Hollywood Will Perfect the Video Game Movie
Hollywood will perfect the video game movie.
This year two giant video game movies will be released, Warcraft and Assassin's Creed. Warcraft is owned by Activision Blizzard who just created a movie studio around the Universal Pictures release. Assassin's Creed is owned by Ubisoft and is in many ways a sister series to Ubisoft's other franchise Prince of Persia. And while Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time failed, probably because white people were playing middle easterners, these two films may change the tides for Hollywood's interest in video game adaptations. Even an Angry Birds movie is coming out this year.
Hollywood has always tried to adapt video games and the majority of the time it fails miserably. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Prince of Persia, and Street Fighter are all examples of that failure. Right now Hollywood is super focused on the Superhero genre and over the past 15 years has truly perfected the comic book movie (The Dark Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy are two great examples). But many think that the giant superhero tentpole block-buster’s bubble is about to burst. Superhero fatigue. It's clear that Marvel Studios is aware of this and released both Avengers 2 and Ant-Man during summer 2015 and then decided not to release anything until May 2016 to release Captain America 3 (Disney also has to balance the release dates of their Marvel and Star Wars films). DC is doing its quickest attempt at catch-up and while Marvel is now spreading out their releases, DC will shoehorn their films on between the Marvel ones, leading humanity to decide if we are finally tired of superhero films.
Sure their has been a ton of past failure in video game films. No one rewatches Mortal Kombat: Annihilation or The Super Mario Bros. Movie or the Street Fighter film. But when Super Mario Bros. the Movie was being made, Dolph Lundren was the Punisher and a really bad Captain America movie was just made. But now that Industrial Light and Magic has gotten past all boundaries from brain to screen, Hollywood can now make an incredible looking Mario movie or a perfect Street Fighter film. There's just a couple franchises I hope will never be made into movies.
Metal Gear Solid and The Legend of Zelda both surpass film and I don't think any film could ever live up to their expectations. Now I'm sure if a real fan went in and took their time and they had talent, then they may get close, but Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots transcends film and gaming, it's something of a combination of both and so will always be greater than whatever film they could make with it. And with Zelda, that experience of traversing those large landscapes and interacting with Hyrule will never be matched in a movie version.
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard just announced the creation of their own movie studio. Call of Duty and Skylanders television shows and films are in active development. Activision Blizzard, Legendary and Universal have Warcraft directed by Duncan Jones coming out in summer 2016 and an extremely deep catalogue of games to adapt. Act of Valor, which came out a couple years ago definitely saw a rise in audience attendance due to its similarity to Call of Duty.
Nintendo
Nintendo announced collaboration with Universal to bring Nintendo characters to Universal Studios Theme Parks. Universal already has Warcraft coming out this summer. If it does well they may double down with Activision Blizzard's newly formed film studio and pilfer their video game catalog. But if Warcraft is mildly successful Universal may want to change course and get something with universal family appeal and now that all of the superhero properties have been taken by Disney, WB and Fox, Universal will look to Nintendo. Universal Studios theme parks already announced a collaboration with Nintendo for use of Mario and his gang at both of Universal parks in Orlando and Hollywood. Soon you may be able to take a picture with Pikachu before heading on a Luigi warp pipe ride or traverse Donkey Kong Island and the Nothern Kremishere or drive a real life Mario Kart. Could Universal eventually use their Nintendo connection to create movies with Nintendo's properties? Universal owns Illumination Entertainment which makes animated films. Could Illumination make a Kirby or Metroid film?
WB / Mortal Kombat
There have been successes in the past, the six Resident Evil movies, which I think are garbage creatively, is a huge franchise. The first Mortal Kombat was decent (same director as the Resident Evil movies). Mortal Kombat and DC Comics have already merged with Mortal Kombat Vs. DCU and Injustice: Gods Among Us. And WB has made Mortal Kombat into a web series. Perhaps the boat has passed to make a universally appealing Mortal Kombat trilogy considering it's bloody legacy, Mortal Kombat effectively created the ESRB. But who knows, 90s nostalgia (#90stalgia) is huge and the games keep selling well. Maybe WB will cross all of their 80s slasher villians into a Mortal Kombat movie like they did with the games. Freddy vs. Jason vs. Myers vs. Scorpian.
Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed starring Michael Fassbender will be released by Fox on December 21. After the bomb that was Prince of Persia, who knows what will happen. Fassbender is a great actor and can bring a great performance to the role, let's hope it's not too close to Jake's Prince. It also may get buried by the holiday known as Star Wars in December. Rogue One may make Assassin's Creed disappear, or it will lift its box office receipts in being number 2 for a couple weeks to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie that opens around $200 Million.
Sony / Universal / Blockade Entertainment
Blockade is creating full CGI films for Ratchet and Clank and Sly Cooper this year. Could they make a Jak and Daxter movie and then make an Avengers like film tying them all together? That would be awesome. For now we just have these films which may or may not connect and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Interestingly enough Ratchet and Clank will be distributed by Universal Pictures with PlayStation Originals and Blockade Entertainment.
