"i'm almost certain you did": The Sims.. the movie

darleysam

obscure Futurama reference ahoy!

But no, for serious folks, Gamespot has this to say:

Gamespot wrote:

The integration between games and movies has grown steadily over the last few years, and now one of the biggest gaming franchises is getting involved. 20th Century Fox will be making a film version of The Sims, reports Variety. The screenplay will be written by Brian Lynch, but it is not yet known who the director or other "talent" involved will be.

The Sims movie will be a "live-action version," reports the newspaper, presumably meaning that it will feature real-life actors and actresses as opposed to animations. It is not known how the producers intend to adapt the life simulation series for movie goers. The feature film project has been set up with producer John Davis, with Steve Asbell overseeing the project for Fox, and EA's Rod Humble managing the IP for Electronic Arts.

Brian Lynch wrote and directed the movie Big Helium Dog, a 20th Century Fox mockumentary comedy released in 1999. John Davis' production credits include Eragon , When a Stranger Calls, and Norbit.

EA's Sims Studio head Rod Humble commented, "The Sims has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it's like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it. Given that that's an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling."

i don't know about you people, but i'm off to start a queue!

So, i guess we can discuss upcoming game-to-film attempts? And not in a "it'll never work, they be rapin' ma favrites" way, because that just leads to trolling and flamewars.

edit: Captain Can't-Quote strikes again!

AHH!

I'd like them to make a movie out of that one game

what was it called again

oh yeah max payne

darleysam

see, that's my problem. Games with stories (or a universe to expand on) that could actually be translated well into a film, get overlooked or canned (yes, i'm still bitter about Halo getting dropped). But the likes of WoW or The Sims get signed up. I may be cynical, but i'd wager that about 99% of the decision to do this was "hey, we've sold a lot of copies here. A lot of people know our product. Think they'd pay to watch some film with the same name?"

tardcore

i'd wanna see like

a movie about

that one game.

tetris

falling_stone

i'm not entirely sure how this would be a good movie.

There are better candidates for vidja game to cinema crossovers imho.
Starcraft? Halo? Zelda? but the Sims?
Ninety minutes of people with green diamonds over their heads trying to get laid and holding their pee is not my idea of a movie.

darleysam

falling_stone wrote: »

i'm not entirely sure how this would be a good movie.

There are better candidates for vidja game to cinema crossovers imho.
Starcraft? Halo? Zelda? but the Sims?
Ninety minutes of people with green diamonds over their heads trying to get laid and holding their pee is not my idea of a movie.

Worked for American Pie..

falling_stone

darleysam wrote: »

falling_stone wrote: »

i'm not entirely sure how this would be a good movie.

There are better candidates for vidja game to cinema crossovers imho.
Starcraft? Halo? Zelda? but the Sims?
Ninety minutes of people with green diamonds over their heads trying to get laid and holding their pee is not my idea of a movie.

Worked for American Pie..

This is true. However, could we not then suggest that this has been done?
Why not just glom all buzzword intellectual property together while we're at it.

American Pie V, The Sims, On a Plane.

darleysam

i'm just predicting a bunch of current popular faces all hanging around, partying together, and trying to hook up. Like in any teen-audience oriented movie.

I was really excited for Halo, Blomkamp looked like he was going to make it an awesome experience. I'm also looking forward to Metal Gear Solid, despite not knowing more about it. It's gonna be interesting to see how that translates to cinema.

Firebrand

darleysam wrote: »

see, that's my problem. Games with stories (or a universe to expand on) that could actually be translated well into a film, get overlooked or canned (yes, i'm still bitter about Halo getting dropped). But the likes of WoW or The Sims get signed up. I may be cynical, but i'd wager that about 99% of the decision to do this was "hey, we've sold a lot of copies here. A lot of people know our product. Think they'd pay to watch some film with the same name?"

There's tons of stories in the Warcraft universe you could make movies out of. But the Sims? What the hell would it be about?

Dublo7

I think this is pretty fucking retarded...

