Video Game Adaptations!
Jondee here at the arcade (I know they aren’t really around now),
There is Assassin’s Creed and Warcraft on the horizon. Dwayne Johnson is readying the Rampage based on the video game from 1986. There is a still a number of games that can provide material for more films.
Ecco the Dolphin was a Sega game that appeared on the Sega Mega Drive on 1992 and was designed by Ed Annunziata. Ecco travels the seas finding glyphs, crystals that react to his echolocation, and he has to find his lost pod. He swims to find Big Blue, a blue whale, to advise him about the Asterite, a chain of globes, that is an ancient intelligence. It leads him to use the time traveling machines of Atlantis to finally take on the alien Vortex. Science fiction novelist David Brin wrote the story for Dreamcast’s 2000 game, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. This game has a future where dolphins and humans work together. They are opposed by the alien Foe who was destroyed the Guardian that created a force field around the Earth. This could be made into a live action movie with some scientist working with Ecco to stop the alien threat. Otherwise, it could be made into an animated film.
The Secret of Monkey Island was a computer game created by Ron Gilbert for LucasArts. It is superior to the Pirates of the Caribbean films in that it was funny. Guybrush Threepwood wants to be a pirate, wants to win over governor Elaine Marley, but has to compete with the ghost pirate LeChuck. He meets Stan the Used Boat Salesman and others to bring on his crew. The key is the bottle of Voodoo Root Elixir that can destroy a ghost. I remember playing one part of the game where you are underwater with a litter of items (all useless!), your air is about to run out, and all you had to do was walk out. I was disappointed in the first Pirates of the Carribbean film because it wasn’t Monkey Island. The comedic approach would be almost a parody of the Pirates films, but no Cutthroat Island. The script is already written, the visuals done, just add director and cast and mix.
King’s Quest was created by Roberta Williams and was a Sierra Entertainment computer game with a recent game King’s Quest in 2015 on PC, PS4, and Xbox 360. It features narration by Christopher Lloyd as an older Graham telling his days before he was king to his grand daughter, Gwendolyn, a twist on Princess Bride (1987). King’s Quest is set in the land of Daventry, a world of fairy tales. Graham is a knight who becomes king which he learns from a magic mirror. The sequels follow the rest of Graham’s family, but the interesting one might be Princess Rosella in King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (1988). She has to travel to a fairy land to save her father, King Graham, the fairy queen, Genesta, and fight against the witch Lolotte. I read a novel of the game and it didn’t seem locked into video game sequences so there is a real story there. There are clever twists to the fairy tale tropes, fun characters, and a world that is set in fantasy. A film could pick up with an older Gwendolyn or even go back to Rosella working to save Daventry.
God of War is an incredibly popular game, but has been in movie development Hades. The game first appeared in 2005 on PlayStation 2 by Sony Computer Entertainment. Kratos is a Spartan warrior granted the Blades of Chaos by Ares, the Greek god of war. He battles monsters for the gods which could include Minotaurs, Cyclops, and other beasties. The war god betrays him by setting his wife and child in a village attacked by Kratos. The oracle curses Kratos by sending the ashes of his family to his skin giving him the name “Ghost of Sparta.” Athena sends him after Pandora’s Box in the Desert of Lost Souls to destroy Ares and save Athens. The problem may be that the filmmakers do not understand the property. I read about worries about audience confusion with Clash of the Titans (2010), but that film does not have Kratos or his blades.
Legend of Zelda is the classic video game that was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka for Nintendo. The first game was in 1986 and Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes was released in 2015. The land of Hyrule is threatened by Ganon who is searching for the Triforce of Power. Princess Zelda breaks it apart and sends its eight pieces in secret places. Young Link has to find his horse Epona and the Master Sword to defeat Ganon. One of the most successful Zelda games was Ocarina of Time in 1998. The connection with Universal Studios parks would make it a property with multimedia applications. The only problem would be not to make it like a fairy tale similar to Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) or too much like an epic fantasy in the Lord of the Rings vein. Zelda has it’s own world, tone, and story. The trick would be in casting a young actor as Link, for the young audience, and also an older one for the Link taking on Ganon. The film can use Ocarina of Time’s time shift. Game on!
