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Denver, 2:09 AM
Thu Nov 26
53 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/23/09
Is it really that hard to find a competent writer for something like Uncharted?!?!
Instead we get to hear how one hack is being replaced by two, lesser known hacks for a script that's going to likely shit all over Naughty Dog's IP...
My question is this: Doesn't an Uncharted movie sort of defeat the creative purpose of the games? Aren't they cinematic enough? And isn't that sort of the whole point of the series?
Why make a movie out of a game that's already essentially a direct lift of another movie?
Wasn't Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bad enough to show Hollywood that an Indiana Jones inspired movie structured for a video game audience was an awful, awful idea?
11/23/09
Weighing it's narrative against cinema though yields a cliched conventional and contrived low budget Indiana Jones. The quality of writers they are securing doesn't bode well for the property.
11/23/09
At least they are well executed for a videogame- what's the point of a movie version of a game with an already hackneyed, movie derivative story?
11/23/09
He's new to movie producing and may not be as influential as Jerry Bruckheimer, but we might actually see the movie made with him producing. In the last 10 years, he's made some great movies and some bad ones. He delivered on Spider-man 1 and 2, X-Men 1 and 2, Iron Man and Hulk twice (Yeah, I like Ang lee's 2003 Hulk, better than Louis Letterier's 2008 version even). He botched X3, Spider-man 3, Daredevil and The Punisher twice though...
I can't see him bring some AAA director and writer for this project, Uncharted is a 2 year old franchise and may not be a big enough hit like Prince of Persia.
11/23/09
I don't know who the new screenwriters are, but they sound like they must be better than the previous writer...
11/23/09
11/23/09
This decade there has only been 2 original films in the top 50 or 100 (not entirely sure) amongst the big grossers. It's from one of the trade presses (Screen International and pretty sure it had a passing metion in either ASC's mag or Hollywood reporter.) I read regularly and the film studios are really looking forward to making a movie that's 'original'. However they are looking towards video games for ideas so it's not really 'original' either. Regardless I read that Sony Pictures wants to make movies out of pretty much all it's critically acclaimed or best-selling ips. This in turn funnily enough makes their entertainment division to want to make more new ips (there's a few more unannounced ones in the pipleline apparently to be announced next year).
11/23/09
If you're talking about "original" in the sense of "unique", I think everyone will agree that the Uncharted series takes more than a few notes from the Indiana Jones movies. And then there's The Mummy, National Treasure and Tomb Raider.
That said, I'm sure everyone is always up for more adventure movies. I know I am.
11/23/09
But I was talking about truly original ips. Films are quite lacking in major new ips. It has be brought in from somewhere or the other. I'm talking mainstream of course. Sony and a few studios are getting into gaming to basically work on the new ip mostly. Start new ips as games and then branch them out as movies. It works better if they're still in recent memory. Reviving 60s shows into movies didn't work as intended in the 90s and not so much these days as well. Because well nothing's as good as the memory honestly.
But yeah I'm up for more adventure films too. Which is why though PoP the movie will be cheesy as heck (from what I've seen it is), it'll be fun to watch with a group.
#speakup
11/23/09
Although, if you adjust for inflation, Gone with the Wind is the best selling film of all time.
11/23/09
Find Nemo is an adaptation a loose but it's admittedly an adaptation, old fable. top 100 grossers of the past decade do not include a lot of the movies that you've stated to be fair. This decade didn't have saving private ryan. that's all from the past decade. I don't need to make these numbers up. These articles are published with the whole data you should find them on their online sites in a week or it's already out. But this isn't just some analyst report. These are the studios admitting it themselves.
Adaptations from works albeit in a different form do not count. A lot of these are adaptations. In fact that's one of the biggest things in the industry for the past 50 years. Adaptations. However they did have a few more original ideas than they do now, it's an unfortunate trend which they are hoping to change.
11/24/09
By these standards, think that Shrek could only be barely cast as an adaptation. The only remnants of the book that can be found in the movie are Shrek and Fiona's names' and the fact that they're ogres. All of the side characters, the fact that Fiona was once a princess, the meaning and point of the film, nearly every single aspect of it, was changed from the original. There is a term for this: Adaptation Displacement. This happens when writers use another idea as a spring board for their own creative story. "Men In Black" was based off of a comic... kind of. See, the comic only feature the MIB, and J and K (both white), and Zed (a computer). And that's about where the similarities end. So does that make it an adaptation? That you began with what could have been summarized in a single sentence from a blurb on a book jacket? So what I'm saying is that these movies are original in their own sense, only sparked by another film.
I heard Robert Olen Butler speak two years ago at Florida State, and he summarized that there were only two stories in the world: Man goes on a journey or a stranger appears in town. If you subscribe to that notion, then everything you read or see is an adaptation. I, myself, believe that it is originality and uniqueness that make the something it's own. Gary Wolf said that "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" was better than his original book, and even Michael Crichton wrote his sequel to the film, rather than the book.
#speakup
11/25/09
There are three kinds of adaptation
Reconstruction, Re-imagination and deconstruction. These are the three that's currently recognized. Shrek is a reconstruction. Things like Uncharted can be said to be a re-imagination of Indiana Jones and pulp fiction is a deconstruction.
