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230°

'Colossus' writer: Give video games a chance

The announcement of a Shadow of the Colossus movie has outraged and/or disgusted nearly everyone in the gamer community so far because of the SACRILEGE! However, the film's writer, Justin Marks, wants you all to give videogame movies a chance, and seems to truly believe that Colossus & The Hendersons (working title) could be a hot project.

"I think many of the games haven't worked as movies because it's hard to find the right game. There are very few that lend themselves to movies," declares Marks. "If we started thinking that anything that worked in one medium shouldn't be adapted for another we wouldn't have a lot of the great movies we've had, because so many of them came from novels."

"With a lot of games there are so many elements in the universe you spend your time tearing down and tearing down. What's nice about this game is that it's so sparse so you can start building right away."

"With a lot of games you're caught trying to please the fans and the mainstream audience," he adds. "What's so nice about this game is that it's all seen through such an adult lens, so that what pleases the fans also pleases a wider audience."

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[via destructoid.com]

Columbo - moderator
Published: 254 days 7 hours ago | News | PlayStation 2 | Gaming

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Highatus - 254 days 6 hours ago

1 -

Colossus & The Hendersons (working title) ?

For Serious?

*Ninja Edit* I have little faith in a game turned movie, nothing will sway that until there is one that actually follows the games plot lines not what some director/writer believes should be there.

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gaffyh - 254 days 6 hours ago

1.1 -

This can't be true, Colossus and the Hendersons? It's not damn bigfoot.

It has to be EXACTLY like Shadow of the Colossus, or it fails badly. Then they can make Ico move if they like.

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himdeel - 254 days 6 hours ago

1.2 - This game to this day is one of my favorites...

...and the idea of them making this into a movie sickens me. Just from my experience with SOTC and Ico the expectations I'd have for a movie involving either title just couldn't be met, they are that high.

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Highatus - 254 days 6 hours ago

1.3 -

Same here Himdeel.

I don't think the writer knows what this experience holds for some people and i highly doubt he'll be able to evoke the same feelings with this. No one really has except maybe with Silent Hill.

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sonarus - 254 days 6 hours ago

1.4 -

Shadow of the collosus has virtually no plot just gameplay. I imagine this will be made into a childrens movie like bridge to terebithia or whatver that crap was called. Or race to witch mountain.

There story like for the game like they said is very empty so its easy to fill in the bits but then it can never be truly representative of shadow of the collosus. Holding your sword in the air to guide you where to go, tapping X to make your horse ride faster, Being chased by a collosus while riding your horse and you have to turn around while riding the horse and shoot an arrow into its eyes. Having to jump of your horse and latch onto a collosus.

The only way a movie can work is if its nothing like the game because a movie simply cannot capture such moments the same way the game did

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gaffyh - 254 days 6 hours ago

1.5 -

Phantom disagreer likes the title "Colossus & the Hendersons" it seems

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Cenobia - 253 days 23 hours ago

1.6 - @gaffyh

But that's the problem. If it's exactly like the game, it's going to be a terrible movie. No real interaction with other characters, and just massive fights. I honestly don't believe a movie can pull off those battles without being totally lame, or at least it won't give the experience that the game offers.

And if they change anything everyone that loves the game is going to feel betrayed. The back story is left open on purpose so the player can fill in the blanks with their own imagination (to a degree anyway, we know the general back story). Shoving a story (that is written by a hack writer and not the original visionary) down our throats totally ruins the experience that the game gives people. Not only are they going to produce a bad movie, but I think they are going to ruin the GAME as well.

Anyone that plays the game after the movie comes out will totally miss out on the full experience of the game.

Also, I'd love to see them try to wedge the original ending in there. That won't make any sense unless you've played both of Ueda's games.

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ReservoirDog316 - 253 days 22 hours ago

1.7 -

The working titles of movies are usually weird.

So just cause that's the working title doesn't mean that's what it's gonna be called in the end.

Also, does anyone know if the makers of the game are in anyway connected to the movie?

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PrimordialSoupBase - 254 days 6 hours ago

2 -

I can guarantee this guy said the exact same thing when he was commissioned to pen that Street Fighter turd.

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kingme71 - 254 days 6 hours ago

3 -

If it is Colossus and the Hendersons, it is doomed. Even if that is the working title.

I can just picture Chevy Chase driving his station wagon to Wally World and bumping into a 10 story Bigfoot that he must scale all the while spouting, "This is Crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy"

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clevernickname - 254 days 6 hours ago

4 - Colossal failure.

With perhaps one or two exceptions, movies that get their source material from a video game have all been abysmal failures.

The upcoming Prince of Persia movie looks like it could be the one movie that breaks the video game movie curse, but I won't hold my breath.

