LA Times Says, Games Don’t Work as Movies

For a long time, comic books didn’t work as movies. They do now, sorta. But currently, games really don’t work as movies. Like at all. Los Angeles Times goes through movie making rules that emerged last year. One of them involves games. According to the paper:

Hollywood can’t win at video games. Because 13-year-old boys spend hours zapping asteroids or stealing virtual cars, movies based on video games would seem to be the logical follow-up to the comic- book-to-movie frenzy. Screenwriter Josh Olson, who was rewriting the “Halo” script (Peter Jackson was to direct) before the movie fell apart, says video games “have aimless cycles. You go to A, shoot some monsters, then go to B, then start over and do it again.” …Step away from the video games. Transforming this medium’s weak narratives to film hasn’t been as successful as with comic books.

Best advice I’ve heard regarding Hollywood’s desire to adapt video games: Don’t. Sure, there will be a movie that’ll come along and show us how it’s done. Until then, we wait.
The Rules [LA Times] [Pic]