From Silicon to Celluloid

From SILICON CELLULOID TO Video games that have crossed into the movie world (and vice versa) Computer game technology has advanced so much that it's often like being part of a movie. Online gaming has taken over and there can be millions of people playing against each other from all over the world, at any one time. The worlds of movies and games provide a way for viewers to escape from the real world, but what happens when producers try to convert video games to films or films to games? The fan base is already there and so they should be an instant hit, right? Well it can certainly help, but it's no guarantee of success... There have been many film adaptations of our favourite games, but which ones have proved to be the most successful at the box office? Prince of Persia Production Budget: $200m Box Office Gross: $335,154,643 IDIDDIIDDDIDIDID O000 000000 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Production Budget: $115m Box Office Gross: $274,679,453 IOTO IOIO III O OO 000 Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back Production Budget: $30m Box Office Gross: $163,644,662 IIDDDIID. Mortal Kombat Production Budget: $20m Box Office Gross: $122,454,098 DOD ID. www "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is silky to the touch, but slips from the mind all too easily" - Leslie Felperin (Variety) Street Fighter Production Budget: $35m Box Office Gross: $105,414,729 IDDID. Resident Evil Production Budget: $33m Box Office Gross: $102,440,858 IDIID Silent Hill Production Budget: $50m Box Office Gross: $97,607,453 Max Payne Production Budget: $35m Box Office Gross: $85,416,905 IOTT. "It will baffle kids, bore adolescents, and depress adults" - Stephen Garrett (Time Out) about Super Mario Bros Super Mario Bros. Production Budget: $48m Box Office Gross: £20,915,465* I *US box office gross only While some of the films mentioned may have made a bucketload at the box office, which ones are regarded as the best? Prince of Persia Lara Croft: Tomb Raider *** ***** Pokemon: The First Movie Mewtwo Strikes Back *** Mortal Kombat ***** Street Fighter A****★* Resident Evil Silent Hill ***** Max Payne ******★★1 Super Mario Bros. "A dreary, overstuffed hodgepodge of poorly edited martial arts sequences and often unintelligible dialogue" - Stephen Holden (New York Times) about Street Fighter "One of the few video game movies to truly re-create the gaming experience" - Robert K. Elder (Chicago Tribune) about Resident Evil We've looked at some games that have been made into movies, but which films have been turned into successful games? Batman: Arkham City Global Sales: 7.02m Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Global Sales: 6.65m James Cameron's Avatar: The Game AVATAR Global Sales: 3.25m Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Global Sales: 12.64m STAR Lego Harry Potter Global sales: 9.11m Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Global sales: 11.19m Goldeneye Global sales: 8.09m Can't believe they made them! WHITE White Men Can't Jump - Atari Jaguar - Wayne's World - Various MEANGIRLS Mean Girls - DS WAYHES This comedy starring E Wesley Snipes and AE Woody Harrelson TAGUAR from 1992 enjoyed relative success at the Box Office but they must have been short of ideas to think of turning it into a video game! Although this film was a resounding Success, taking in over $121 million, a game version seems an unlikely concept. This didn't stop Nintendo, and Sega giving it a go! Lindsay Lohan starred in this movie about the turmoil of high school girls. It definitely did not enjoy the same Success as a video game on the DS. Rumoured to be made into films... Assassin's Creed - This title has so far sold over 30 million copies and is certainly one of the most popular games of the last few years. Bafta-nominated actor Gears Of War - The original Gears of War game was first released in 2006. It follows Delta Squad as they battle against the alien Locust Horde. It was rumoured that New Line Cinema had tried to get director Len Wiseman on board with a $100 million budget. However, the budget was slashed and eventually Wiseman left the project. Michael Fassbender has already put pen to paper and signed up to star in the film adaptation of this game. Warcraft - This franchise has been going since 1994 and has built up a massive following. There has been a lot of hype about the potential making of this movie, and for good reason. Spiderman director Sam Raimi was set to direct the film and it has been reported that the film's budget will be over $200 million. However, due to Raimi's other commitments he has recently had to pull out. It is expected that the film will be released sometime in 2013. PREY Call of Duty - The Call of Duty series has been a massive success since its release in 2003 and has become one of the most played online games with Modern Warfare 3 notching up over 1.6 billion hours of online play. Although there are no immediate plans to make a film, the Call of Duty film has been registered and due to its immense popularity a movie version would not be a surprise. Rollercoaster Tycoon - You may feel this is a bit of a strange one. The nature of the game was simply to design and run your own rollercoaster and theme parks. However, Norwegian director Harald Zwart is rumoured to have been signed up to direct this animated movie. Even mobile apps are getting in on the act! Angry Birds - Rovio Entertainment have announced ambitions to release a stop-motion style animated film based on the incredibly popular mobile app, Angry Birds. If the movie is just half as popular then it's going to be big!! MoneySupermarket com References http://www.vgchartz.com http://www.worldwideboxoffice.com http://www.rottentomatoes.com http://www.imdb.com http://boxofficemojo.com http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18773122 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/17519/27- videogames-currently-being-turned-into-cinema-films http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Zwart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarcraftiFilm_adaptation