-SPI-

So will it be people defecating on the floor, burning themselves to death when they try to cook food and anyone who comes to visit somehow ends up in a room with no exit and starves to death? I'm especially looking forward to the scene where the guy goes for a swim in the pool and then turns around to find the ladder is gone and then he drowns.

That's how everyone else plays the sims right? Right?

Dublo7

Maybe they all get locked in a small room, with no windows, and no toilet. They will then shit and vomit themselves to death.

Rated R.

Couscous

-SPI- wrote: »

So will it be people defecating on the floor, burning themselves to death when they try to cook food and anyone who comes to visit somehow ends up in a room with no exit and starves to death? I'm especially looking forward to the scene where the guy goes for a swim in the pool and then turns around to find the ladder is gone and then he drowns.

That's how everyone else plays the sims right? Right?

I like watching the ghosts of my sims run around.

neth

Maybe they all get locked in a small room, with no windows, and no toilet. They will then shit and vomit themselves to death.

Rated R.

you could call it Hostel 3, or Saw 4!

Fireflash

falling_stone wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

falling_stone wrote: »

i'm not entirely sure how this would be a good movie.

There are better candidates for vidja game to cinema crossovers imho.
Starcraft? Halo? Zelda? but the Sims?
Ninety minutes of people with green diamonds over their heads trying to get laid and holding their pee is not my idea of a movie.

Worked for American Pie..

This is true. However, could we not then suggest that this has been done?
Why not just glom all buzzword intellectual property together while we're at it.

American Pie V, The Sims, On a Plane.

I'm sorry to inform you that there already is an American Pie 5, and it's awful.

Dublo7

Fireflash wrote: »

falling_stone wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

falling_stone wrote: »

i'm not entirely sure how this would be a good movie.

There are better candidates for vidja game to cinema crossovers imho.
Starcraft? Halo? Zelda? but the Sims?
Ninety minutes of people with green diamonds over their heads trying to get laid and holding their pee is not my idea of a movie.

Worked for American Pie..

This is true. However, could we not then suggest that this has been done?
Why not just glom all buzzword intellectual property together while we're at it.

American Pie V, The Sims, On a Plane.

I'm sorry to inform you that there already is an American Pie 5, and it's awful.

Just like 2, 3, and 4.
I didn't see 4, but I jump to conclusions.

Suriko

I'm calling Chewbacca Defence on this shit.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!

cj iwakura

I don't get why someone thought this would be a good idea.

darleysam

-SPI- wrote: »

So will it be people defecating on the floor, burning themselves to death when they try to cook food and anyone who comes to visit somehow ends up in a room with no exit and starves to death? I'm especially looking forward to the scene where the guy goes for a swim in the pool and then turns around to find the ladder is gone and then he drowns.

That's how everyone else plays the sims right? Right?

this needs links to those two SA articles where they made bastardised characters, then tortured them until they died. It was amusingly macabre.

MikeRyu

Isn't the whole point of The Sims that it is just an interactive experience and that there is no story? How can you make a movie without a story?

Dublo7

God, I hope this movie fails.

darleysam

again, i'm just predicting a bunch of moderately attractive popular faces, getting up to hijinks on some kind of holiday adventure, all under a 'The Sims' banner.

Although to be fair, the article sounds like it's taking on some kind of a 'Bruce Almighty' feel, so maybe it'll be completely unlike that. That, or spider-man (great power, great responsibility).

Synthetic Orange

Heblar nebla ebluh, nepebu aisha? Fubla!

Suriko

MikeRyu wrote: »

Isn't the whole point of The Sims that it is just an interactive experience and that there is no story? How can you make a movie without a story?

Well, anime's done it a fair few times before. See: ARIA the Animation, Azumanga Daioh, Mushishi, Hidamari Sketch.

Note that none of these are movies though. Hell, the only way I could see it really working is if it was a comedy, and it's not like The Sims provides much in the way of material for that.

edit: Am I the only one that just thought of The Truman Show?

Mr_Grinch

Can anyone actually see how this will work?

Also, the entire movie should be in "Simish" or whatever the hell they speak.

CyberJackal

I guess if you wanted to view this idea in the most positive light, you could say it's about a normal person (or people) being watched and manipulated, without their knowledge, for the purpose of someone else's entertainment.

