[n0wak]