Top 10 Games To Make Into Films

By Angus Deacon, Sam Collins

Just so long as Uwe Boll isn't around.

Games being turned into movies - it's happening a lot these days, and not always when it's a good idea. Next week we'll be covering those bad moves in detail, but this week we thought we'd give interested movie companies a helping hand, by hand picking our top ten games that we feel could make good movies. Of course, even with a solid franchise, it's far from a sure bet that the actual movie will turn out to be any good...


Half-Life

The game already has a fantastic story, great characters, head-crabs and a crowbar. How could this not be a great movie?

Ideal Casting: Edward Norton or Gary Oldman as lead character Gordon Freeman. Christopher Walken as the mysterious, creepy G-Man. Jamil Mullen would be the obvious choice to play Alyx Vance, seeing as she was the original face they used to model the character.

Super Metroid

The movie industry needs more kick-ass female lead characters… especially after such disasters like Ultraviolent and Bloodrayne. A great job was done with Iron Man, so a shiny suited Samus zooming around hunting down aliens would be wicked-fun to watch.

Ideal Casting: Ali Larter (Heroes) as Samus Aran. Some horrible space muties for everyone else (think Mickey Rourke)

Assassin’s Creed

Although personally not a fan of the wacky modern-day slant storyline of the game, there’s no question that the main bulk of Assassin’s Creed would make a great flick. The Wachowski brothers would produce.

Ideal Casting: James Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) or maybe Christian Bale as assassin extraordinaire, Altair. Again, Kristen Bell (Lost) would be the obvious choice for Dr. Lucy Stillman as she was used to develop the character's model for the game.

God of War

Nine times out of ten, mythological movies are awesome. Jason and the Argonauts is still one of the best movies of all time. Imagine taking the story of Kratos to the big-screen with all the whiz-bang special effects of today. It would be like… really good.

Ideal Casting: Wrestling Superstar Goldberg as the cursed Kratos. To guarantee box-office ratings, get a semi-naked Ashwarya Rai in there somehow.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Obviously Mr. Clancy can write a pretty darn good yarn and Double Agent was one of the most riveting story-lines in the Splinter Cell series. It would be a mix of James Bond meets Prison Break with the opportunity for some awesome action sequences.

Ideal Casting: George Clooney as the lovable, but ruthless, Sam Fisher. Bruce Willis would make a great skin-headed villian.

BioShock

The world of Rapture would make for a fascinating setting. The game's story would be best left alone and instead the film should serve as more of a prequel to the game, focusing on the decline of this ‘utopian’ underwater society.

Ideal casting: Anthony Hopkins or Ian McKellen starring as Andrew Ryan.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Capturing the pacing, quirky humour and plot twists that fans of the Metal Gear Solid series have come to know and love would be no easy feat – but if accomplished would make for one amazing film.

Ideal casting: Tarantino or Guy Richie directing with Ethan Hawke as Raiden.

Diablo

Demons? Check. Gore? Check. Awesome movie? Check. While the story of the original Diablo (or Diablo II for that matter) wouldn’t support a full length film, there are a few novels set in the Diablo universe that could be directly converted or used as the basis of a new script.

Ideal casting: anyone but Uwe Boll directing.

Turok

With a story that would easily be adapted for the silver screen, Turok would make a great summer action flick. I don't think it would get any cooler than watching CGI Dinosaurs being taken out by a bow-wielding badass.

Ideal casting: Spielberg has experience with dinosaur themes so he could handle this one, and a tanned Jason Statham to play Turok.

Warcraft III

Warcraft III is the ultimate story of betrayal and would make an excellent choice for a fantasy epic. The focus would be on Arthas and his transition from holy paladin to corrupt deathknight.

Ideal Casting: Peter Jackson directing with Sean Bean as Arthas and Jessica Biel as Jaina Proudmoore.

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Reply

On 19 July 2008, 03:51PM Posted by xSHADOWx

I'd definitely go and see all of these if they were movies.
nice article thing.

 

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On 15 August 2008, 02:26PM Posted by BlackRetina

I wouldn't want to see Diablo, WC3 or God of War. Turok would probably be a generic action movie.

 

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On 23 October 2008, 08:28PM Posted by renegade230

what about gears of war

 

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On 23 January 2009, 12:26PM Posted by InPlainSight

LoL at this being featured on stuff.co.nz just today.
I think your ideas are good but some things are just meant to be left as games. Halflife for example is all about the immersion into the game. There is no 'Gordan Freeman' that you can define because you always control him, giving him a specific personality would ruin the game.

I definitely think that Bioshock would also miss with its 'would you kindly' psychological mind game thing only really working towards the participant and not a viewer.
However I would say that Warcraft 3 (which I still play to this day) does have an excellent story which with Peter Jackson in the directors seat could become an epic.

Others such as GodOfWar could make easy transition to movies with there over the top style and almost cinematic qualities.
I question whether Metriod would make a good game if it were to stick to its roots due to the solo human element, and any venture away from this nature would not be metriod at all.