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Shadow of the Colossus To Become a Movie 72

Posted by Soulskill from the since-street-fighter-did-so-well dept.
Sockatume writes "SCE's critically acclaimed Shadow of the Colossus is set to become a feature film. The cult boss-rush game will be adapted by Justin Marks, who also wrote the recent Chun-Li movie. A friend of the writer reports that the studio hopes to turn it into an LotR-style fantasy blockbuster, expanding upon the side characters in the original game's minimalistic and solitary storyline. This won't be the game's first trip to Hollywood, however. 2007's Reign Over Me featured characters playing the game, at the suggestion of editor Jeremy Roush."
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Shadow of the Colossus To Become a Movie More

Shadow of the Colossus To Become a Movie

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  • wrong direction. (Score:5, Informative)

    by senorpoco ( 1396603 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @12:53PM (#27505447)
    Great game, make a sequel not a movie.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mmkkbb ( 816035 )

      It was a prequel to Ico.

      • If they make a prequel to this movie, or a sequel to Ico, they can make a trilogy instead of one movie! Brilliant!

      • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Didn't the studio always say it was not a prequel to Ico, despite what everyone thinks?
        • From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

          For several months during and after the game's release, the game's director and lead designer, Fumito Ueda, maintained that the game's status as a prequel was simply his personal take on the game and not necessarily its canon nature, as he largely intended for players to decide the specifics of the story for themselves. However, during an interview in March 2006, Ueda revealed that a specific connection between the two games exists: the world featured in the two is the same, with Shadow of the Colossus taking place at an unspecified time before Ico. He revealed that Wander sires the line of horned boys of which Ico's protagonist is a descendant.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Soilworker ( 795251 )
      nah, they will re-release a game based on the movie instead since it will attract more people than the game.
    • There was a lot of buzz a year ago about a sequel for ps3, and then nothing. Anyone know if it's still in the works?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flitty ( 981864 )
        AFAIR, someone tracked down the lead designer at GDC and he said something to the effect that he was really excited about what they are working on, but he couldn't say anything without pissing off Sony. There's still just the one teaser image from a year ago (sewer cover with a chain), but many people believe that E3 will finally have some information about it.

    • I imagine the movie will be five minutes of actual action and 90 minutes of a guy riding around on a horse and falling off things.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Fumus ( 1258966 )
      Make a damned PC port. Not a film.
      I want to play it too :(

  • Ak! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @12:54PM (#27505469)
    From reading that the game would be a movie to reading who was writing it; that is the biggest smile to terror-frown conversion I've ever had. I think I pulled a muscle...

    • Better this... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by A. B3ttik ( 1344591 )
      ...than another game, precisely because there's no pre-existing story. There's nothing to ruin, nothing to get wrong, no part of my (recent) childhood to rape. They can only EXPAND the story, and there's really not a lot that they can get wrong.

      On the other hand, take a game with an amazing, wonderfully thought-out story like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or even the Half-Life series, and a movie would just _ruin_ it. You couldn't tell the same intricate stories in an hour and a half. You'd be s

  • There IS no story. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @12:55PM (#27505485) Homepage

    It was a great game, but there wasn't much of a story. You were trying to save your girl, and to do so you were given the task to slay eight mighty beasts. I don't think there was another person in the whole game.

    It had it's ending, which was good, but the game was basically about exploring the world to see how empty it was, then the sudden thrill of the fight with a beast.

    It would be nearly unfilmable, without major changes (other characters, stuff in the middle, etc). I guess you could intersperse backstory (the love story part) during the "boring" sequences (searching for the monsters) as first person narration.

    But that would change the character. It would no longer be one guy against nothing, realizing that he was killing these giant amazing creatures that usually meant no harm to him. You'd lose the "why am I continuing to do this, it's horrible" part.

    Good luck, you're going to need it.

    With any luck, this will be cancelled during production. If not, I fear another Mario Brothers movie, only less popular.

    • Why, oh why did you invoke the super mario brothers movie? Now I'm going to have Jump For My Love stuck in my head all damn day. Don't you have any conscience?

    • While I completely agree with you about it not being able to film the story as is, it should be possible to add elements while still keeping the themes alive. It'll end up being ham-handed and over the top, but it is possible.

      I'm thinking something along the lines of having a colossus actually save the main character somehow, only to have the main character viciously kill the colossus seconds later. Or a colossus willingly sacrifice itself to save the girl. A movie format also gives plenty of opportunity

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      So it will be all special effects with no plot. The action sequences are the best part of any blockbuster movie anyway, the rest is just filler. Seems like a good idea to me.

    • It would be nearly unfilmable, without major changes (other characters, stuff in the middle, etc).

      There's always the Colossi themselves. Maybe Penny Arcade can do some writing for the script. This would make a good scene. [penny-arcade.com]

    • Unfilmable? I don't agree.

      See "The Brown Bunny" for instance. A great movie with long stretches of silence. The movie should be the same as the game. Give the audience time to really *feel* about what is going on:

      If the hero is so noble in saving his girl, why is this land so barren, why does he feels o lonely, what is going on and why does it feel so wrong?