http://www.metacritic.com From SILICON CELLULOID TO Video games that have crossed into the movie world (and vice versa) Computer game technology has advanced so much that it's often like being part of a movie. Online gaming has taken over and there can be millions of people playing against each other from all over the world, at any one time. The worlds of movies and games provide a way for viewers to escape from the real world, but what happens when producers try to convert video games to films or films to games? The fan base is already there and so they should be an instant hit, right? Well it can certainly help, but it's no guarantee of success... There have been many film adaptations of our favourite games, but which ones have proved to be the most successful at the box office? Prince of Persia Production Budget: $200m Box Office Gross: $335,154,643 IDIDDIIDDDIDIDID O000 000000 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Production Budget: $115m Box Office Gross: $274,679,453 IOTO IOIO III O OO 000 Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back Production Budget: $30m Box Office Gross: $163,644,662 IIDDDIID. Mortal Kombat Production Budget: $20m Box Office Gross: $122,454,098 DOD ID. www "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is silky to the touch, but slips from the mind all too easily" - Leslie Felperin (Variety) Street Fighter Production Budget: $35m Box Office Gross: $105,414,729 IDDID. Resident Evil Production Budget: $33m Box Office Gross: $102,440,858 IDIID Silent Hill Production Budget: $50m Box Office Gross: $97,607,453 Max Payne Production Budget: $35m Box Office Gross: $85,416,905 IOTT. "It will baffle kids, bore adolescents, and depress adults" - Stephen Garrett (Time Out) about Super Mario Bros Super Mario Bros. Production Budget: $48m Box Office Gross: £20,915,465* I *US box office gross only While some of the films mentioned may have made a bucketload at the box office, which ones are regarded as the best? Prince of Persia Lara Croft: Tomb Raider *** ***** Pokemon: The First Movie Mewtwo Strikes Back *** Mortal Kombat ***** Street Fighter A****★* Resident Evil Silent Hill ***** Max Payne ******★★1 Super Mario Bros. "A dreary, overstuffed hodgepodge of poorly edited martial arts sequences and often unintelligible dialogue" - Stephen Holden (New York Times) about Street Fighter "One of the few video game movies to truly re-create the gaming experience" - Robert K. Elder (Chicago Tribune) about Resident Evil We've looked at some games that have been made into movies, but which films have been turned into successful games? Batman: Arkham City Global Sales: 7.02m Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Global Sales: 6.65m James Cameron's Avatar: The Game AVATAR Global Sales: 3.25m Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Global Sales: 12.64m STAR Lego Harry Potter Global sales: 9.11m Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Global sales: 11.19m Goldeneye Global sales: 8.09m Can't believe they made them! WHITE White Men Can't Jump - Atari Jaguar - Wayne's World - Various MEANGIRLS Mean Girls - DS WAYHES This comedy starring E Wesley Snipes and AE Woody Harrelson TAGUAR from 1992 enjoyed relative success at the Box Office but they must have been short of ideas to think of turning it into a video game! Although this film was a resounding Success, taking in over $121 million, a game version seems an unlikely concept. This didn't stop Nintendo, and Sega giving it a go! Lindsay Lohan starred in this movie about the turmoil of high school girls. It definitely did not enjoy the same Success as a video game on the DS. Rumoured to be made into films... Assassin's Creed - This title has so far sold over 30 million copies and is certainly one of the most popular games of the last few years. Bafta-nominated actor Gears Of War - The original Gears of War game was first released in 2006. It follows Delta Squad as they battle against the alien Locust Horde. It was rumoured that New Line Cinema had tried to get director Len Wiseman on board with a $100 million budget. However, the budget was slashed and eventually Wiseman left the project. Michael Fassbender has already put pen to paper and signed up to star in the film adaptation of this game. Warcraft - This franchise has been going since 1994 and has built up a massive following. There has been a lot of hype about the potential making of this movie, and for good reason. Spiderman director Sam Raimi was set to direct the film and it has been reported that the film's budget will be over $200 million. However, due to Raimi's other commitments he has recently had to pull out. It is expected that the film will be released sometime in 2013. PREY Call of Duty - The Call of Duty series has been a massive success since its release in 2003 and has become one of the most played online games with Modern Warfare 3 notching up over 1.6 billion hours of online play. Although there are no immediate plans to make a film, the Call of Duty film has been registered and due to its immense popularity a movie version would not be a surprise. Rollercoaster Tycoon - You may feel this is a bit of a strange one. The nature of the game was simply to design and run your own rollercoaster and theme parks. However, Norwegian director Harald Zwart is rumoured to have been signed up to direct this animated movie. Even mobile apps are getting in on the act! Angry Birds - Rovio Entertainment have announced ambitions to release a stop-motion style animated film based on the incredibly popular mobile app, Angry Birds. If the movie is just half as popular then it's going to be big!! MoneySupermarket com References http://www.vgchartz.com http://www.worldwideboxoffice.com http://www.rottentomatoes.com http://www.imdb.com http://boxofficemojo.com http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18773122 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/17519/27- videogames-currently-being-turned-into-cinema-films http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Zwart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarcraftiFilm_adaptation http://www.metacritic.com