LA Times: Videogames will never succeed in Hollywood

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By Stevie Smith Jan 28, 2008, 19:07 GMT

In a week that has seen Uwe Boll’s latest big-screen videogame adaptation bomb quicker than a Republican president on speed, which led to the German pseudo-director blaming the videogame industry for a lack of decent source material, an article in The LA Times would appear to add weight to the Bollmeister’s claims. Is Uwe Boll the reason videogames will never prosper in Hollywood? Credit: PlayStadium.

Is Uwe Boll the reason videogames will never prosper in Hollywood? Credit: PlayStadium.When it comes to the likes of Uwe Boll or Paul W.S. Anderson, a sound case can be argued for incompetence and a distinct lack of nounce after weighing up the terrible twosome’s respective movie portfolios, but writer Nicole LaPorte offers that videogame narratives are simply unable to sustain successful movie spin offs.Comparing videogame movie adapatations against Hollywood creations reliant on the comic book world, LaPorte says that the "weak narratives" often found in videogames are unable to make the transition to big screen credibility – unlike certain comic book inspiration."Hollywood can't win at videogames," says LaPorte. "Because 13-year-old boys spend hours zapping asteroids or stealing virtual cars, movies based on videogames would seem to be the logical follow-up to the comic-book-to-movie frenzy."However, while current Hollywood trends and the persistance of directors like Boll (Alone in the Dark, Postal, BloodRayne, Far Cry) would indicate that gaming is a veritable goldmine of possibilities, LaPorte points out that screenwriters are struggling to convert the integral attraction of entertaining gameplay into compelling, attention-holding cinema."Josh Olson, who was rewriting the ‘Halo’ script [which Peter Jackson was set to executive produce] before the movie fell apart, says video games ‘have aimless cycles," she outlines. "You go to A, shoot some monsters, then go to B, then start over and do it again.’"

Is LaPorte correct in her assumption that videogame movies invariably cut the cheese and not the mustard, or is the current lack of quality more likely the fault of truly atrocious interpretation and direction?For example, would Boll’s recent ‘In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale’ have been a critical and box office success if James Cameron, Bryan Singer, David Fincher, or Ridley Scott had opted to write and direct?Somehow, despite the terrible title, we think so. Until Hollywood believes in a gaming IP to the point where a big name director can be attached to helm, second-rate hacks are probably going to continue producing terrible end products in which otherwise respectable cast members (Ben Kingsley, Ray Liota, Christian Slater) are looking out at the audience with pleas of forgiveness clearly visible in their eyes.

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