By George Robbins
Video game movies are just one of those things that nobody expects to really be any good due to the painful history that this niche genre has. Almost every single movie that has been created that has been based on a video game has seen almost abysmal reviews upon release and more times than not, they have lost a lot of money for studios. Not every one that is made ends up being terrible, but a majority of them do and it has made it difficult for there to be any kind of audience for the genre moving forward. One movie that recently released within the past couple of years that showed that it was possible for a video game movie to succeed was the ‘Detective Pikachu‘ movie. There were a number of factors that ended up playing into this such as the good will of the franchise and the fact there were so many mediums for the games already.
Just because a video game was successfully adapted into a TV show before a live-action film was made doesn’t mean making video game films can be pointless. What I mean to say is that it doesn’t necessarily take popularity from another watchable medium to make it possible to create a successful video game movie. Simultaneously, it is very difficult to actually make a successful film based on a video game due to the mediums being so wildly different. For instance, movies are something you watch and have no direct interactivity with while video games are something you interact with constantly and in your own way. Thus it becomes kind of difficult to make a movie based on a game that captures that same intent.
The upcoming ‘Monster Hunter‘ movie is one that many are already predicting to fail even though its release isn’t until April of next year. The movie was made by director Paul W.S. Anderson who is also responsible for the creation of the ‘Resident Evil’ movies. There are a ton of criticisms for those movies, but it is the same issues that come up in regards to other video game movie adaptations. The movies often times come up with stories that wildly deviate from the source material in an effort to make the movie more watchable so it doesn’t feel “off.” By not playing the story ourselves, the movie becomes different in our eyes and it is viewed as a bad idea for movies to follow the plots of the games because of it.
The next game to get a movie adaptation is the ‘Uncharted’ movie that just started production and while the story is supposedly going to be different from the games, it sounds interesting. The plot of the movie is going to be a prequel to the games it’s based on and this gives it a way to make it seem more interesting to audiences. Now it would appear as though we will be getting a film based on the ‘Just Cause‘ series of games. Director Michael Dowse, who was responsible for the movie ‘Stuber’ has been tapped to lead the project and possibly bring the movie to the silver screen. There is no telling if this will actually work out or not, but at this point I guess there isn’t any harm in trying to make the film work out.
By George Robbins
Everyone who has seen the ‘Deadpool‘ movies at this point knows about the character of Cable who made his appearance in ‘Deadpool 2.’ He is introduced in a way that makes total sense in terms of the character’s backstory and it is done tastefully, in a way only the Deadpool movies can do it. His introduction is actually the first time his character has truly been shown in a live-action universe and it was done in a style unique to the character. Cable is a mutant from the future who returns to the past solely for revenge but ends up finding a place for himself in the present on the X-Force team. That team is formed by Deadpool himself and it offers up a selection of characters that has never really been seen on the silver screen before.
Although Cable was introduced in ‘Deadpool 2,’ he is a character that has seen more action in the comics than the titular character. This has pushed Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld to openly say that the character of Cable does not need to be connected to Deadpool in the future. This would give the character an opportunity to show off what he is truly capable of, but the chances of seeing him in his own film are somewhat low as of now. Before their acquisition by Disney, Fox had plans to make an X-Force movie and the main character of the film was going to be Cable who is usually a major character in the comic books. He was going to be front and center on the film, but it unfortunately ended up being scrapped. However, it seems that many are still interested in giving the character his own unique story.
The character was portrayed in the film by Josh Brolin who, as many well know by now, played the role of the Mad Titan Thanos in the MCU. With Disney’s acquisition, the opportunity to bring the X-Men to the MCU became a very real possibility and it seems that they still have plans to do so. People wondered if we would one day end up with a third ‘Deadpool’ movie, and according to Ryan Reynolds it will still end up happening. The biggest issue on people’s minds is how they can adapt the R-rated antics of Deadpool into the MCU which is mostly family-friendly. The simple answer would be that they couldn’t but we won’t know for sure until they say something otherwise.
It is up to Marvel Studios for what they want to do with the characters moving forward, but Josh Brolin has already said he wants to continue to play the character. For those that think he can’t play two roles in the same universe, then that can be countered by the fact that Thanos was not human and the two characters look very different from one another. The hope is that the character will be given the opportunity to return in a way that shows him as being separate from Deadpool and acting independently. This was they can create a diversified universe and give an interesting character room to show off a bit more. Marvel Studios has managed to work comedy into even the most serious films, so that shouldn’t be an excuse for why the character can’t have his own movie either. Hopefully, we will get to see more of the character in the, hopefully, near future.
