Halo Movie Scribe Talks Game Faithfulness 40
simoniker writes "Author DB Weiss has confirmed that he's currently writing a Halo movie screenplay for producers that include LOTR/King Kong's Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. When asked whether he was concerned about criticism from the long-time fans of any of his movie adaptations, Weiss commented: 'There will be the 5% on the fringe of any hardcore fanbase that get angry about any change you make to the source material. The truth is that novels, games, comics, and what-have-you are not usually ready to be slapped up on screen as-is.' In fact, Weiss suggests of this particular issue: 'If you did do a 100% faithful version, 999 times out of 1000 it would be a mess, and even the 5%-ers would recognize as much.'"
Could be worst... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Could be worst... (Score:1)
All I care about. (Score:2)
Re:All I care about. (Score:2)
As long as it's not like a certain D&D movie where the only way you knew it was D&D (vs random fantasy) was because of the random spell reference every 15 minutes.
Re:All I care about. (Score:2)
The events of Halo 1 and 2 are much more akin to movie sequels.
Re:All I care about. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:All I care about. (Score:2)
-Eric
Different Mediums Require Different Elements (Score:3, Interesting)
I still maintain that movies based off anything need to make changes from the original source material, especially when adapted from a video game. Films, books, video games and TV shows are all different mediums and should be treated as such.
A video game is an interactive experience. The audience (player) is involved in what direction and pace the story goes. That doesn't translate well into a passive experience like a movie. Just take the nuts and bolts of the game (characters & scenerios) and place them into a storyline related to, but not a carbon copy of the video game.
Though Halo (and the earlier Marathon series for Mac) does have a pretty good basis for a movie, I don't want to sit down and basically watch filmmakers play the game in real life.
Re:Different Mediums Require Different Elements (Score:2)
Re:Different Mediums Require Different Elements (Score:2)
In other words, if you truly wanted to make a decent Halo movie, the first thing you should do is cut the
Halo/Marathon universe isn't like other games.. (Score:1)
There's many, many unexplained things that I would hope the movie could elaborate on, rather than confuddle the whole thing some more.
"So, in the movie, Master Chief's really a Spht transexual refugee?"
"Yes, we
Re:Halo/Marathon universe isn't like other games.. (Score:2)
I would like to see a Halo (or MGS) Movie flesh out other themes and parts of the story not explored in the games.
Like the relationship between Zone of the Enders and it's associated Anime and movie.
Well, at least DOOM was faithful and successful! (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, wait...
Re:Well, at least DOOM was faithful and successful (Score:1)
Re:Well, at least DOOM was faithful and successful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well, at least DOOM was faithful and successful (Score:1)
Games and Books are a little different... (Score:2, Interesting)
I read LOTR every year (yes, I'm one of those geeks), and yes, I was sincerely disappointed with the movies. Well, the second two. While I understand that changes need to be made
Re:Games and Books are a little different... (Score:2, Insightful)
I also read LOTR every year, and I found the movies far from disappointing. The book, though I find
like Final Fantasy and not Doom? (Score:1)
Re:like Final Fantasy and not Doom? (Score:2)
I'd rather a quality live-action halo movie be made, with CGI where it is appropriate.
FF: TSW kept bumping into the uncanny valley with it's characters, and that detracted from the movie as a whole. They abstracted the characters enough to avoid this in Advent Children. I don't think the characters of Halo would abstract well to get away with full CG. (At least not the human ones)
Re:like Final Fantasy and not Doom? (Score:2)
our preoccupation with crap (Score:5, Interesting)
The rate at which we are recycling our own culture is increasing at a dramatic pace. I often wonder if this has some deeper meaning as it seems that human culture to this point has only really recycled nostalgia, typically recycling an era 20 years prior, but now we're really starting to eat and recycle our own waste in increasingly shorter periods of time.
At some point, we're going to need to inject depth and meaning into our popular culture, because you can only recycle McDonald's so many times. If you catch my meaning.
Re:our preoccupation with crap (Score:4, Insightful)
Interestingly, Unoriginality in Hollywood *is* something new [everything2.com], but you are wrong in your assumption that this is a sign of a lack of depth in the film industry. It was simply poor oversight on their part to not take advantage of likeable characters and existing media before the rise of the Bond film series, the Rocky, Star Wars, and Superman franchises, and so on into our current state.
The simple fact is that we can have our cake and eat it, too. American filmgoers like their sequelized, franchised, overmarketed, easily-hyped crap, but they also like their intelligent, thoughtful works. That's why every major studio has their vanity arthouse studio, too - so you get Fantastic Four and Elektra, but you also get Donnie Darko and Clerks. And, if anything, Hollywood is becoming a bit more enchanted with more budget-conscious movies (witness the frat boy populist comedies of Will Ferrell and the Wilson brothers) and arthouse cinema as an industry itself - to suggest that somehow Hollywood's artistic sensibilities have suffered due to the rise of the sequel and the adaptation is patently false.
If anything, Hollywood is just now starting to stabilize the entire system - the adaptations/blockbusters running on top of the flops, which all help subsidize their "high art" films and other, more mass-marketed (but cheaply made) pop fare (Adam Sandler movies and CGI family films.) The ship is open to all takers; the idea of originality vs. success is a false dilemma.
Re:our preoccupation with crap (Score:3, Funny)
U.S. Dept. Of Retro Warns: 'We May Be Running Out Of Past' [theonion.com]
That was nine years ago.
Re:our preoccupation with crap (Score:1)
U.S. Dept. Of Retro Warns: 'We May Be Running Out Of Past' [theonion.com]
It is satire, but with more than a grain of truth to it - one of The Onion's better articles. I guess we have arrived!
Mant
Ah yes, but movies can make good games (Score:1)
I have the feeling that they will take
My vision (Score:1)
Re:My vision (Score:1)
Please don't hold up Starship Troopers as a positive example for Halo to follow. Having recently played the game should not inhibit one from enjoying the movie.
Bungie wrote a bible already... (Score:3, Informative)
Bungie has already done all the hard work here, they've created the universe, the storyline, the characters, and have sold it to millions of fans who know and love THAT particular version. Working from anything other than the Bungie story source is essentially just throwing all that work out. Stay true to what Bungie created and you're guaranteed almost the entire Halo playing audience without much effort.
Oh, that and shoot Uwe Boll on sight if he wanders near the set.
Re:Bungie wrote a bible already... (Score:2)
Also IIRC, this is one of the reasons it took so long for a studio to pick up the project. Microsoft demanded that the movie not violate the 'Halo bible' provided by Bungie.
I think Microsoft realizes just how important the Halo franchise is to them, and won't let the movie damage it. First th
Re:Bungie wrote a bible already... (Score:2)
Thou Shall Have Every Other Scene be an Interior Room of Identical Size and Decor
Thoust Must Spent Several Hours in the same "library", with endless streams of enemies coming from side halls without plot
Remember the Ew
I hope it won't end up like Doom (Score:1)
Re:I hope it won't end up like Doom (Score:2)
Knowing Bungie, they probably would try, but Bungie would throw the book at them. As in, the Halo Bible.
Why the hate for Lord of the Rings? (Score:2, Insightful)
cg (Score:1)
Does it matter if the movie is actually good? (Score:2)