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batman2million - 254 days 6 hours ago

5 -

WTF??
"What's so nice about this game is that it's all seen through such an adult lens, "

adult lens?! who the hell says that?!

"an emotional and experiential level, "?????

seriously?
have you ever heard any good writer talk like that?

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Sangria - 254 days 6 hours ago

6 -

Gamers no longer have faith in cinema adaptations. Since more than 20 years, and maybe even before, video games adaptations on the big screen almost always sucked.

Movies that failed:
- Super Mario Bros
- Doom
- Resident Evil
- Alone in the Dark
- Hitman
- Dead or Alive
- Street Fighters (twice!)
- Double Dragon
- Tomb Raider (for some it was good, for others it was awful)
- BloodRayne
- DragonBall Evolution (based on an anime but it still sucks)

Movies that didn't suck:
- Silent Hill
- probably the firsts Mortal Kombat (because it was kitsch enough to fit with the time and the genre)
- probably Postal

Incoming movies:
- Gears of War
- Halo
- Metal Gear Solid
- Prince of Persia
etc...

There are maybe others, i didn't see everything, but video games adaptations almost always suck, and they suck because they try to make the movie for a wide-audience to generate as much as entries as possible. But like i said in other cinema articles, very good sales for a game is around 4 millions units sold worldwide. Very good sales for a movie is probably around 100 millions tickets sold worldwide.

So as they have to enlarge the audience, they have to make sacrifices over the video game, and that is why they suck, and that's also why gamers are frigid and very critical when a video game adaptation is announced. And we will be even more fractious if you fail the adaptation of one of the most adulated video games ever.

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DJ - 254 days 6 hours ago

6.1 - No, good sales for a movie

Comes to 7~10 million tickets sold. That comes out to $70~100 million, roughly.

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Sangria - 254 days 5 hours ago

6.2 -

7~10 millions is what France makes for good movies. The Dark Knight made worldwide more than 100 millions, so i guess good sales worldwide would more fit around 50~100 millions than 5~10 millions.

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velaxun - 254 days 2 hours ago

6.3 -

I actually didn't mind Hitman. Granted I haven't played the game but I thought the movie was pretty well done. You forgot about Max Payne, which was also pretty good. But Postal sucks.

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Reshun - 253 days 22 hours ago

6.4 - I agree with Velaxun

Hitman was actually a pretty decent movie.

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rambi80 - 254 days 6 hours ago

7 -

i say give people the chance to carry their vision to as many people as possible.

If you looked at the earlier batman movies you never would have guessed that along the way it would yield an oscar.

Its a journey - a painful one

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skwidd - 254 days 6 hours ago

8 - Somebody stop this outrage!

"What's nice about this game is that it's so sparse so you can start building right away."

Building What?!? Its already built!!! Oh my God its already ruined! They think its minimalist storytelling is a foundation to start!! Somebody stop this! I blame Sony for licensing this IP to be made into a movie. They're destroying their property's image!

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DJ - 254 days 5 hours ago

8.1 - It's not the fact that an adaptation is being done.

It's really the fact that this writer has been making crappy movie scripts for so long. Hell, just look at Legend of Chun-Li.

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nightelfmohawk - 254 days 6 hours ago

9 - He's going to **** this movie up.

Mark my words.

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Sheddi - 254 days 5 hours ago

10 -

Do you guys remember Cast Away? I can count the amount of words that are said in that movie.
Now imagine SoTC movie being like that.
Because the game was like that.
But...chances are that the movie is going to get f***ed up.

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nightelfmohawk - 254 days 5 hours ago

10.1 -

That's actually not a bad analogy. I remember really liking the fact that there was little dialogue on the island in Castaway. As far as look, style, and tone of the movie, I keep thinking of The Neverending Story (the fantasy elements of it) or Where the Wild Things Are (the upcoming movie by Spike Jonze).

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Baka-akaB - 254 days 5 hours ago

11 -

It's doomed to fail , as long as writers and directors feels it needs to be "adapted" . Either because in their delusion they are bringing upgrades with the rewrite , or some arrogant misconception about the movie audience .

And of course when such movies fails , it's always the audience that wasnt ready for this or the wrong kind of concept.

Duh of course you gotta pick the good movie subject . Enough already with videogames that basically no plot to offer in a movie , like most fps and fighting games .

But when you do find such good topic , dont frickin' alter it ! Or at least keep it true to the core .

If you are not committed to do a movie about a young lone hunter tracking down giants for love , with only his trusty horse , in poetic yet quite empty backgrounds , then go away , dont touch the concept ! Or at least dont pretend to be surprised and being met with unwarrented resistance from both the general public , and videogame fans

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jackdoe - 254 days 4 hours ago

12 -

Lol. It isn't as if I'm not giving video game to movie adaptations a chance. Its just that I refuse to give the fvcking writer a chance. Not after Legend of Chun-Li.

