There has been so much talk over the years, rumors and hints, that games would be adapted into movies and yet they have never materialized. We have also had a good batch of games that did actually see the light of day, a mix of great adaptations and pathetic ones. However, there are still so many that I am dying to see on film. I'm not going to go into whether it is actually happening or not; simply put, these are my top 5 games that I as a screenwriter would love to personally adapt into film one day.
DIABLO
No, I am not talking about the latest Diablo 3, although that I would love to see in time to come. The original Diablo 1 needs to be made into a film or series. That is where it all started. There is so much history, magic and lore in that first game that many may have missed out on if they skipped reading the books or having relevant conversations. With all the magic and fantasy movies being made of late, the time is so right for Blizzard to get a Diablo movie going. It would be great if they had all three classes in the movie, with the warrior being the one to possess the soul stone just as in the game. We've waited long enough... the time has come.
Remember the Diablo 1 startup movie?
SOUL BLADE
I know most fighting games have been pretty rife with poor adaptations (read Mortal Kombat there). The Mortal Kombat series was actually better, even though the fighting scenes came off as what I call poorly done cheap porno scenes. You know, where they give you a screenshot of the guy apparently doing something, although you know they aren't really doing it.
Dead or Alive wasn't pretty bad in my opinion, and I still enjoy watching the old Street Fighter film now and again. Yet, the one game that had one of the most interesting storylines was Soul Blade, and later the Soul Calibur series. An evil possessed sword that could only be destroyed by an equally powerful good sword? Yes please. And once again, this film or series needs to start at the beginning, and not somewhere in between with the first hour being spent on catching up.
Here you can read about how Soul Calibur almost became a movie, and why it still hasn't.
COMMAND & CONQUER
OK, so maybe turning a real time strategy game into a film may not be a good idea, but if done right then the Command & Conquer games would be my first choice. An example is Warcraft, which in my opinion was done pretty well. Dune was done well in games and film, but that was based on the original novels by Frank Herbert. If you ignore all the building, strategy and war, the in-game films told such a great, intricate story that it could easily be adapted into film, while taking a strong crew amongst the fighters to focus on during the combat.
When it comes to screenwriting, there is a way to weave the story in among the battles, and we've had some great online combats that could also be translated into the film. I'm sure to many of you this may be a dull choice, but I would definitely collect this series of films if it was adapted correctly. And.... it MUST have Kane, otherwise I'm not interested.
HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC
Once again, another strategy game that has so much mythology, lore and magical creatures and weapons. Any one of the games in the series would do well as a starting point, although I would prefer if they started from HoM&M 4. There is a wealth of assets they could use for the movie, although I am guessing with all the special effects that this would cost a fortune to produce.
First choice for me would be a member from each race being forced to join against some great foe, and establishing their own fort with a mix of their races creatures. There are so many ways a film could take this, and I would fully support a new story that has nothing to do with the games in this instance.
MEDAL OF HONOR
I might get some hate comments for this below, but I have never really been into Call of Duty as much as I was Medal of Honor. I was so sad when the series stopped, but I still have every game in the collection from PS1 to Xbox360. This game has so much flexibility in terms of movie adaptation. They can take it from the first game through to end, or pick any one of the stories in the game, or make the film a whole new story on its own. Either one of those options would do very well, and might spark up the games once again.
CONCLUSION
I am sure there are many other games I could have thought of, but these 5 fit the top of my list. Being a registered screenwriter myself, I could easily adapt any of the above into film if I was given the rights. I'm tempted to contact the publishers to see how far I would get, but from my experience in this regard I will probably just be greeted by silence.
How about you? What is your top 5 list? Let me know, and maybe I could pursue a few of those too.
