Is it possible?

lotus_j wrote: People dis Uwe Boll all the time, and the sad truth is he's a decent film maker. He has a niche (making movies based on games and horribly written) that make money and all turn up in the black. He has STEADY work, which in the entertainment industry is something to be proud of. Sure that work is crap, but he has it. The man has talent if you look at the actual "film making," aspect of it all. He just will shoot anything as long as you pay him.

the only reason why he has steady work is becuase there is a loophole in the German government that allows him to keep getting funding for his films. If it weren't the case he would've been allowed to continue.

-Cub. =o)

I think the actual PROBLEM is that no one has yet realised how to approach a video game adaptation. The most important thing to realise is that it's nothing like a book adaptation. Books to movies tend to generally work well because they bring in an entirely new aspect and spin to a well-known story, the visual. It might not be how you imagined it, but it's still new.

Games are much more complicated because the value essentially comes from the gameplay. Like someone once told me on IMDB, it's harder to make a movie now that games are so well made. Why watch a car chase if you can actually drive the car? In that sense, what's the point of watching a first person shooter if you can press the bullet-time option and gun down bad guys? Essentially, a word-for-word adaptation of a game with a strong story will ALWAYS pale out in comparison. Not only doesn't it bring anything new, it takes out the gaming part of the fun. I've mentioned Deus Ex previously, one of the closest thing to a compelling story, and I can't really imagine I'd have the same fun watching the story if I wasn't the one unveiling it with my actions and choices.

Whereas a good game with a weaker story becomes less of a problem if you attach good writing to it. You're taking Doom as an example of why Half Life wouldn't work, which is a rather silly way to look at things. If Batman Begins and Dark Knight have proven anything, it's that all you need is ONE good director and ONE good screenwriter interested in a project to jumpstart any movement others thought dead. You think anyone wanted to touch that franchise after Batman & Robin? Still, it didn't take much flair or sense to see the outstandingly solid foundations of one of the best comic books of all time. The recent success just proved the potential was there, although Batman TAS had already accomplished just that. It's a wonder it took so long to translate to movies.

Just because no good writer has ever worked on a game screenplay before doesn't mean there is no place for this kind of movies on the scene, or that it won't happen in the future. Half Life has the potential to be terrific because the foundations are there to build upon. Doom could've been pretty good if they had worked with the bases of Doom 3. It can't work with just any game, but something as solid as Half Life would be a breeze to adapt. All you need is someone serious to handle it. Someone who understands both games and movies. As soon as one good movie comes out of this process. studios will be all over it, as well as good writers. You won't win the snobs over, but who wants them anyway?

Double post for length

Boll's a hack who's managed to do what many others have before him, he essentially became the one-trick pony people go to when they want a particular product. Actors who play the same role in every film are a dime a dozen, he's just one of the few directors who pulled the same stunt. The fact that he's still around only shows how little balls the industry has left. No one wants to take the risk of a big game-to-movie project, so they go the guy who's done it before with financial "success". If this were still the 60s or 70s he'd be out of a job, and one studio or another would've risked their money and probably made a fortune out of it. A movie based on a solid game franchise with the quality of the recent Batman films would make an easy billion, and you don't have to be a fortune teller to predict this one.

As for Tex, like many game franchises with a strong story, tv is the safest way to go. Take the character, use the previous cases explored in games if you want but write new cases/scenarios for them. Easiest way to expend on a story and not become either redundant or just plain pointless. The games and series could even be canon and follow one another closely. That'd be a good way to build for yourself a sure market and create an interesting synergy only Star Wars has approached so far, with relatively good success.

Boll is able to make a movie with what passes through Hollywood as "Decent" effects, not grand or spectacular, but decent, lots of action and combat, but at a very low cost... So the movie can't help but to make money, so everyone makes money off of it... So therefore if he pitches an idea, he is given permission to run with it...

The only way to stop him would be for the entire world to cease buying anything and everything with his name on it... Unfortunately that isn't going to happen... Even at 10 bucks a DVD, you sell a couple hundred thousand and you've made more than it cost to make the movie, which in the pockets of the Powers To Be makes the movie a success... No matter how much decent folk dislike how he makes a movie or what he bases the movies off of, there are those twisted out there {and there are many of them} that like his work and will continue to buy his movies, which means until he has a health issue he will continue to make movies...