These are a writer/producer's greatest tools. Believe me when I tell you because this is part of my job. When you contest this, well you're contesting what's accepted and acceptable in the general film-making bit.What do you mean by adaptation was a widely contested thing but now we more or less agree with this article.
Also it is being taught these days in producers and production schools by most people I do happen to work with.
What you're talking about is what we know as Campbell's Journey. Pretty much every film uses it or adapts the journey. Vogler did his adaptation for that which was commonly followed by Hollywood till the 90s. Even deconstructed movies like Pulp Fiction follow the heroes journey. There's plenty of material on this.
In every way you see, the film industry will only look at Shrek as adaptation. I mean seriously there's no need for arguments once people have decided that it's easier to do it this way.
11/23/09
[www.imdb.com]
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11/23/09
Or inside the box...like I did.
Maybe there are two boxes.
11/23/09
11/12/09
This game is what we should hold as an example of many great companies coming together and making a stellar game. It wasn't just NG people but Sucker Punch, Insomniac, Bungie and several others. This game is currently in HEAVY rotation on my PS3. It will NEVER leave the house...EVER.
It may not do MW numbers...it may never do them. But I don't care, I want more of these games...let this be one of many other great games to come for any system, for all systems.
That said....I want to bear Drake's children. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
11/12/09
LOL! We can make this work, science has made lightyears of progress.
Just get me a turkey baser and two fruit roll ups. I got a plan. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
How do we free our dear Mr. Drake from the confines of his prison of codework and computer hardware? I'm thinking a convoluted experiment a la Weird Science is in order. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
Or maybe, we get pulled INTO Drake's world.
Sorta like Reboot...it'll take like 4 seasons for us to realize that the entirety of our time in Drake's world was about an hour. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
Let's do this. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
Hell yeah! Let's do this!
.....but....HOW? I only have 5 bucks and a strip of bacon.
I think it's going to take more then that. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
If MacGuyver can make a time-traveling contraceptive ray-gun out of paperclips, non-iodized sea salt, and a plastic straw, gosh darnit, we can port ourselves into this game!
To the lab! And....bring that five bucks. I've a hankering for some Subway. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
bravo ND. hopefully the holidays push this game even more, with the ps3 being cheaper now. #uncharted2amongthieves
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11/12/09
The original Uncharted just went half-price a few months ago, which is when I got it. Granted, it sold me on getting Uncharted 2 right away.
My biggest problem with Uncharted 2: it was one of those games I fly through in a weekend. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
The only thing he said that hit home with me was how you just opened your notebook and it told how to solve the few puzzles there were. I mean, I wouldn't have had any idea what do to do on a few of em, but that last puzzle made me feel like I was a 2 year old playing with one of those block-in-the-hole-that-fits puzzles. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
He didn't care for the first Uncharted ("oh, it's a rip-off of Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones!"), either.
I began growing tired of his "humor," however, long before he put out his Uncharted 2 review. So I'm not sure I'll ever watch it. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
@Phantom6612: That's why I don't know if I'd be willing to pay full price for it. Paying out 60 or so quid for a game I'd finish in a weekend doesn't sit right with me but at the same time, I'd rather give my money to the developer of a good game than to Gamestop for a used copy or some rental service. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
Besides, if you don't rent, you can play your game over and over and over and over! :-P
From what I've heard about Uncharted, that sounds like something I'd enjoy doing. I've always enjoyed Naughty Dog's games, even if Jak II was really weird. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
Not shocking he'd trash on Uncharted 2 though. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
It got to the point where I felt like he was being more pretentious than anything. Perhaps he really did dislike Halo 3 and Smash Brothers Brawl and Uncharted (or, at least, criticize it for being "unoriginal") and Oblivion and Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4 and innumerable other games. Or perhaps not; I really can't say.
I'll never understand, though, why someone who rails against sequels, remakes, and reboots lists Silent Hill 2, Spider-Man 2, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (and, to not one but two extents, Portal [remember the freeware game Narbacular Drop? Never to mention the whole Half-Life franchise]) on his list of favorite games. #uncharted2amongthieves
11/12/09
At the rate I finished them, I'm thinking about having an Uncharted marathon as I would for some movies. Hell, those games are cinematic enough at times to decently take the place of films.
@Anyone talking about Yahtzee: I used to find him funny, and sometimes get a laugh out of his more recent stuff. But I don't typically watch ZP--I may watch one if stumble sends it to me.
I've never been too fond of his reviews, in the sense of agreeing with his criticism of some games. While I don't mind some nitpicking at times, it seemed like he blew things way out of proportion and just generally disliked games for odd reasons.
But, meh, that's his opinion. And I think both Uncharted games are great, even with the sequel being a big improvement.
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11/02/09
Anyways, good job everybody. :D #uncharted2fortunehunterseditio...
11/03/09
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11/02/09
Seriously, drawing is one thing. Kidnapping? That's a whole nother level of dedication I could never even touch. #uncharted2fortunehunterseditio...
11/02/09
11/02/09
Thanks for your uncommon generosity. My hat's off to you good sir!
Thanks for voting all!
Cheers #uncharted2fortunehunterseditio...
11/02/09
I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me, and my girlfriend for coming up with this idea, which was apparently a good one. #uncharted2fortunehunterseditio...
11/02/09
@Rated-G: You give winners a good name.
Thank's for the votes, ya'll. You've made us Uncharted fans very happy. #uncharted2fortunehunterseditio...