...There is no point to this movie.

/end of comments

I really have my doubts about how a Portal movie would work.

Ahhh.. video game movies.

They'll never not mess one up. Ever.

At the very least we can be sure it will look awesome, guy seems to be pretty good at making wet movies. Never saw the Aviator but I've heard good things. I hope they treat the story well and that Levine has some executive power when it comes to making the movie.

but he created the budweiser frogs.

Suck.

be right back guys, I'm just going to cry at the thought of this

Well, I do see it failing, for the same reason all game movies fail. They require that the person inserts themself into them, but the movies never do that.

@StopTheOncoming: Hey, that's funny. They're are still comments under yours. You appear to be mistaken.

no

no

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Oh wait, John Logan? Hmmm, maybe it will be good. Pirates 2 and 3 were the worst pieces of shit I've seen in a long time, so lets see how things turn out.

no thanks.

Please no more movies based on video games and on that note the same goes in other direction.

If they don't include a flashback with various residents; i.e. recorders, it will be quite a disappointment.

Two sets, One build for Rapture in its glory, and the other for the post shit-hole rapture. Interchanging flashbacks to alleviate the action and most importantly, the goddamn plot.

One of my favorite games will see the ship sharply cracked against its back very soon. Poor BioShock. Not only will you be whored out every 2 years for another trip to Rapture (we just need one, okay?) but now you'll have a cinematic abortion, too.

Crosses hesitating fingers.

Please, please, PLEASE do not change the story to make the movie more "mainstream." The Tomb Raider and Resident Evil franchises already had full backstories that were perfectly palatable to the masses (as evidenced by massive sales), yet they were discarded for weak, pandering screenplays. Bioshock has a killer plot that could easily be adapted for the big screen. Don't screw this one up. Keep what's already there.

I ask the same of the Prince Of Persia and Max Payne people as well. Don't let these plotlines "go Hollywood."

C'mon. How about a little more optimism. Someday we're eventually going to get that one great video game based movie and this one seems to have the most promise.
The Ring was a great looking solid movie, not to mention pretty creepy. And the Pirates movies... they were fun.....

Would you kindly...not fuck this movie up

Portal just seems like it can't be done. BioShock's moral themes probably won't translate to film well without a good director and screenplay, but Portal? How would any of it work well? Unless they did some weird Tristram Shandy deal... No, I can't see how the movie would remain like the game and keep its charm.
Just don't bother man.

Verbinski. ****yeah. Awesome ass director.

PG-13 Bioshock won't be as fun as R-17 up Bioshock. Let's hope it is given some justice.

@Erwin:

Bioshock's Moral Themes?

Lol...

Poor Bioshock. Getting to the central 'moral' decision in the game requires that you first Beat, stab, burn, shoot to death a Big Daddy, who is nothing more than a doting defensive unit that Protects little sisters...

After doing so, after that brutal murder, you then choose to 'free' the little Sister to living within the hellhole of Rapture with no defender to protect her... or you kill her, and put her misery, assuming you're an evil, heartless person...

Hahah... Am I the only person who never understood why it was moral to kill the ugly big daddy, but not the vulture like little sisters who live praying for corpses to extract Adam out of?

@I am ERROR: I love your optimism -- but I don't have it. All I can think is how can this NOT suck?

Um. Portal is not film-worthy. It's chuckle-worthy, but that doesn't mean anyone should make it into a movie. Seriously.

Bioshock...eh. Maybe.

How to say this...

I love the Hitman games. The first one, not so much. But Silent Assassin, Contracts &Blood Money are hugely important games to me. I love 'em to death, and I've done the whole SS rating on every level thing.

I still waited for the movie to come to video. This isn't some new and insightful truth - video game movies suck ass. BUT:

This is the dude who took a frickin' theme park rideand turned it into the awesome Pirates of the Carribean. 'Course the 2nd and 3rd sucked ass, but that's more a comment on sequels than this fellow's potential for turning a property into enjoyable cinema.

Of course it'll likely suck, but there's a glimmer of hope that it may not. I for one am heartened by his commitment to make it R-rated. Not to say that'll make it the first good game movie - Silent Hill was R rated and that wasn't exactly high art.

There's a glimmer of hope, that's all I can say.

@I_fit_in: I think he's referring to Objectivism. I could be wrong.

i thought about writing a portal movie short. it would focus more on the presumed other people running in the lab. i thought about a point where one of the other people fighting with Chell over the portal gun. i don't know. i just started scribbling it in pathology one day.

@Fyren: Don't even bother with the post-fall game story line. Make the movie a "prequel" to the game by showing the fall of Rapture.

Would you rather see Jack have Atlas and Tenenbaum yammer in his ear for two hours, or watch the battle of wills between Ryan and Fontaine spill into the streets?

I had higher hopes than this.Videogames maybe more widely accepted but I dont think theyre respected anymore than they used to be. Until that happens potentially great takes on videogames wont happen.

Bioshock - Yes.
Portal - Not seeing it.

I'm starting to get really tired of people saying that there should NEVER be a movie based on a game, because they've always been bad in the past.

That's merely symptomatic of the film adaptions not being taken seriously and handed off to a moron who has no idea how to make a good film.

If someone can reference for me a bad video game-to-movie adaption that was produced and/or directed by someone even remotely competent, I'll change my vote.

There are plenty of lousy book-to-movie (Da Vinci Code) or comic book-to-movie (Daredevil) adaptions too, but hand the reins to the right person, and they can be fantastic.