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TwisterCT10 - 254 days 4 hours ago

13 - Sheesh.

First off, to all the gullible people, "Colossus & The Hendersons" was a pretty obvious joke.

But on to my point.

Regardless of how bad video game movies usually are, regardless of how badly Shadow of the Colossus would translate to film, regardless of the fact that they obviously just want to treat this as a spectacle piece so the trailer will look pretty and get stupid people to go, regardless of all that, it will suck, first and foremost, because the screenwriter is terrible. He is atrocious and has never amounted to anything worthwhile in his entire life.

Justin Marks and producer Kevin Misher are worthless unrespectable hacks, and of all the video game adaptations, they are sure to piece together one of the worst.

I'm excited to see what horrible director they get to complete the trifecta.

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TwisterCT10 - 254 days 4 hours ago

14 - Apologies.

Sorry for the angry rant everybody, but this just has me worked up. As I'm sure it has many of you as well.

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tatari - 254 days 4 hours ago

15 -

Erf, the game is about feeling, and had almost no dialog
I propose, he rather adapt PONG

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voice_of_ reason - 254 days 3 hours ago

16 -

I see there are a lot of angry people over this, and I initially was too. However, I really think there is potential for a good movie. If done right, the movie will be able to convey awesome sense of scale and complex emotions that were implied in the game. Will it be done right though... that's unclear. Also, don't expect it to follow the game's plot verbatim, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Has anyone here read "What Dreams May Come" and then seen the movie? The movie varied quite a bit from the book, but was done in a way that--at least to me--complemented what the book was conveying quite well. Perhaps my love for SoC has me optimistic--however naive it may be--that the plot and concept of the game will elevate Marks to do the game justice.

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nightelfmohawk - 254 days 3 hours ago

16.1 -

The problem is when Hollywood diverges from the source material in cases like this, 99% of the time they **** it up and care more about product placement, big name actors (e.g., Samuel L. Jackson as Wander), throwing in a love interest (although there is one in this game sort of), etc.

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Baka-akaB - 254 days 3 hours ago

16.2 -

Apple and potatoes imo ...
Book adaptations are nothing and well done , despites many changes , because meeting the kind of respect they deserves .
While videogames adaptations have so far only be done by nameless hacks trying to cash in some quick buck .

So color me hopeless ....
Until someone of the magnitude and work ethic of a james cameron , ridley scott , or Spielberg do a movie adaptation ... there will be no model to strive for , so it will keep sinking to absolute crap , or at most to bland stuff like resident evil 1 or silent hill .

Look at how long it took comics adaptation to get there , and yet it's still full of hack trying to cash into the craze .

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RustedMan - 254 days 3 hours ago

17 -

""I think many of the games haven't worked as movies because it's hard to find the right game"

A recent disaester was "Max Payne" which could have been a damned amazing movie.

But it started off on the wrong foot: Mark Wahlberg? really?

Someone said a long time ago that kiefer sutherland had max's voice, and when you really think about it, he does.

Shadow of the colossus needs Phenomenal writing to even have a chance, and sorry Justin, I don't think you have the slightest chance.

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Baka-akaB - 254 days 3 hours ago

17.1 -

I dunno i had no problem with Mark , he's can be dark/broody enough , and he was close physically .
The movie just sucked .

And besides i disagree about Max payne being a good project for a movie .
Imo it's the same crap than Punisher all over again . two franchises , one videogame , the other comics , that draw ALL of their inspiration and look from many past vigilante and noir movies ...
Even when fully respected and well adapted , i dont see how it couldnt look more than just what it is , noir movies/vigilante stories rip-off .
"AKA been there done that , wont suddenly be great because its a popular franchise in another field"

I dont see the point of adapting something that's mostly an hommage to existing genres done better on theaters.

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JOEdANGEL - 254 days 3 hours ago

18 -

This is probably one of the dumbest movie ideas I have ever heard. The budget for this would have to be astronomical to even come close to portraying the awe that the player feels when battling the colossi. The character in the game also has zero lines. All he does is ride around the countryside, exterminating colossi, rinse and repeat. There is absolutely no material for a script. Why would they even need a writer? I wonder why Sony would let this revered property be turned into something so stupid?

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Baka-akaB - 254 days 3 hours ago

18.1 -

I'm sure that moron felt it was a great idea , because precisely there is no line , hence he'll be able to feed us any crap storyline and dialogues he got in store .

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djslapdash - 252 days 21 hours ago

19 -

We have given other movie makers chances and they've all striked out.

Mario Great Games - Awful movie
Mortal Combat Great Games - Bad movie
Street Fighter Great Games - Awful movies inc Chun Li
Silent Hill Great Games - Bad movie
Tomb Raider Great Games - Made Some Money but Bad movies
Final Fantasy Great Games - Awful movie

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