Here's the list of Universal's upcoming films:
Universal:
Ride Along 2 - January 15, 2016
Hail, Caesar! - February 5, 2016
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 - March 25, 2016
The Boss - April 8, 2016
The Huntsman Winter's War - April 22, 2016
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising - May 20, 2016
Top Secret Untitled Lonely Island Movie - June 3, 2016
Warcraft - June 10, 2016
The Purge 3 - July 1, 2016
The Bourne Chapter 5 - July 29, 2016
Spectral - August 12, 2016
Bridget Jones's Baby - September 16, 2016
Kevin Hart: What Now? - October 14, 2016
Ouija 2 - October 21, 2016
A Meyers Christmas - November 11, 2016
The Great Wall - November 23, 2016
Let It Snow - December 9, 2016
The Veil - July 8, 1905
The Best Man Wedding - July 8, 1905
Mena - January 6, 2017
Split - January 20, 2017
Fifty Shades Darker - February 10, 2017
Fast 8 - April 14, 2017
Pitch Perfect 3 - August 4, 2017
The Snowman - October 13, 2017
Fifty Shades Freed - February 9, 2018
Jurassic Park: Episode V - Jurassic Wars? - June 22, 2018
Universal Movie Monster Universe:
The Mummy Reboot - March 24, 2017
The Wolf Man - March 30, 2018
Focus Features:
Race - February 19, 2016
The Young Messiah - March 11, 2016
Ratchet & Clank - April 29, 2016
Kubo and the Two Strings - August 19, 2016
A Monster Calls - October 14, 2016
Bastille Day - 2016
The Book of Henry - 2016
Untitled LAIKA Production (2018) - April 4, 2018
A Little Game - TBD
Illumination Animation:
The Secret Life of Pets - July 8, 2016
Sing - December 21, 2016
Despicable Me 3 - June 30, 2017
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas - November 17, 2017
Illumination Entertainment Franchise Film 10 - July 13, 2018
Illumination Entertainment Franchise Film 11 - July 3, 2019
Illumination Entertainment Franchise Film 12 - July 10, 2020
Here’s Fox’s Upcoming Schedule:
Fox:
Eddie the Eagle - February 26, 2016
The Other Side of the Door - March 11, 2016
Keeping Up with the Joneses - April 1, 2016
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - July 8, 2016
A Cure for Wellness - September 23, 2016
Why Him? - November 11, 2016
Assassin's Creed - December 21, 2016
Hidden Figure - January 13, 2017
The Mountain Between Us - February 10, 2017
Mother/Daughter - May 12, 2017
X-Men Universe:
Deadpool - February 12, 2016
X-Men: Episode VI - Apocalypse - May 27, 2016
Wolverine 3 - March 3, 2017
Tentpole:
Independence Day: Resurgence - June 24, 2016
Assassin's Creed - December 23, 2016
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - December 25, 2016
Maze Runner: The Death Cure - February 17, 2017
Kingsman 2 - June 16, 2017
War for the Planet of the Apes - July 14, 2017
Murder on the Orient Express - November 10, 2017
The Greatest Showman on Earth - December 25, 2017
Alien / Predator Universe:
Alien: Covenant - October 6, 2017
DreamWorks Animation:
Kung Fu Panda 3 - January 29, 2016
Trolls - November 4, 2016
Boss Baby - March 10, 2017
The Croods 2 - December 22, 2017
Larrikins - February 16, 2018
How to Train Your Dragon 3 - June 29, 2018
BlueSky Studios:
Ice Age: Episode V - Collision Course - July 22, 2016
Ferdinand - April 7, 2017
Anubis - March 23, 2018
Here's the UPDATED list of Sony Pictures upcoming films:
Money Monster – 4/8/16
The Shallows – 6/24/16
Ghostbusters – 7/15/16
Patient Zero – 9/2/16
The Magnificent Seven – 9/23/16
Underworld: Episode V – 10/21/16
Passengers – 12/21/16
The Dark Tower – 1/13/17
Resident Evil: Episode VI - The Final Chapter – 1/27/17
Bad Boys 3 – 2/17/17
Baby Driver – 3/17/17
Barbie – 6/2/17
Marvel’s Spider-Man Three-Boot - July 7, 2017
Jumanji Reboot - July 28, 2017
Uncharted – 6/30/17
Bad Boys 4 – 7/3/19
Sony Animation Studios:
Get Smurfy (Fully Animated Smurf Reboot) - March 31, 2017
The Emoji Movie - August 11, 2017
The Lamb - December 8, 2017
Peter Rabbit - March 23, 2018
Hotel Transylvania 3 - September 21, 2018
Animated Spider-Man - December 21, 201
