More Gears of War in 2008!

[WhatsHisFace]

I just looked up "hopefully" in "The American Century Dictionary" so I'm pretty sure that makes it a word.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Cliffy B. on the Gears of War movie!

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17663

GameDaily BIZ: What's it like for you to see the Gears of War movie moving forward at New Line Cinema, which is something that Microsoft hasn't been able to do with the Halo movie?

CliffyB: I would love to see a Halo movie. You have the number one most recognizable character right now for gamers, which is Master Chief. I think in some ways Gears excites me as a movie because you have these actual characters and faces and they have their own personalities.

BIZ: What's it like working with Stuart Beattie, the man who helped turn Pirates of the Caribbean into a Hollywood blockbuster?

CliffyB: Stu is amazing to work with because he knows Gears inside and out. He beat the game several times and he was hooked on multiplayer. You go into these Hollywood meetings and expect a certain type of Hollywood people, many of whom I've met. But Stu was just the most sincere, honest type of Aussie dude. He was just a smart writer. He respects the franchise and he's a fan of it. He also knows how to write a compelling movie and adaptation. There's a lot of back-and-forth with him and a lot of long conversations about the universe and what would make a good film adaptation. I think we have a really great script and now it's just a matter of getting the right director attached and making sure it becomes a "AAA" blockbuster movie.

BIZ: What are your thoughts on going the 300 route with green screens and live actors to bring this world to life on the big screen?

CliffyB: That's a visual element. That's a budget concern that they did 300 for $60 million in front of green screens in Montreal and it was a huge success. My concern is that Hollywood has this love-hate relationship with rated R movies. They go through phases where they're convinced that they can't make a rated R movie that will sell well because it will cut out that whole audience. But any time a new Saw movie or a 300 comes along, it proves them wrong. As long as it's a good movie, people will pack in the seats. The fact that Gears is an M-rated franchise and involves people getting chainsawed in half, it's got to be a pretty f***ing hardcore movie.

BIZ: Fox is going for a hard R rating with the Hitman video game adaptation. What are your thoughts on Timothy Olyphant in that role?

CliffyB: The trailer for Hitman looked cool. It looks like a next generation Transporter movie to me. I think Timothy Olyphant is f***ing awesome. Ever since I saw him in Deadwood and The Girl Next Door, he's just a charismatic actor. When you do a movie like that, you don't just need somebody who looks a little like the character. I get a lot of forum posts where Gears fans tell us we need to cast this wrestler as Marcus. I don't give a f**k if the guy's buff or six foot five. What matters most is that this guy is charismatic and he can act and is somebody compelling that you want to watch on screen. The Rock is the rare exception of a wrestler who is that charismatic that he can carry a movie. If they cast four mongoloid wrestlers in Gears and they're just as exciting to watch as paint dry on the screen, nobody's going to go see it. They can make actors buff by working out for a few months before filming. You don't have any sense of scale when you watch a movie. They can make a badass with camera angles. What matters is charisma because you can't fake that.

BIZ: Did you share new details from the Gears PC game storyline with Stuart Beattie for the movie?

CliffyB: We shared every detail imaginable with Stu on the franchise as far as the story bible and all of the secrets that everybody wants to know about what went down in Gears of War. If you want to track somebody down and figure out what's going on, you can corner Stu. He has all of our secrets. There's a lot of mutual trust and non-disclosure agreements going on there. He had carte blanche. He's been great. He knows the underlying themes of the franchise and all of the underlying motivations of each of the characters. That's fuel for the screenplay that he's written.

BIZ: What are your thoughts on partnering with the movie studio that brought Lord of the Rings to the big screen for Gears of War?

CliffyB: Partnering with New Line on the movie is like partnering with Microsoft on Gears. You know Microsoft knows how to get Halo out there and market it and help facilitate a blockbuster experience. New Line, having done Lord of the Rings, they know how to back a very risky but also a potentially very lucrative franchise and make sure it's treated with the respect it deserves.

