A good video game movie? Never.

Mortal Kombat was the first great game flick. No arguments are permitted.

I'm all for it. If he keeps the movie as creepy as the game, that is.
Even though by saying "the first great game flick" you're implying the Prince of Persia film will be bad, and I am praying that's not the case.

What do you guys think?

Well, it's not Uwe Boll.

He is a visually interesting director, but has been choppy from a storytelling viewpoint. The only movie he's done that really impressed me was the grossly underrated and overlooked, The Weather Man. But, again, at least it's not Uwe Boll.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Heck the first Pirates of the Carribean rocked the shop!!! I'm actually not scared of this!

the metal gear movie seems more promising to me.

If it is a good movie, he should be nominated for sainthood, because he will have pulled off a miracle.

If it fails, and the numbers are against it, will anyone really be surprised?

I have hope but nothing more.

" but rather than exploit them through continual and decompensating sequels, he stopped with a solid trilogy. Perhaps this means game fans can trust that he's in it for quality? "

Does not compute. He did exploit it, he made two sequels. That's a lot in such a short time. Not only that, but he shot two at the same time. To cut down on production costs and maximize profit.

To much credit is being given. His name being attached to Bioshock isn't affecting my view positively(if at all).

POTC movies were great, and The Ring was a terrific horror movie. He can do water and scares well. Bioshock has alot of both. Seems good to me.

@PSN: noliferuin: Why does that not suprise me?

On a serious not, I don't think we have enough information to make a judgement one way or the other.

Can we just leave the games in the consoles and the movies in the theaters? The result of mixing them is an abomination 98% of the time.

For never, ever and ever will there be a good video game movie, ever. Excpt MK1, not the 2nd movie. I feel bioshock will be a disaster and I dont care if its blahblahblah Pirates guy blahblah directing it.

@homernoy: *note

@karasu is my homeboy: in fairness, it's often a stipulation in the film's contract that it will be a trilogy. the matrix and jurassic park were intended to be trilogies as soon as the projects were green lit.

I hate, HATE the pirates movies. So, yeah, when it comes to this, I'm not that enthusiastic. (Does it help that I'm more of a ninja kind of guy?)

If the Bioshock crew is very involved with this I'd imagine it could be great. Although trying to tell the storyline of the actual bioshock would probably end up a mess.

Creating a story of Rapture BEFORE 'Jack' showed up would probably be the best way...I dunno though, thats why I don't make movies I just watch 'em.

I think he is an interesting choice, if not the best. He has made some very good films thus far - Pirates 1, and the Ring was a surprisingly competent remake. But apart from that... the last two Pirate movies (At Worlds End especially) were mere shadows of the first (although the second one was still rather enjoyable, if messy), and a lot of his other back catalogue is very ho-hum: Mousetrap? The Mexican?

It has the possibility of a new standard in adaptation excellence, but will wait and see. As long as the narrative is adapted effectively to take advantage of the new medium (the game relied a lot on atmosphere and a sense of general lonliness - this will be hard to get down. And the story played a lot on the fact that it was a videogame and the protagonist's lack of control, which will definitely have to be rejigged) it looks promising. But won't be getting to excited yet.

I'm still waiting for Steven Spielberg to make a Pacman movie

@KaneRobot:

"No argumanet's allowed," can generally be interpreted as "I'm know I'm wrong but I won't admit it." The Mortal Kombat movie was terrible. As an adaptation of Mortal Kombat, I guess it was alright, but as a movie? It was embarrassingly awful.

Bioshock - one of the most overrated games of all time.

Pirates - overrated and over franchised suckfest, especially #1.

What could possibly go wrong?

Fuck man, just fuck.

Why do we need a Bioshock movie? The game was a masterpiece of the medium, it told the story it wanted to tell. Unless the movie is expounding on the narrative, with Ken Levine's creative input, it's just going to be a shorter re-hash, without the magic that made the game what it is.

@homernoy: a cinematic game like metal gear seems like a good fit to translate into a truly great film. although i'm heavily biased surely that's something everyone can agree on?

@excel_excel:

Agree. First Pirates of the Carribean movie was great. Second and third one, not so much. Anyway, I at least have the confidence that we won't screw it up as bad as Uwe Boll unquestionably would.

@PSN: noliferuin: We can surely look forward to the exciting non-stop 1.5 hour dialog in Metal Gear-The Otacon Chronicals

Theres going to be a Sonic movie, but Sega of Japan is producing it themselves. Yeah, off topic.

I thought the Silent Hill movie was alright... I guess Bioshock could make a decent film, but it really depends on their execution.

oh yea and first great game flick? what about FF7: Advent Children? I know some FF7 fanboys in here will back me up.

Day 1 and the overhype is already out of control.

@sander_dutch: yea, i'd especially look forward to his monologue after he pisses himself.

@A_Knothole_Resident: lets hope there is no girl on animal action in that

@PSN: noliferuin:Sure. Potential is there, but that does not always translate into good films. My first post was just a little good natured ribbing ;)

@Machete_Bear: Except for the whole end of the game being complete balls.

@etho: The first Mortal Kombat movie rules, it was so bad it's good.

While I think this can work, I still think Tim Burton needs to do American McGee's Alice before we have a truly great video game movie. Although that won't happen now that Marcus Nispel is doing it. Blarg.

@sander_dutch: right...

my hopes for a good game movie have been crushed many times, so i really cant tell if he will succed, but i will keep an eye on it...

also, awesome tag is awesome

@VicViper:

Er, I meant after the first Pirates movie, they sucked hard.

third story on this since 9:40 last night..

no stories on the mass effect/spore DRM fiasco unless it's a discussion that can be buried in a thread about weeping millionaire video card executives..