By George Robbins
Back in March of this year, the world was turned on its head when the World Health Organization announced the global Covid-19 pandemic. An almost immediate response to this was the closing of almost all public venues and only essential businesses remained open to the public. This resulted in numerous people being put out of work and all forms of entertainment were forced to shut down. Thus, no one could go out to restaurants, bars, movie theaters, etc. and they would go on to spend months cooped up in their homes without being able to go and visit others. Beyond just businesses being shut down is the fact that things such as international travel to movie and television productions had no choice but to shut down as well.
In an attempt to keep the virus from spreading even more than necessary, major motion pictures had no choice but to shut down. Whether they had actually started the production or not, they were forced to close up shop to the public. This is how we ended up with productions like ‘The Batman‘ and the ‘Uncharted‘ adaptation being shut down and only now are they starting to get some work done again. Other major productions ended up being lucky and managed to get work done at home because they had already filmed a decent chunk of footage already. This ended up being the case for ‘Jurassic World 3’ and they were actually able to get VFX work done at home without any kind of rush or worry about finishing the work. Some productions haven’t been lucky enough to start getting back to work yet though.
Productions like ‘Mission: Impossible 7‘ have not been able to get back to work yet and will not be doing so until September to get the crew and equipment prepped. They even managed to get special permission to start filming again immediately instead of having to wait out the 2 week quarantine that would normally be in place. This is a standard for any productions nowadays because if anyone is traveling to a foreign nation they must remain in quarantine for 2 weeks to ensure they aren’t bringing in the virus. Although it seems that productions are getting back underway amidst the ongoing chaos, things are about to slow down again for many of them. Governor Newsom of California recently shut his state down again in the midst of a surge in coronavirus cases and this is now presenting a new challenge for things like productions moving forward.
For instance, now that the shelter-in-place orders have been put back into affect, many businesses have had no choice but to close up shop again. This includes things like restaurants and movie theaters; the latter of which weren’t really opened up anyway. It would seem that this won’t entirely shut down Hollywood like the beginning of the pandemic, but it does present some problems moving forward for studios. These issues include the newly placed into effect Tiered Testing System which tests individuals according to the severity of symptoms. The surge in new cases recently has resulted in testing taking longer to get results for and this is inadvertently going to affect productions. If studios can’t test their employees, then they will not be able to have them work and, in the end, this presents the issue of delays once again for studios. They might just find a way to work around this issue, but for now there is no telling what will happen.
By George Robbins
Film productions are having all kinds of fun trying to figure out how they are going to be moving forward because of what is going on with the pandemic. Much of the world is shut down still to some degree and it is taking its toll on the movie industry which is trying its best to stay on its feet throughout this whole thing. Big studios aren’t necessarily strapped for cash and it isn’t like there are any guaranteed deadlines, but people still want to get back to work as soon as they can. This has resulted in many productions such as ‘Avatar 2‘ being worked on almost as soon as they were able to and directors are pushing to get back to work. Among the projects that are even trying to use loopholes to get back to work quicker is the ‘Mission: Impossible 7‘ production.
This just goes to show that many projects just want to get back to work while some were fortunate enough to be able to continue working even with the pandemic. Other productions are also having to change the way they film moving forward to be more in-line with the restrictions that are now in place. This has been shown recently with the filming of ‘The Batman‘ no longer being done on location and it will now be done on new sets made in the studio. This has now shed a bit of light on how difficult it will be for some productions moving forward and it also shows how determined some film crews are to get back to work. So it should be no surprise that films that hadn’t started production yet will now be starting up.
Among those new productions just so happens to be the Tom Holland led adaptation of ‘Uncharted.’ The movie is somewhat based on the video game series and instead of ripping from the games, it will apparently be a prequel story of a time before the video games’ stories. Holland will be playing the protagonist of the games, Nathan Drake, and it is hoped by Nolan North, the voice actor for the character, that the story will stay original. In the games, the player controls Drake as they uncover hidden, often mystical treasures that have been lost to time and he is often aided by his mentor, a man named Sully. From what we know about the upcoming film, it will apparently be the story of how Drake even met Sully and why he ended up as Drake’s mentor.