BIZ: Thanks, we're looking forward to seeing how the movie turns out.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

And also, screenplay writer Stuart Beattie on the Gears of War movie...

http://gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=137868&lid=VideoGameNews&pos=2

Stuart Beattie is best known as the man who turned Disney's theme park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, into a script that launched a billion dollar movie franchise--with games to boot. The scribe behind Collateral, Derailed and the upcoming 30 Days of Night is currently working on turning Epic Games' Gears of War into a blockbuster film franchise for New Line Cinema. The busy writer, he's recently been tapped to adapt Spy Hunter for the big screen by director Paul W.S. Anderson, took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about videogames in this exclusive interview.

"The perception of videogames in Hollywood is changing slowly," said Beattie. "Hollywood likes to do what's proven. They've already proved that books work, and plays can work, and recently that comic books can work. But they've yet to have a film be as successful as say Spider-Man, that's based on a videogame. We had the same thing with Pirates of the Caribbean. They didn't want to base a film from a theme park ride. But now that it's done and it's been successful they're looking for what other theme park rides could possibly work as films."

Beattie said in Hollywood, it's all about recouping your investment on the hundreds of millions of dollars that go into making and marketing these films. It's about finding a sure thing, and videogames are the latest trend.

"While there are more and more videogame movies being made because there are more and more videogames being made, there still hasn't been that one that has hit it out of the park yet," said Beattie. "At the moment, I would say the perception of videogame movies in Hollywood is: they are interested, they're intrigued, but they're still not completely sure if it can actually work."

Gamers wondering what a Gears of War movie might look like need only to rent Warner Bros.' Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD of 300. Many film critics called that international blockbuster a movie that looked like a videogame. Now there might be a game that looks like a game on the big screen.

"To me, that's a good movie because that's a movie that is getting people talking about, reading into it," said Beattie. "It's interesting. Everyone's talking about 300. They use it as an example of where things are headed. That film was shot completely on green screen, which is amazing when you actually see the film. It's probably how we're going to do Gears of War."

"There's no way to build that world any other way, really," continued Beattie. "That's a huge world. It's a planet and it's a bubble and it's a building. It's an epic sci-fi war and an enormous film. To get it made at all, the only way to make it for a price is to be on a soundstage. But the game also has that look, which is really interesting, so I think it will dovetail really nicely."

Beattie said he's working closely with Epic Games and Cliffy B, the lead designer of the game. He will be visiting the studio multiple times as he writes the script, asking for feedback from everyone who works in the building.

"I hope it's extremely collaborative," said Beattie. "From my point of view it's definitely going to be, because I'm going to be riding their asses about it. I mean, they have lived with this game more than I have and they definitely know these characters, this world and all that kind of stuff. I think the things that they need to develop their games are the same things that I need to write my script. That's just a treasure trove waiting to be mined as far as I'm concerned."

Beattie has actually had experience working in the videogame business. Sony hired him to write the story for its new Getaway game after they watched his movie, Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

"The Getaway was a great experience," said Beattie. "There was a great bunch of people over there in Soho and a wonderfully creative environment. I just went over there and they gave me basically the genre, the underworld crime thing and they said we want to go to these different cities and so we just started coming up with this stuff and we came up with a really cool story. We created a really great bunch of characters doing a lot of crazy, great, fun things. Since then I've been managing a writer now to write the script and all that kind of stuff, so it's been a lot of fun."

Beattie is best known as the writer of the original Pirates film. With his knowledge of games, one area he wishes Disney had tapped him to work on was the original Pirates of the Caribbean game. "I wish they had called because I could've helped them on that," said Beattie, who is a gamer. "That was a crappy game. I could've made a really cool game with Pirates.

They just don't know the potential of that game. They could've made as much money on that game as they did in the movie. A film that successful they could've easily done $300 million in videogame sales if they had made a good game."

Like many influencers in Hollywood, Beattie plays games. In fact, he was playing Gears of War when he got the offer to write the film adaptation. He's a big fan of shooters like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty.

"Films are definitely influencing videogames," said Beattie. "There's that scene in Call of Duty when you lying on the beaches of Normandy and it's straight out Saving Private Ryan. You really feel like you're there as much as you'd want to feel like you're there. I remember being terrified by that in the game. It captured the craziness of that experience and you could clearly see it was inspired by Saving Private Ryan."