I see just where you're coming from now kotaku.. I thought you loved games.

Movie/gaming crossovers suck. This is all.

Oh, and I'm cautiously optimistic about this news. I think Pirates shows he has an eye for interesting design, and The Ring demonstrates some competency in terms of making things creepy. So we'll see.

It makes me picture Geoffrey Rush as Andrew Ryan, which is a remarkably pleasing image to me.

@johnny_ultimate: You're right that the story played on the the player's control and lack thereof, but I think for a movie, that could be changed to explore the passive acceptance of violence by a movie audience. The emotional thrust of the story might change, sure, but I think there's still a lot of interesting ground they could cover in a movie.

Verbinski has the ability to make a decent film, ("The Weather Man" for example), and he has also proven he can make a big hollywood blockbuster with the Pirates movies. Parts of "The Ring" were interesting, but it was still a dumbed down americanization of a better original.

I really hope Verbinski does a good job. Not just for making the "first great game flick" but also doing justice to the cinematic possibilities Bioshock contains.

I am also cautiously optimistic about this. Verbinski can do dark, likes to make the suits uncomfortable, can do quirky and with an off kilter sense of humor. He has an interest in games, has played Bioshock which already puts him ahead of most game movie directors.

Yeah, I think this has potential. If it was Uwe Boll I was prepared to move to a small, deserted island and live like a castaway to avoid ANY chance of EVER seeing, which would have forced my alignment shift to Chaotic Evil.

Am I the only one that doesn't think BioShock would make for a good movie? The game itself relied on the player to go hunting for plot, and that was part of the allure of it. Force-feeding it in a movie is going to lose some of its luster.

@PSN: noliferuin: Really? I thought Jurrasic park was only getting sequel(s) because of it's success. I.e. Crichton didn't have a story yet? Matricx, on the otherhand was always thought of as a trilogy but much like highlander there should been "only one"...

The other problem I've seen with bringing story heavy games to the 'bigscreen', is that they usually want to give the fans a 'twist' from the original story, so as to offer them something fresh, or feel that the story and narrative of a game doesn't within a cinematic context.
I'm not sure that works, unless you really can handle the 'magic'. Silent Hill did this and it felt dumbed down significantly(for me) and altered some very basic fundamentals (isolation, and simply never knowing what the 'real world was'.

I have no idea if Bioshock will be good or bad.

I will say the idea of a film based on a ride at disneyland had DISASTER written all over it, and Haunted Mansion illustrated that pretty d'rn well... so you can never tell...

I thought Mortal Kombat was the first great game movie.

I have high hopes for the film, but my expectations still remain low.

It could be the most epic director in the world it still wouldn't matter this movie is going to suck to anyone who played the game.
It isn't the same experience, it isn't the same platform, there's no interactivity and all the things that made the game great are going to be missing.

@Leigh Alexander:
"It's also worth noting that Verbinski has had success navigating the choppy waters of mega-success with the Pirates flicks - those Pirates fans are devoted, but rather than exploit them through continual and decompensating sequels, he stopped with a solid trilogy. Perhaps this means game fans can trust that he's in it for quality?"

No. If he was for quality he would have stopped after the first one. The second and third one's are gay. Though, he might be able to do good, I did like The Weather Man.

@nintend0nick:

I thought it was freaking awesome :3

I like Bioshock, its a great game; but I don't get why its hailed as a great story and narrative, seemed a bit run of the mill to me.

@Ehardergardens: Exactly, the final results will be the work of the screen writers, the director, the producers, the actors, the designers...

With the right people in place you can make an excellent film even about a mostly static, largely plot free amusement park ride. So a game dripping with atmosphere, an interesting back story and a decent plot shouldn't pose too big of a challenge.

With the right people in place.

Otherwise: House of the Dead.

What could that film have been with Tim Burton, Wes Craven or Peter Jackson at the helm...

@KaneRobot: Mortal Kombat in ANY form was, is, and will be COMPLETE SHIT.

@etho: Dude no arguements allowed. You just broke the friggin law.

Also. the thrid Pirates sucked, why? Cause a piece of wood took out Chou Yun Fat. I call bullshit on that.

Bioshock was made for expansion into the "other" media. There's so much richness in the backstory and the level design that it would be sad if they didn't cover all aspects of that world in feature film/graphic novel/whatever. That is, as long as Ken Levine and the 2K Boston crew have exclusive input in the project.

Did @KaneRobot: For realsies. Mortal Kombat is a great popcorn flick.

@coffeehair: I agree. Bioshock was good, but no masterpiece. The story wasn't even integrated into the gameplay. They just threw recording devices everywhere and said "there, go discover the story." Sorry, but that doesn't do it for me.

@Ehardergardens: yea, that'd often the case, especially with flms being produced and marketted as big summer blockbusters. success is often a factor as well of course, as it's often an 'option' to make 3 films, so obviously if the film tanks the studio won't honour the option to sequels.

PRESSURE = ON

1. why make bioshock into a film, it was great as a game and basically was a film anyway
2. hopefully the movie will be good, but i dont think it will be a major box office draw

@nintend0nick: I still think that was a wonderful movie, brilliant set and creature design, creepy plot, layers upon layers of atmosphere.

@Justo84:

I completely agree, nobody in Hollywood is more qualified to make a Bioshock movie than Verbinski.

Umm no, PotC was not a solid trilogy. It was one great movie and two lame ones.

I wish they would have gotten a real director for this. The Bioshock universe deserves better than the usual summer blockbuster treatment.

@geoffcbassett: Agreed, I was just responding hesitantly because people here seemed to overlook it.