Gabe Newell, CEO of Half Life developer, Valve, has claimed that Hollywood directors lack "understanding" of what makes a video game property interesting for fans.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Newell revealed that Valve has turned down numerous pitches for film adaptations of the studio's flagship series, Half Life .
"There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they'd bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story," he said. "And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of."
It was as a direct result of these meetings that the studio began to explore filmmaking in-house, beginning with a series of short animated advertisements to introduce the various characters in Team Fortress 2 ahead of the game's release.
"That's when we started saying 'Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we'd have to make it ourselves.'," Newell said. "And I was like, 'Make it ourselves? Well, that's impossible.' But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that."
Newell argues that a game's developers, as keepers of its vision, are best-equipped to put together a film version of the property. "As a World of Warcraft player, I would much rather that the WoW team made the movie than anyone else," he said, in reference to the forthcoming movie adaptation of the MMO.
"I like Sam Raimi, I've been a fan ever since Evil Dead came out, but I would rather see Blizzard making the movie. We think that customers are like, 'OK, we're kind of sick and tired of the way you guys are slicing and dicing the experience of being a fan of Harry Potter, or Half-Life, or The Incredibles, and you need to fix it.' I think that the people that fix it will be rewarded."
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My insides fear as well with the World of Warcraft movie, and I just hope Blizzard has the nerve to cancel the whole thing if it looks bad, something like they did with Starcraft Ghost.
And the Team Fortress clips are simply amazing. Way to go Valve, you guys really know how to run your thing.
Most studios license a game property, estimate based on its popularity how big the audience will be, budget for that, and make a piece of garbage.
Also, superhero movies for characters like Batman have exposition and establish the character and setting, why wouldn't a movie based on a video game property do the same? If a Halo movie ever happens I'm sure we will hear about the Spartan program, human space exploration et al.
Also, I can't imagine how a movie where the protagonist doesn't even say one line could be an artistic or commercial success (unless he/she is a mute of course). Why should the audience be compelled to care about him? I certainly didn't care what happened to Gordon Freeman when I played, despite the fact that I enjoyed the game immensly. The narrative requirements for a game and for a movie are totally different.
Sadly Microsoft kind of made this same mistake when they farmed out all of those Halo mini anime's. None of them reflected the visuals of the in-game assets or feeling of Master Chief storyline, and it was a little off-putting for me. I would have preferred to see a feature length of the same/similar quality to the in-game cut scenes.
There are without a doubt a bunch of hack writers out there, especially those most willing to transition from film or tv to games, but I would argue that video game makers don't necessarily know how to write for the big screen either.
You remember the Wing Commander movie? That was made by the director and producer of the game series. Hit game, crappy movie.
Mortal Kombat was tight ^^ Most of the time movies make the ip too kiddy.
Beyond knowing the game and understanding the gaming experience, it's essential to know how to create good stories, period.