Beattie loves the WWII games. He finds it interesting that these games, like Brothers In Arms, really take the war seriously.

"They make the player aware that men died and there are documentaries on some of these games that really kind of immerse you in that world," said Beattie. "That's a great way to see where videogames are going, especially one's based on real events like that. I love what they're doing."

 

[GFreeman]

It is incorrect to use 'hopefully'. It's a made up word. I've just read a page long article for the LPC on this 'bastard' word. Lol. Never heard people get so angry about a word in my entire life.

If I said it, it's not incorrect.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

LPC probably has little authority on the subject anyway.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14729/Gears-of-War-Film-Destined-to-Follow-Halo-Movies-Fate/

Gears of War movie halted. New Line pulls out of production due to a swelling budget. Halo Movie all over again.

Video game adaptations are not proven blockbusters the way comic book films have become in the last 10 years. Studios have a hard time gambling $100 million dollars plus to a genre that has not been able to break out of the “Uwe Boll” stereotypes.

The best hope that future video game films may have is to have Michael Bay make Prince of Persia after he is done with Transformers 2 and prove that a video game movie can make $300-400 million in worldwide box office receipts.

Until then be prepared for less than mediocre video game films with hacks as directors.

 

[cookiva]

Hahaha

 

[WhatsHisFace]

So now the best videogame movie appears to be Hitman.

 

[Jerry!]

Wow. Any sentence that includes "the best hope is Michael Bay" you really know you are up ****s creek.

 

[terry78]

Microsoft Studios honestly can not fund their own ****ing movies? Just get a distributor, they don't even have to pay for anything. Jesus.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Wow. Any sentence that includes "the best hope is Michael Bay" you really know you are up ****s creek.

Well to be fair, Micheal Bay can deliver the cash... which is what Hollywood needs to see at this point apparently.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Microsoft Studios honestly can not fund their own ****ing movies? Just get a distributor, they don't even have to pay for anything. Jesus.

Well the Microsoft Home Entertainment division hasn't seen a profitable quarter... I think ever... so that division's budget probably isn't open to large-movie production.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Well the Microsoft Home Entertainment division hasn't seen a profitable quarter... I think ever... so that division's budget probably isn't open to large-movie production.

I think that if Microsoft made a movie division for games such as Halo and Gears of War, they could really bring in the dough. Just do what Marvel is doing. Finance the movies themselves and just get a distributor, almost all of the profits will go to Microsoft as a result.

As long as Halo and Gears of War sound as good as Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, and Thor, I think they can do it.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I think that if Microsoft made a movie division for games such as Halo and Gears of War, they could really bring in the dough. Just do what Marvel is doing. Finance the movies themselves and just get a distributor, almost all of the profits will go to Microsoft as a result.

As long as Halo and Gears of War sound as good as Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, and Thor, I think they can do it.

I think so too, but the cost of Microsoft to bring in people who know what they're doing in that field might be too expensive unless Microsoft's planning a long-term foray into movie making.

 

[terry78]

They already finance that Viva Pinata show, so I would think they have some knowledge of the media.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

There are so many partners involved with Viva Pinata I really doubt MS has anyone doing something pivotal over there. Much less to the degree of someone you could build a movie production company around.

But anyway, the Halo movie is dead. I just made a thread on it's confirmation. From the director himself.

 

[EmeraldBeast]

And also, screenplay writer Stuart Beattie on the Gears of War movie...

http://gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=137868&lid=VideoGameNews&pos=2

I wanna star in this one.

 

[Timstuff]

Wow you look grizzled.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Marcus Fenix looks like the breed between a Human and a Lemur in that picture.

 

[Jspider13]

Hopefully we've seen the end of this wretched series.

Pun

 

[クジラ]

Hope the next game is longer

 

[GFreeman]

Enough people bought the express tour of Sera that I doubt Epic will devote any more time to more content. They'll probably just spend a lot of time on higher resolution textures.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I'm sure they're going to add in "Centons" and a lot of worthless dialogue scenes about the "Zar-Kababababa" just for you.