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OK, now I am really happy that Futurama is out of cold storage and running strong with two direct-to-DVD movies, even though The Beast With A Billion Backs (or Futurama Meets Day of the Tentacle, as I call it) left me feeling a lot less happy than after Bender’s Big Score. With the second movie still fresh, we now have a sneak peek at the next one on the list - Bender’s Game, as, usual a pun, this time on the award-winning sci-fi book, Ender’s Game.
Although we can’t really tell if there’s any inspiration for the movie from the book, we have indeed seen (and heard) a ton of references to Dungeons and Dragons, The Lord of the Rings and the recent Beowulf movie. Bender’s Game is scheduled to hit DVD retail shelves sometime at the end of this year. Hot diggety daffodil! Now if only someone would make another Futurama game. (sigh)
There just isn’t room for creativity in this world these days - at least not if you are a multi-billion dollar Jabba the Hutt like Fox Studios. With Fox’s own Max Payne movie just around the corner, starring Mark Wahlberg as the classy “nothing to lose” anti-hero cop who’s lost it all, the movie studio has decided to eliminate the competition in a move that would make Vladimir Lem real proud.
And who’s the competition, you ask? Why, it’s none other than Payne & Redemption, a non-profit fan film that got over a million fans foaming at the mouth and the stamp of approval from Max Payne’s creator, Sam Lake, himself. A movie that’s been over three years in the making and has burned a hole deep in the pockets of the producer, Luke Morgan-Rowe and the director Fergle Gibson, Payne & Redemption fell foul last month, just after the team released a spanking new trailer, with their MySpace page getting suddenly pulled down citing copyright infringement concerns.
Transformers was a true summer movie in all respects after a really *long* time. Straight in the league of Armageddon about 8 summers back, which was the last summer blockbuster that I truly enjoyed. The movie was made on a mega, multi-million dollar budget. And the result was a highly polished, taut presentation of our beloved Lego heroes’ story. But this is not about the special effects or the slick cars used in the movie. This is about what the tittle says. Yes, the music, which I believe is the major yet least talked about aspect of epic movies. Imagine STAR WARS without the classic John Williams score! Imagine Superman without the hugely orchestral yet very pop like theme by the same genius! Imagine Black hawk Down and Pearl Harbor without the ‘To die for my Country’ scores! You guys must have gotten the drift I guess.
Looks like we have more and more games being made into movies these days. Joining the latest games to make the jump to the big screen is Sega’s absolutely brilliant shooter, Condemned: Criminal Origins. Dubbed The Unforgettable, the movie is being directed by The Cell director, Tarsem Singh, and features a plot that is said to involve “a cop who in the course of a murder investigation realizes that he is not human and uncovers a war between good and evil aliens.” And this is where I did something I don’t usually do - blink.
On a good note though, it looks like the Hitman movie is coming along famously. Talking to IGN, the Deadwood and Live Free or Die Hard actor, Timothy Olyphant talked about the Hitman movie, including admitting that he had never heard of the source material before the movie and a number of plot points, including the introduction of Nika, played by the stunningly gorgeous Olga Kurylenko and Dougray Scott’s portrayal of Mike Whittier. Sure, the plot doesn’t look too special, but oh well, at least the sets and good ol’ 47 look great, as they should. Expect the Hitman movie to release sometime in the next couple of months.
Seems like it was just yesterday that I was talking about the sorry state of videogame-to-movie adaptations. Oh wait, it was yesterday! Christophe Gans, the Brotherhood of the Wolf Frenchie director that made Silent Hill sat down with Ecran Large about his upcoming adaptation of the Onimusha game. Revealing some details about the upcoming movie, he said that the final preps for the movie are being done in Paris, and once that’s done, he should move to China in October to begin pre-production and supervise set building and costumes. The movie itself is set to start filming around March next year in Beijing, and will take place entirely within the same studio in which Zhang Yimou’s Hero was made, but will wrap up in July before the Olympics begin. With a cast and crew almost exclusively composed of Chinese and Japanese people, apart from a few others like Gans and cinematographer Dan Laustsen, the movie is being made on a budget of around $70 million, jointly funded by China, Japan and the United States. So, yes, it looks like it’s finally confirmed that the movie will be adapted off Onimusha: Warlords alone, with no events from Onimusha 3: Demon Siege making their way in. Sad, considering I was really expecting to see Jean Reno in medieval Japan and Samanosuke kicking ass all over Parisian landmarks. (sigh) Well, I am happy they at least got Takeshi Kaneshiro playing Samanosuke on-screen. Now if only someone would announce Zhang Ziyi as Kaede…
Onimusha : Tournage confirmé en mars 2008 [Ecran Large via Dark Horizons]
Wow, it looks like more and more games are getting the movie treatment these days. With over 23 “adaptations” of videogames released so far in movie format, it looks like we are going to see a lot more of our favorite (or not so favorite) videogames making the jump to the big screen. While Postal, Hitman and Resident Evil: Extinction are all set to pounce on the masses some time around October this year, it looks like the fold is welcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Warcraft into the ranks of the upcoming bigwigs such as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Halo, Dungeon Siege, American McGee’s Alice, and Castlevania. Celebrating the demise of the last remaining brain cell in film producers and game developers eager to get their namesakes chewed on by zombies in the adaptations, we bring you a list of all the movies that we know of that have been based on video games, released and upcoming. Be warned that this is not a comprehensive list of all the movies ever made, just a simple article about the ones I’ve actually managed to see - and the ones I am dreading to see.
A new trailer for the upcoming third and final film in the Resident Evil franchise following hot on the heels of the Resident Evil 5 trailer? Polly like that cracker very much indeedy! Building on the spectacular teaser that was released earlier this year, (you know, the one that showed a completely devastated Las Vegas) the new trailer shows off more of the movie’s zombie bashing plotline.
Set three to five years after the events of Apocalypse, Extinction sees the Umbrella Corporation failing to control the spread of the T-Virus, leading to a worldwide infection that has almost wiped out humanity. When Dr. Sam Isaacs and his team fail to synthesize a serum from her clones, they start hunting Alice down, who has since grown smarter, stronger and faster - thanks to her forced genetic modifications. Racing across the ruins of Las Vegas, Alice teams up with the few remaining survivors, including Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr), L.J. (Mike Epps), K-Mart (Spencer Locke), Nurse Betty (Ashanti) and luscious redhead, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) to stop the T-virus menace once and find sanctuary in infection-free Alaska.
The movie, loosely based on the games (as usual), will also feature a number of characters and enemies from the games, including mutant crows, Crimson Heads and Albert Wesker (Jason O’Mara) who may turn into a Tyrant, considering a Tyrant-esque “boss” is featured prominently in the red band trailer. Although a fourth movie based on the franchise was supposed to be made, it has now been confirmed that Extinction will round up the story arc, with director Russell Mulcahy explicitly stating “[]… not all the main characters will survive. As far as I’m aware, this [Extinction] is indeed supposed to close the book.” Judging by the pained cries of L.J. and the teary faces of Alice and Claire, it looks like poor Carlos Olivera may be buying it big time before the end credits roll.
Resident Evil: Extinction is scheduled for a September 21, 2007 release date.
Hit the jump to see the teaser, the trailer and the red band trailer as well as some leaked concept art from the movie.