Oh right, that movie was called "The Truman Show".

Yeah, this idea is fucking ridiculous.

darleysam

so what other games are there being turned into films? (excluding Boll, let's just pretend he doesn't exist, like the rest of the film-going world)

MikeRyu

CyberJackal wrote: »

I guess if you wanted to view this idea in the most positive light, you could say it's about a normal person (or people) being watched and manipulated, without their knowledge, for the purpose of someone else's entertainment.

Oh right, that movie was called "The Truman Show".

Yeah, this idea is fucking ridiculous.

I could see how it could work, but my God you need to really stretch to come up with an actual plot. There are other games out there that have real characters and stories and everything, and they cannot get their movies off the ground and this does?!

HOOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD!


La La land does it again.

RandomEngy

I want Calculon to race to the lasergun battle in his hover-Ferrari.

Anyway, it's not impossible to make it into a good movie. They just don't have anything cool or interesting to work from like they would with other things.

S-Starwind

I want a slapstick comedy. The Misadventures of Bob Newbie.

No more. No less.

Szechuanosaurus

If David Lynch directed and it involved a person going insane, weeping uncontrollably in the corner, sitting in a puddle of his own bodily waste as his reality was repeatedly pulled apart and put back together for and hour and a half this could actually end up really good. Babies in chests and everything.

Janson

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

If David Lynch directed and it involved a person going insane, weeping uncontrollably in the corner, sitting in a puddle of his own bodily waste as his reality was repeatedly pulled apart and put back together for and hour and a half this could actually end up really good. Babies in chests and everything.

Haha, yes. As a friend said: 'so not in english, directed by david lynch of an etheral hand moving the house about while people die in grease fires and also in a puddle of urine next to a broken toilet?'

Szechuanosaurus

Janson wrote: »

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

If David Lynch directed and it involved a person going insane, weeping uncontrollably in the corner, sitting in a puddle of his own bodily waste as his reality was repeatedly pulled apart and put back together for and hour and a half this could actually end up really good. Babies in chests and everything.

Haha, yes. As a friend said: 'so not in english, directed by david lynch of an etheral hand moving the house about while people die in grease fires and also in a puddle of urine next to a broken toilet?'

I think it's the only way they could really pull this off. When you think about it, life for a sim is pretty damn surreal. Real Eraserhead shit. When you portray it in pastels and primary colours it all looks happy-happy, but accidentally bump the SVGA cable to your monitor so you only get a black and white signal and suddenly you see it for the sinister, surreal nightmare that it really is.

darleysam

Marduk The Flayer, The Felchers and Tomishekmann.

Recommended reading.

IShallRiseAgain

A horror movie that is based on the sims and the vacation expansion pack. A man and his family are on vacation when they meet the parkinsons. Fun times are had by all, and the parkinsons invite them over to their massive mansion. A tale of horror unfolds. The Parkinsons are actually a sadistic family that lures people to their homes, so they can wreak awful deeds upon them, but things are different this time and the man is fighting back.

Xagarath

Someone pointed out they could do it as a man becoming addicted to the sims, falling for a character in it, then emerging to find said character was controlled by the girl next door.
Or somesuch evil nonsense.

falling_stone

Dublo7 wrote: »

I think this is pretty fucking retarded...

MikeRyu

Or someone who plays the game so much that they are sucked into it and must now come to terms with no longer having control over their own destiny in a harrowing tale of understanding.

It'd be like Trading Places meets Captain N.


Edit: On second thoughts screw it, let's just make a Captain N movie yeah!!

darleysam

Xagarath wrote: »

Someone pointed out they could do it as a man becoming addicted to the sims, falling for a character in it, then emerging to find said character was controlled by the girl next door.
Or somesuch evil nonsense.

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan to star..

falling_stone

yes!

MikeRyu

darleysam wrote: »

Xagarath wrote: »

Someone pointed out they could do it as a man becoming addicted to the sims, falling for a character in it, then emerging to find said character was controlled by the girl next door.
Or somesuch evil nonsense.

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan to star..

Sleepless in Simeattle?? O_o