Rampage, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s latest movie outing (a very meh outing at that), is a video game movie, but with the release of Rampage, Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider, and the Metal Gear Solid movie in pre-production had me thinking, what if Hollywood can see the quickening decline of comic book adaptations? I mean it has to end at some point right? Are they planning their next ten-year venture by green-lighting the next thing on the nerd culture boom? Will we ever see a truly good video game film? Maybe see one at the Oscars? Yes, you may laugh now, but you laughed at the thought of a comic book movie ever being nominated for an Oscar and then The Dark Knight happened. So keep an open mind as I have compiled the most likely candidates for a silver screen outing! Well.. the ones I think have the most potential.
Metal Gear Solid
Talks of a Metal Gear Solid movie have been circulating for as long as I can remember. Seemingly everyone was attached to it at one stage or another. The Metal Gear franchise is the brainchild of one of the gaming industries biggest celebrities, Hideo Kojima. In 1997, the first 3D game out of the Metal Gear series came to home consoles, and then nothing would ever be the same. Gone was the idea of a blank character collecting coins. Gone were the bright worlds built for an age demographic of 7 to 13-year-old kids. Metal Gear Solid was for the 21-year-old with questions about the philosophy of life. It wasn’t the first game in the history of the industry to ask big questions, but it was definitely the most successful Metal Gear. It didn’t just sell copies, it sold consoles.
So what was the plot? Well, that is a question with a bit of a confusing answer. Chronologically the franchise’s plot spans from the late 1800s to 2019 and combines the Tom Clancy-esque military realism with supernatural aspects and nuclear equipped walking tanks the size of skyscrapers. So yea, it’s pretty zany. You had a gruff hero stylised on Snake Pliskin from Escape From New York who waxes philosophical to his handlers at the end of a radio, short on the heels of an uprising coup on Shadow Moses Island whose leader bears more than a passing resemblance to him.
If you can remember back to the 90’s, during the rental boom of places like Blockbuster (or Xtra-vision if you live in Europe), there may have been a console and tv behind perspex glass to sample the video games for rent. Seeing the graphics and atmosphere of Metal Gear Solid were enough to sell the console and the video game then. So why has it been so hard for it to make it to the big screen? Well, to say that Metal Gear has a devout following isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. For example, during the reveal of Metal Gear Solid 4, series creator Hideo Kojima had wanted to kill the protagonist Solid Snake (if your not a fan then your probably giggling at the name, if you are a fan you’re probably crying because I dragged up some painful memories). Shortly after that announcement, hate mail and death threats flooded his office. Yes, legit death threats. The people love their Metal Gear.
Earlier this year rumours circulated about the movie soon entering production, which in itself was a shock. After all this time in limbo, who could be the man for the job? None other than Jordan Vogt-Roberts. Who do you ask? Well, he’s the director of the successful Kong: Skull Island film, and…um… the live action Destiny 2 trailer. Ok, so prejudices can be warranted, but this is the guy’s big passion project and Kong wasn’t a bad film. He is a big fan of and has indeed played all of the series and even met with the original mastermind, Hideo Kojima. If nothing else at least he knows the fire he is playing with.
Thief
A cynical master thief by the name Garret pilfers and steals from every corrupt official in a steampunk world mixed with magic and horror. A beautiful setting with a very charming cast of likable characters. Stepping into Garret’s shoes is one of the most enjoyable fantasy fulfillment in video games. Stealing everything from priceless gems the size of your fist to simple candlesticks and then slipping out from under a guard’s nose like you were never there is incredibly exciting. The writing is excellent (with the protagonist being the narrator) and Garret getting swept up into machinations much greater than a simple thief could handle, but his cunning and ingenuity always get him out on top!
So is there a movie in the works? The good news is yes there is! The bad news is it’s taking its plot and characters from the worst entry into the franchise. The reboot by Square Enix. While it had a decent plot, it was missing the organic feel the first three titles had.
Thief: The Dark Project had Garret taking jobs to pay his rent before taking one particular job that ended in very badly, cost him his eye, and pulled back the veil on the dark forces at work. Thief 2: The Metal Age had Garret with a brand new eye, doing his usual sneaking, stealing, etc. He now finds himself smack bang in the middle of a faction war with a new enemy that threatens the city. Thief: Deadly Shadows had a more horror take on the franchise, with environments and the storyline being genuinely scary! Garret’s jobs lead him to a prophecy of the end times!
All great stories, but no that’s not what we are getting. We are getting the dark, gritty reboot which has a plot about an apprentice to the new Garret. Who is not the old Garret, but kinda is… and the girl, she has some power… that does… something… and she’s also kinda evil, but not really… and who even cares.
BioShock
A city, built under the sea, where no one will ever be constrained of their talents, their science, or their art! The possibilities are endless and so are the possibilities for a movie adaption. Rapture is a city built underwater by billionaire industrialist Andrew Ryan to hide high-level thinkers from the government and ideologies of the world. Giving them the freedom to work on projects for the betterment of mankind. Taking its cues from the big thinkers of the beat generation like Ayn Rand and George Orwell, BioShock was hailed as the Citizen Kane of the video game world. Gore Verbinski was attached to direct a film adaptation a long time ago, but it got shut down allegedly only mere weeks before shooting. There could always be a re-emergence of this franchise. It would seem idiotic not too, as not only would the gaming community throw their money at this, but also a large amount of the general demographic as the plot is filled with everything from philosophy, to drama, to action, to horror. If the movie ever sees the light of day.