As for those calling for the end of movie-to-game adaptions, are you really going to boycott:

Star Wars: Force Unleashed
Ghostbusters
LEGO Indiana Jones
LEGO Batman

?

The screen is black, you hear heavy breathing in the background, when suddenly it opens with a flash of white light, and you realize you're looking at a zoomed in shot of Chell's eye.

"What am I doing here? What happened?" her voiceover says, "and what about Lance? (her tentative love interest)" Within the next five minutes you'll see her perform at least twenty backflips and and various martial arts against those adorably sinister turrets, who are now GIGANTIC MECH DESTROYERS. Also, she has grenades (but there's only five left!), and a hoverboard too.

If they make a Portal movie, I'm almost certain it'll end up like one of Boll's buckets of cliche which maul the source material to bits. /sadfaise

I could see it being made into an art house character study majigger, but that doesn't seem in league with Pirates of the Caribbean.

@Le Légende de Vincent Tremblay: They're already doing that at 2K Games.

Good writer, possibly good director. I like Pirates 1 and The Ring, and the man can sure sling visuals around. Verbinski's heart also seems to be in the right place, especially given the promised R rating. With a good script, this could work, and I really hope it does. I have no use for a BioShock 2 - unless they really surprise me, I'm not interested - but a well made film, that I could potentially be very interested in.

oh Hell NO!!!

Just like Boll says, those licenses make their money back and that is all that counts in Hollywood.

After years of horrible movie tie-in games that were not worth playing (yet made a ton of money) the time has come to reverse it. We will get a ton of bad movies that are not worth seeing, yet make the creator quite some money.

Instead of bad games made from good movies, we will see bad moves made from good games.

@mind in rewind: Yes, actually. I'm not sure that would play well for the general population unless handled well. As for his point, the "moral problems" with killing the little sisters, I have a feeling that any movie would treat them as an army of Dakota Fannings. Innocent little doe eyed girls just obeying the will of Mr. Bubbles. Oh, how the audience's heartstrings will be tugged.

@kingclip: Well, for one thing, the movie wasn't given to some upstart, unproven, director. At least it has that going for it.

It will be interesting, and nerve racking, to see how the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies turn out.

Verbinski is a good director. You all should at least be thankful for that. And from the sound of it, he's actually a gamer. Now I'm not saying it even has the potential to be great -- but it may not be altogether hopeless.

I agree that he is a good director, and just seeing that I can actually see a decent Bioshock movie, but Portal? I can't see how a game like that could be turned into a film of any kind. Maybe he should actually think to look directly at the Half-Life universe? It would work better than Portal alone.

BioShock movie showing some promise.

Dunno how well a Portal movie would be. I guess there are ways.

@Le Légende de Vincent Tremblay: Thats why I would think a progressive balance between pre and post rapture is needed.

I don't think its a smart idea to forego the beautiful carnage of post-Rapture.

A progressive movie of the gritty adventure with a grainy, UT3 brown, 70's Miss Daisy with a hint of steampunk influence, flashbacks along the each major section of the Rapture world whilst following Jack would be most excellent.

On top of that, the prequel movie will only show Big Daddy becoming "functional" and the credits will roll. This franchise should only have one movie and don't ride on a dicky-trilogy-trend.

@Fyren:
You know, I think it would be interesting if the flashbacks are actually acted out...

I wonder if the book reader community in their book reading clubs and book reading websites sit around and bitch about their favorite novels being led to the cinematic slaughterhouse.

We're not the first to be persecuted here, people. Stop acting like this is a new trend.

Hmm.. I would have gone with Guillermo del Toro for this one, too bad he's booked for the next 4 years doing The Hobbit

Portal would not be a good movie unless they completely lose the feel of the game and go for a more standard Hollywood adaption. Bioshock could turn out alright, should be at least as good as Silent Hill et al. It's a good enough story to appeal to people who haven't played the game.

@Skitch01: Of course. The various families of various backrounds should be well-fleshed out. Viewers should have the illusion that Rapture is a colony within in itself.

Something similiar to the dream sequence of LO, but integrated seamlessly in live action. You can certainly conclude the pre-rapture "chapters" by having the overlay of the vibrant pre-Rapture and then slowly zoom out as the environment interlays to Jack's current POV and continue his escape.

I wish I could remember the 80's movie where a cruise sinks and couple of families go through all the hazard to make it out on the tip of the air hatchet. Confined, 2 hour water fest that was filmed beautifully.

Sounds promising, but damnit where the hell is my Atlas Shrugged movie? :(

I'm not sure how i feel about a film adaptation, but John Logan is a decent enough writer. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Both Bioshock and Portal have great potential to suck as movies, and little potential to be awesome.
Especially Bioshock, since the awesome part of the twist is that it's a game and you control the character.

@Absent Blue:

The Aviator had a very good screenplay...good enough to win best picture. I think he could do a faithful adaptation of the game to film. Also I doubt Ken Levine will have executive power over the film, only the studio that finances its creation does. He will probably however have some "creative power", he will probably advise them on the screenplay, maybe even give them so dialogue, or helpe make decisions about what actors play what characters!

Yeah I don't really see how a Bioshock movie could be all that good. In the game they leave a lot open, such as what kind of world do we live in where people can make a Metropolis underwater with 1930's technology. In a game you don't dwell on it as much since you have constant action controlling a character. Maybe he can do something with it though. He did make a Disenyworld ride into 3 pretty decent movies.