Press reset: Hollywood's struggle to make a winning video game film

Up until now, the majority of video-game movieadaptations have functioned as cinematic junk food: a lurid mix of fast action, bad acting and disposable story lines.

The first era of game-inspired cinema began at a low point with 1993's now infamous Super Mario Bros.

You'd think the memory of Bob Hoskins battling shrunken-head Koopalings would have frozen the trend for good. But Hollywood is rushing back to the arcade faster than Sonic the Hedgehog, with producers already working on big screen versions of titles ranging fromMissile Command toCentipede toTetris.

Yes, Tetris.

• Seriously? A Tetris movie is coming from Mortal Kombat's producer

What's fuelling the fad? Audience envy.In 2015,the global box office revenue from movies was $38 billion US. Meanwhile,thevideo game industry racked up$91.8 billion and many expect it to total $100 billion by 2017.

A Razzies Hall of Fame

When it comes to video game adaptations, however, Hollywood sorely needs to update its methods.

From Need for Speed to the recentRatchet and Clank, there's been a naive assumption that simply launching game characters onto the silver screen will result in a rain of golden coins.

Max Payne. Hitman. Uwe Boll's Postal(Shudder).Double Dragon.

The list of game-inspired films reads like a RazziesHall of Fame. Part of the problem has been a lack of respect for the audience. Producers assume gamers to besoflattered to see their favourite characters onscreen thatthey'd overlooksignificantplot holes and atrocious acting.

Whether we're talking Street Fighter orTomb Raider, every video game adaptation faces the same basic problem. Puttingaside budget or impressive casting, thesemovies lackthe very thing that make games so immersive:the player interaction, according tovideo game developer Sagan Yee.

Losing interactivity: why games are hard to translate to film

8 years ago

Duration 0:26

Game developer Sagan Yee explains a key difficulty in adapting video games for the big screen

Veteran Canadian producerDon Carmodyhas created a series of successful game-to-movieadaptations with his Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises.But he discovered the danger of potentially alienating fans even receiving death threats when his team decided to make a core changetoa character from Silent Hill.

Death threats and outrage: Don Carmody on making movies for gamers

8 years ago

Duration 0:41

Don Carmody, producer of Silent Hill and Resident Evil films, on managing fans frustrated over video game adaptations.

Perhaps these challengesare why, until now,the genre's best films have been those that were inspired by, but not actually based on real titles.

Wreck-It Ralph gleefully lampooned the genre, but itsstory wasreally about the title character'srehabilitation as a video game bad guy. The neon light cycles of Tron captured the sweaty-palm experienceof'80s-era arcades(with the2010 remake falling into theguilty pleasure zone). Meanwhile, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World invokedthe visual vocabulary of side-scrollerswhile tellingitszany love story.

Game-inspiredmovies level up

A new wave of upcoming films suggest the tide is turning andHollywood is beginning to take video games seriously.

June will bring Warcraft, a CGI-heavy adaptation directed by Moon's Duncan Jones andinspired by World of Warcraft, the globe's most popular massively multiplayer onlinerole-playing game. Tom Hardy is said to be suiting up for Splinter Cell, while Alicia Vikander is taking a break from her Oscar victory lap to donLara Croft'sshortshorts for a newTomb Raider film.

If it's old-school arcade action you're after, Dwayne Johnson is reteaming with San Andreas director Brad Peyton for Rampage, based on thegame where giant monsters compete to see who can smash the most skyscrapers. If there's any justice, the filmwill end with a 50-foot tall version of Johnson asThe Rock, giving the People's Elbow to Ralph.

Perhaps the most promising game-to-movie adaptationin the worksis Minecraft. Rob McElhenney, creator of dark TVcomedyIt's Always SunnyinPhiladelphia,hassigned on to direct a film adaptationand promised "something strange and wonderful."Similar to The Lego Movie, Minecraft and itsmutable world of blocks seems to lend itself to a big-screen treatment.

Meanwhile, videogame publishers flush with cash are alsoworking atbeating Hollywood at its own game.

Ubisoft, the maker of titles as varied asSplinter Cell, Rayman and Just Dance, launched a film division in 2011. First out of the gate will beAssassin's Creed, a time-travelling thriller starring Michael Fassbender. Having enlistedthe screenwriters of Exodus: Gods and Kings and ponied up abudget said to be close to $200 million, Ubisoft is looking to build Assassin's Creed into a movie franchise that could give Batman a run for his money.

Even Nintendo, the granddaddy of console gaming, hasenteredthe fray. The company recently announced it willinvestin filmmaking, with projects featuring "characters everyone knows," according to president Tatsumi Kimishima.

• Nintendo eyes filmmaking for growth

A $73M gamble

Lestyou think a game based on flinging feathered creaturesat swine-infested structures doesn'tlend itself to a cinematic treatment, the makers of this weekend's Angry Birds are eager to prove you wrong.

In perhaps the first case of a feature-length film inspired by an app, Angry Birds is catapulting onto the big screen. Theglossy new movie features the voices of comedy stars Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader and Kate McKinnon.

Sure,it's simplistic and silly, but Angry Birds the movie succeeds on its own terms. The animated feature has an appropriately cheeky tone, while providing enough feather-powered destruction to satisfy fans.

Rovio, the creator of the Angry Bird app, certainly believes in the film'spotential. The Finnish company spent $73 million to bankroll the movie version.

If the Angry Birds movie manages to attract even a fraction of the three billion users who downloaded the original app,expect to see manymore Hollywood producers rushing towardsthe "start" button.