Out of all of his movies that I've seen, I've only liked the Bloodrayne series... For the most part he is lower than palm scum, but some how he was able to get decent actors for the Bloodrayne movies which brought their level up a bit...

I don't blame Boll, or those who consume his product. Where else can they go for movies based on their favorite games? The real town idiots are producers not seeing the ridiculous potential of a good adaptation. They still settle for the minimum guaranteed profit, after everything recent history has thought us. They go for the sure fans, calculate how many people will absolutely see the movies and buy the DVDs, and calculate the budget they can afford to spend. Never mind broadening the audience by making a solid movie to reach out to the general public instead of counting on the die hard fans who would see the film whatever form it takes. That chain of thought has never worked before, especially not with Spiderman or Batman!

Steven Segal should team up with Bowl and whatever producers supports them both. They all have the same approach with niche films. I'm sure they worship the Direct-to-DVD god above and prey it never ends.

I interviewed Boll once. I think he's pretty smart and knows quite a bit about the industry and movies. He will be the first to tell you the scripts he works with are crap. He will also tell you that he gets turned down for ideas to better projects all the time. He never gets help from game companies or designers. He has talent and knows a lot of about making films.

He also happens to have anger issues and says some incredibly stupid things. He did box 5 critics in one night and beat each one. That is kind of amusing.

He also boxed an internet "hater," whom he later made a production assistant for "Postal."

At least he has never been allowed near a good IP.

lotus_j wrote:At least he has never been allowed near a good IP.

It's probably only a matter of time... I noticed on his http://www.IMDB.com File that he just did a movie for Far Cry... I can't imagine what Prison Rape he did to that...
I also noticed that Chris Coppola plays in A Lot of his films... Must not be able to get much other work...



It's not a Boll movie, but did anyone know that they are making Another Friday The 13th... Makes me wonder how far they are going to try and take that movie... It's in Post Production now, due to come out sometime next year...

I vehemently disagree. Uwe Boll has no talent for making movies. At all. Having seen his work (and suffered the bleeding eyeballs for it) I can testify to the fact that his directing skills are somewhat less than epic. In fact I believe I have more directing skill than he has, and I aim to prove so in 2009.

Cub, you're a director. What do you think about Boll's direction?

-Fred

Fred Buer wrote: Cub, you're a director. What do you think about Boll's direction?

Funnily enough I classify him in the same vein as someone like George Lucas. The ideas are there, but the execution is very, very poor. The only difference between the two of them is Lucas gets stellar budgets and makes rather pretty looking pieces of crap... where as Boll tends to scrape the bottom of the barrel on both ends. What ties them both together is they get so wrapped up in their own opinion of "cool factor" that they forget what the fans (most of them already long-time fans) really want.

I have seen Boll in many interviews, and he comes across as rather obnoxious. He needs to realise that just becuase he is a director, it does not mean that he should not take some pointers. He tends to get very irate when people question his decisions when it comes to storytelling. Sure, he might not want to "sell out" and be like Michael Bay (whom he absolutely hates) but what he needs to realise is when making video game film he has an already loyal fanbase (of the games) to appease, and not just himself... in which case he should really be more open to the public's opinion.

Just my thoughts.

-Cub. =o)

I remember when I once was hell bent on directing video game movies. I was determined to make good ones too. Then I realized I would much rather make my own stuff even more. I dunno if I will ever be allowed to direct a film for any real amount of cash but if I get to that point in my career I sure have some good ones lined up.

In the meantime I figured I'd start a TV show and it seems to be working out. I'll keep everyone posted when I have something real to talk about. Right now I am in the pre-production phase and generating a pilot. There seems to be some interested parties so keep an eye open here I will fill you all in if things go as well as they are seeming to be. Until I have papers signed I will not be saying anything. I can allude to things but can't give facts until then. . . I guess that's kind of a tease but I am excited about it.

You can at least tell us the genre, surely?

-Fred

OMG! I'm the only non-believer at this time!

Come on, people. The track record of movies-from-video-games is dismal, and there are no signs of that changing. Main reason: the movie producers don't add plot, character, etc. that the video games don't have.

Gary, I'm a believer, but you're probably right.