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There is a story. The back story is not explained directly but is revealed mostly through objects and actions in the cut scenes. The player must ask questions about scenes and piece together the story. In the opening, the priest following the boy explain that there is a rumor that people can be brought back from the dead in the land boy has taken the girl but that trespassing there is forbidden. The forced questions like how did the girl die, how did the boy get the sword, what is the link between the sword

      • I thought the whole point of the game was that none of that mattered to him. He was willing to cut out the heart of the very Earth if that's what it took to bring back his beloved. The lack of story was due to Wander's tunnel vision.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Daravon ( 848487 )

      What the article didn't point out is that this is going to be a low budget Bollywood movie. The movie is going to start out as a black screen. After fifteen minutes, they play some footage from a bar brawl or a UFC match. Once the match is over, the screen goes black again. Repeat 8 times. Fin.

  • Why does this have to happen? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by seventhevening ( 1488225 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @01:07PM (#27505653)
    Why? Why? Why? Why? Why would you turn this game into a movie? The chances of this being good are virtually zero. The game was a work of art, and screwing with it is a terrible idea.

    Why do they keep making video game movies? Silent Hill has been the only one that was even half-way decent. Why hasn't the public learned to just stay away from these movies?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Piata ( 927858 )

      I actually enjoyed Tomb Raider 2. It was fairly accurate to the source material (boobs, guns, action and over the top archeology) and it never took itself too seriously.

      But video game movies are horrid. I could see Shadow of the Colossus making a good short film if done by a little known director that was more interested in staying true to the source material than box office earnings.

  • This seems like the kind of situation where you don't really need to be faithful to the original game, other than the very basic premise (walking around on huge giants). It has potential, and if they do it right, it can be gold.

    Of course, there have been many failures at movies that only shared the original premise with the games (like Wing Commander).

  • Oh no (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hansamurai ( 907719 ) <hansamurai@gmail.com> on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @01:21PM (#27505883) Homepage Journal

    The game is essentially about a boy and his horse, and the insurmountable challenges they face together. Think about that Viggo Mortensen film Hidalgo, but place it in a more lush, green world, and a whole lot less talking.

    This really has me worried, I loved Shadow of the Colossus, the game was great because every boss was a whole level in itself. Whether you were climbing them or riding them or whatever, it was awesome. I don't know how a movie could capture this.

    The game does not fit into the Lord of the Rings style blockbuster. It has just a few, quiet characters, a mysterious central castle, and lots of worlds to explore with just your horse. About the only thing that's similar is you could film SotC in New Zealand like LotR and there's bows and arrows.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dzfoo ( 772245 )

      >> About the only thing that's similar is you could film SotC in New Zealand like LotR and there's bows and arrows.

      Not true. There's also a magical sword that shines when in the presence of enemies.

              -dZ.

  • Try Hiring People With Talent Instead (Score:3, Interesting)

    by shma ( 863063 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @01:29PM (#27506007)

    The cult boss-rush game will be adapted by Justin Marks, who also wrote the recent Chun-Li movie.

    You mean the movie which has a metacritic score of 17% [metacritic.com] (tied for 89th on their bottom 100) and a rotten tomatoes score of 4% [rottentomatoes.com]? The only way we'll ever see a proper screen adaptation of a video game is if we stop hiring talentless hacks to write the scripts.

    • I considered just referring to it as "That Which Shall Not Be Named", but I thought it was a better played straight.
  • Why don't they just make this movie but base it on Atreyu in Neverending Story? Similar archetype, more story to screw with, they wouldn't have to defile a standalone work of playable art... where's the downside? Just switch gears while you've got the chance, hollywood. I'd be 75% less disgruntled with a Neverending Story 5 or whatever.

  • I found the game to be beautiful, visually stunning, but tedious and boring. Wandering around vast landscapes to find some hidden monster was an exercise is just pushing the directional buttons and watching the CGI landscape move by in order to fight a series of boss battles.

    I hope the movie makers do something better than creating a visually stunning but ultimately boring film to watch CGI landscapes.

  • When is a video game going to make a successful transformation into a blockbuster movie? From what I've seen over the years (Wing Commander, Doom, etc.), the worst comic books still make better movies than the best video games. Maybe they should go back to simpler times and make a movie with some imagination. How about Zork The Movie? They could get Ron Perlman to play a grue.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kellyb9 ( 954229 )

      When is a video game going to make a successful transformation into a blockbuster movie?

      Although, I'm sure a large deal of /. community won't agree with me. Resident Evil made for a relatively popular set of movies, 4 and counting.

    • When is a video game going to make a successful transformation into a blockbuster movie?

      Mortal Kombat was pretty good.

  • But where's Uwe Boll?
  • To a degree, I can sort of fathom the (mostly monetary) motivations that push producers to convert games into movies or movies into games. And to be fair, there are some movies that feel like video games (300, anyone?), and some video games that feel like films, so the conversion makes a sort of sense in terms of strict cost/benefit analysis.

    But Shadow of the Colossus? Really?

    This is a game that had only moderate popularity at release. More to the point, though, the substance of its art depended on th

    • (they'll have to give him a name)

      According to the track titles on the Soundtrack, his name is Wander, although it's pretty indicative low level of characterization when that's how you find out the name of the main character.

      This was a game about gameplay. Not about a story. It won't translate to a movie format well at all.

  • Justin Marks is the new Uwe Boll! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I wonder if he'll be tapped to do a World of Goo movie next...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by juuri ( 7678 )

      Pretty sure there is already a porn adaptation of World of Goo... titled, well, you know the title.

  • the studio hopes to turn it into an LotR-style fantasy blockbuster

    As if! At best it will look like Eragon [imdb.com] or Dungeons & Dragons [imdb.com], they just need to be sure to hire poor Jeremy Irons to play one of the characters.

  • EXT DAY WANDER: ARGO! (repeat throughout movie) The End

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