Video games and movies: Is there a light at the end of this long, dark and terrible tunnel?
Back on track here, Ubisoft is trying to do something that hasn’t been done before. Somewhat like Sakaguchi did in the past with Sony. (Kudos to Sony for having the cajones to produce another creative and expensive experiment.) Having all the creative power is usually a good thing, but they also need professional guidance to have the impact they want. Ubisoft is jumping into an ocean filled with Hollywood sharks and crazy octopus critics with a very dense storyline. Some speculate they are in over their heads and we can only pray they can fashion it into a tangible screenplay. (Don’t sink this creative ship!!)
So they went ahead and tapped Michael Lesslie to write it. He’s from England! So that’s cool. He’s also BAFTA-nominated. That’s better. He writes mostly theatre. Okay, here comes the anxiety again. I can’t stress it enough how many fundamental differences there are between a script and a screenplay. Especially one as complicated and vast like the Assassin’s Creed story. Let’s hope that Lesslie can pull it off or there is going to be a massive gamer riot.
Well at least it’s not the only gamer movie in the works. Mass Effect is also going to grace the silver screen. Along with a few others such as Bioshock, Gears of War, Halo and Red Dead Redemption (Brad Pitt is interested in this one)
As controversial as the conversions may be, we have to look at it as a road to awesome. Gamer movies will get better. Obviously some games have no substance without the player and that rarely translates over to a good movie. It’s just a matter of finding the right story, the right people and the right cast (and not selling their souls). So my challenge to you is to keep an open mind.
Keep calm and game on.
Oktober out.
