So, I just read on IGN that Josh Trank of Chronicle fame has signed with Sony to bring Shadow of the Colossus to the big screen. I've not seen Chronicle, so I don't know how good he is, but I'm excited to see this put on the screen.
I know that video games don't usually translate well into movies as of late, but this video game is different. It's art. And if it can be made into another media that is widely considered art, then it can get people like Roger Ebert to finally admit that it is art.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/23/chronicle-director-to-make-shadow-of-the-colossus-movie
Edit:
Oh, and I just read up on Josh Trank on Wikipedia, and he is set to do a Fantastic Four movie, and Venom movie. Doesn't say if it's the Marvel Venom or just a generic movie called Venom, but I'm gonna go with the Marvel one.
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He has a lot on his plate and I don't see him headlining the film long into preproduction.
Remember this post.
I imagine it will be quite visually stunning. That aspect should translate well.
They are going to be temper to make it something more than the tale of a boy and his horse fighting giants. They are going to write dialogue.
Those are pretty big potential hurdles.
I kinda wish it was Michael Bay. I mean I'd be able to ignore the tacked on talking, and focus on the important bit : the big tall terrible giants.
Hmmm. Screaming at the screen because of the awful camera angle, authentic though it may be, might not need translating from the original media.
his average shot length is 1.5 seconds
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Try REAAAALLY hard to pull off a Wall-E and not have the protagonist speak.
The budget on this could be small enough to avoid a studio shitcanning it, and it could garner critical acclaim and possibly a wider audience by starting independent.
have sony pictures classics put it out, and do not mention the videogame ONCE during the ad campaign.
Of course, it probably will try to be a much bigger thing (when the story itself is more emotion than plot and doesn't support a blockbuster film) and end up going the Halo route of getting shelved.
This film DEMANDS a smaller, independent theater run.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
although it would certainly be possible to do a very compelling movie with Shadow of the Colossus on its own merits (probably with a lot of creative license to change the somewhat incoherent and cryptic original and make it more palatable), what you suggest here will never happen
they will mention the video game in every ad to try to tap into the cult audience of diehard SotC fans
the movie could not exist without that intent
if it even does end up existing
:^:
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
As much as part of me wants to agree with you, as Del Toro especially would be great to nail the visual aspect, they're both too self-indulgent to let the movie be as understated as it would need to be to mirror the game's feel. I mean, apart from the ridiculously epic Colossus fights.
SotC in Avatar's (Aang/Korra, not Pandora) style would be amazing.
I really enjoyed Chronicle, so I'm willing to observe this project until further notice.
I would love an Ico animated miniseries or something like that though. Just slow and atmospheric, I would dig it.
And the odds are so stacked against awe-inspiring I can't help but feel like we'll end up being better off spending the money on lottery tickets rather than movie tickets
Every video game is art? Not in the slightest.
Every video game is art in the same way that both Sebastiano del Piombo's The Raising of Lazarus and anime fanart on DA are both art.
I don't mean this ironically, it is actually the case that they are both art, the question is whether they are good art.
Also, as for this movie, I'm going to wait until we see anything in the way of more information about it before making any predictions as to its quality.
I think that there is a strong selection bias here, in that no one would want to make a movie out of SotC that wasn't already very highly interested in making it a loving adaption of the source material, so that counts in its favor.
^ This ^
I dunno. I thought the colossi in Shadow looked very cool for the most part (the horse-sized ones were kind-of 'meh', though I really enjoyed the level where you got to leap around the pillars), but the plot was pretty shallow and I was totally made uncomfortable in the wrong way during the ending.
I don't see how you can translate that experience into a good film. The sense of isolation serving as one of it's main themes essentially requires interactivity.
I can only think of some really, really bad ones. Doom. Resident Evil. Max Payne. The live action Super Mario Bros. movie. *shudder*
I dunno, I thought Resident Evil was an okay film. Not particularly good, but not totally terrible. Mortal Kombat (the first one. Oh God, only the first one) was a pretty fun popcorn film, if you can get over the terrible roles given to Sub-Zero & Scorpion.
Aside from that... uh. Silent Hill? I didn't watch it, but heard it was decent?
Street Fighter: The Movie was so bad it was good. I remember seeing on the internet in recent years that they intentionally aimed for that. Then again, it was so bad it killed Raul Julia.
Well, I think that's the point Monkey is making: they're fun, but not particularly good in a sort of film-academic sense.
*shrug*
A lot of what makes a game experience fun is part of the interactive component, so it shouldn't really be surprising that most movies based on games aren't great, regardless of how great the source material is.
On a fundamental level, though, the RE movies have nothing to do with Resident Evil except zombies. They don't match the mood or execution of the games at all.
not because the plot was great, but because they captured a mood and an atmosphere PERFECTLY.
Those two elements are very key to SOTC.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Well I hate to put a stop to having a mocking hand in this conversation but this brings up an excellent point. The important points of film adaptations of other mediums is that they capture the atmosphere and general themes properly. And if they're working with any established continuity, it needs to be treated with the same level of respect and accuracy, while still having its own take here and there, as the latest Marvel Comics films. That said, continuing to use Marvel as an example, look how long it took for the industry to get THAT stuff right.
The problem isn't the motion picture industry's take on video games though. The problem is society's point of view on games. And the way games are marketed doesn't help in the slightest. As long as there's this attitude of, "BLOW SHIT THE FUCK UP, BE A BADASS, YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" we will - for the most part - never end up with something that actually tries to stir any emotional reaction.
I agree. But, it's a lot harder to make an enjoyable, relatively slow paced, horror movie with a constant level of tension, than it is to make a mindless action flick.
SotC is really about pretty scenery, big stompy giants and figuring out how in the world to kill them. Characters don't really develop. There's not much in the way of plot or dialogue. The most emotionally moving relationship is with a horse. If they went fairly bare boned, not really adding too much more then clarification of the character's motivation, and do a sort of fight monster + bit of a detective story about those who created them, a pretty decent, very watchable move could be made, without really diverting too far from the source material.
Like, it's going to be ass. I just really don't see why it has to be so and deeply wish it weren't.
There was actually one part of the first RE movie that I thought matched the tone of the games almost perfectly
Too bad they didn't make that the film.
The reason why SoTC works so well is because it's a story made for an interactive medium.
It's effective since you're the one killing those poor Colossi.
If I was just watching, not actively participating in the killings, I wouldn't feel squat.
It's not impossible to create a character the audience identifies with.
It's tough to do it with SotC's tone though.
I'd like to see what someone said a few posts up, a Wall-E-like (first 20 minutes) take on it. Next to no dialogue, show the main character working out how to take on each colossus, some interactions with the horse, and a growing feeling of unease. Nothing in the world exists except the guy, the horse, and the giant monsters.
Just because it's a movie doesn't mean it can't be done right. I doubt something done right would make very much money at the box office, but whatever. If they stop trying then we'll never get a good videogame movie. If it comes out and flops, nothing stopping you from just playing the game again.