A plane crash lands at sea, one survivor, known simply as Jack, manages to escape and swim to a nearby lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The lighthouse was simply a front, disguising the only entry point into the city of Rapture. Rapture has fallen on very hard times, with all the freedom to do as you like and no restrictions on genetic research, people have become less than human (something the game calls splicers) and the city is falling apart. Jack faces off against all manner of horrors in Rapture as he tries to survive and escape back to the surface world. The more he works to survive, the more that is revealed to him about his own humanity.
The Darkness
The Darkness was technically a comic book by Top Cow comics originally, but it’s best and most popular iteration seems to be its video games. A first person shooter that boasts quad wielding. What’s quad wielding? Well, that requires some context.
So the Darkness is an ancient primordial evil taking the form of absolute darkness and shadow. Throughout the ages, the Darkness had a host of one male member of the Estacado lineage, fast forwarding to modern day (possibly 1999 but that’s just a theory I have), Jackie Estacado is a mafia hitman on the eve of his 21st birthday, his uncle Paulie has set him up for assassination. Fortunately for Jackie, the Darkness chooses this perfect moment to manifest inside Jackie, giving him two tentacles made of solid shadow protruding from his shoulders and an army of monkey-like beings called dark-lings.
“But Tom, wouldn’t that technically be a comic book movie?”
Why yes it would! But honestly, the comic is something a 12-year-old comes up within some fever dream of toxic masculinity. However, taking the basis of what the comic is, StarBreeze Studios (famous for the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game) created a modern story about these characters and what a mafioso hitman with demonic powers would do. Delving into what effect would that have on his life and his family. This added a new layer of thinking upon a fairly basic, dumb idea. Such things are akin to that of famed comics writer Grant Morrison, if your familiar with Morrison’s work like Doom Patrol or Animal Man, he takes the common archetype of a hero in spandex and adds layers to the life of what such a being would feel, what would Animal Man feel or Swamp Thing? Dragging you the reader into the life of a mass of vegetation and giving you the answer to how would that feel or How would he think? With Jackie being a human being now afflicted with some demonic curse how does he think now that he has demon powers? He’s a violent man so the answer is violently but he is also loyal to his girlfriend and loves her dearly with this at stake the player now has a well-established connection and a vulnerability giving the character more depth than even in its comics. To see a film capture that level of character development, interaction, and New York “subway” life would be fantastic, as the title The Darkness does not just relate to the new powers our hero has but also the lasting darkness within us. All throughout the game, you will hear the tragic moments in the life stories of people who have been shaped by these past events ever since. Jackie has the mentality of old-school mafia, building power by doing favors for people and keeping family first. Now with his new found powers, he can traverse to some very “interesting places” a variable dark hell scape somewhat like a world war 1 battlefield with Nazis that are stitched together reminiscent of the film Jacobs ladder take up some chapters the protagonists own personal hell. At one point he is able to bring back a letter to an old lady from her husband who died 60 years prior. She begins to cry while reading it and it is these small moments that make The Darkness a great game to adapt to a film. It is a heartfelt trip under NYC and the lives of the people living there balanced with the darker moments as Jackie works towards revenge.
Honourable mention:
Planescape Torment
One of the best crafted, deeply personal, role-playing games ever to hit shelves. Even to this day, you can play it and see things you never knew existed 20 years ago. Why would it make a good movie? The nameless one is a being who is immortal, has amnesia, and seemingly had a hand in the development of everything within the city of Sigil. Sigil is a massive city of “doors” that spiral into a circle. Everything in this video game has a point to it. In the game’s story, everything is pushed to the absolute extreme (ideologies, philosophies, etc.). Examples of which are shown in the factions. There are the Chaos Men who are a sect of warriors living on the principle that chaos is all that matters. Taking the themes from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (“every living being exists to exert its strength, life itself is will to power”) Then there is the Society of Sensation, a group of people who live to feel everything from unrequited love to the pain of having flesh burned and seared off their bodies. Through these characters and more you dive headfirst into all these themes which are beautifully written by industry legend Chris Avellone. The main character actually being an amnesiac takes a very A-typical idea and makes it relevant to the narrative, other than it being an easy way for the writer to insert exposition.
Planescape Torment is a massive subversion of the genre. In the beginning, you wake on the GAME OVER screen, dying has no cost to you, the name entry screen is at the very end of the game, and there is a succubus who is chaste and runs a brothel where people pay for deep and meaningful conversation. This is a wild and zany world. Even an immortal nameless being having influenced almost everything in the city, has a very small insignificant part to play in Sigil. The entirety of the Planescape universe is rife with stories dying to be turned into a film. In a perfect world, Tim Burton would do the set design with his classic team, Aronofsky would direct, and Bear Mccreary would do the soundtrack with his clever use of alternative instruments. Planescape Torment could rewrite itself to make it a subversive setting in film, rather than the digital world. But that’s a pipe dream that will probably never happen.
So can our nerd dreams become a reality and we can have an actually good video game title? Maybe if a flood of film adaptations come, then it will be inevitable that the right script will enter the right hands at some time and we will have what we seek, but until then we may only dream.
Leave a Reply