Production for the movie was just about to begin when the coronavirus pandemic hit and they had no choice but to shut down indefinitely. No one was quite sure what the “indefinitely” part of that statement really meant, but neither did the actual production crew. As soon as productions were allowed to start up again and the equipment, cast, and crew were squared away then they would be ready to start. It would seem that it is around now that they have officially started production for the film. Following the long shut down and delay for the film’s production, Tom Holland recently posted a set photo for the film, essentially confirming that they have started the production process. As of now the release date for the film is set for approximately one year from now and although many films are being delayed, they are trying to make that date. We will have to wait and see now if they can actually pull it off and we can see it by summer of next year.
By George Robbins
Movies are in a little bit of trouble at the moment due to the most recent surge in coronavirus cases and it appears that this isn’t likely to change any time soon. The moment that the initial spike in cases was announced, many films pushed back their releases dates with some at the end of the year being moved to some time next year. These changes are evident that it just isn’t safe for studios to release their movies in the current climate that we have found ourselves in. If they were to try and release their films now, it would only spell ruin for the company. Thus we now have the information that the newest movies are going to keep getting pushed back in an effort for them to try and make the most amount of money back possible.
The problem as of late is that the number of new cases just keeps increasing which is, in turn, pushing state officials to possibly shut down their states again. This has just been done in California again because the number of new cases there was so high and this also means that all non-essential businesses there have yet again been shut down. Thus the news is relatively grim for businesses like movie theaters that have had no choice but continue keeping their doors shut anyway. Without new content, many theaters, mostly theater chains, have had no choice but to keep their doors shut because it would not be cost-efficient. This is why we currently have theater reopenings chasing down movie releases.
One of the releases that is really trying to be the first movie available in theaters when they open their doors back up again is the movie ‘Tenet.’ Director Christopher Nolan has been advocating and pushing the studio to release his film as soon as they possibly can. The film was originally scheduled for release on July 17th but has since had to be changed to the middle of August. Even this change in dates has not exactly been cemented because the number of new Covid-19 cases keeps rising and it has many studios on edge. On top of this, they also want to make sure that when it does get into theaters, that the theaters aren’t immediately going to shut down and that people will actually go out to theaters. If no one goes out to watch the film, then they are massively “in the hole,” so to speak.
According to a recent report, just to break even on how much money was spent on the production and marketing of ‘Tenet,’ the movie would have to make $800 million. It is no wonder that the studio is being cautious about the release, but it may just be a massive loss on their part. According to some they cannot keep pushing back the release of the film but if they release the film and everything shuts down or isn’t even open to begin with, then they are going to have an even bigger issue. They need a good time frame to release their film where they know people will be able to go out to the movies and a majority of theaters will be open at least. They have about a month now to decide what they will do, so hopefully they come up with some solution, otherwise they are going to be in trouble.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters opening up has been something that has been in discussion for months at this point due to the state of affairs for the theater companies. From the day they first shut their doors they started suffering from the lack of income and employees were either furloughed or laid off entirely. Theater owners very quickly pushed to be allowed to reopen when states were given the opportunity to allow businesses to reopen to the public. However, this would not end up working out for many theaters as the states had started taking a so-called “phased” approach to reopening businesses to the public. This meant that high-risk businesses that could spread the virus quicker would be among the last places to reopen their doors to the public.
Eventually, theaters were given the greenlight to reopen their doors to the public after a few weeks had gone by, at least for some states. However, this didn’t exactly help anyone but private theater owners and even then they were in trouble. With some theaters reopened it was hopeful that things would soon be able to pick up a little bit. Unfortunately, opening businesses up again had the double-edged sword effect of spreading the virus even more rapidly than when the pandemic began. Thus many states that had reopened the doors of many businesses too quickly ended up with virus cases spiking almost over night. Queue the issue we are now dealing with where the discussion is being held for many states to shut everything down again.
California’s theaters, despite being told they would be able to open sooner than they had originally anticipated, had a lot of issues to sort through. Not just Californian theaters, but numerous other theaters nationwide have had the issue of opening their doors with no new content to show the customers that walk through their doors. This is how we have ended up with the major theater chains delaying their reopenings nationwide so that they can both reopen all theaters at once and have new films to show. Unfortunately, the new delays due to spikes in the virus cases has even further pushed back the opening dates for these theaters. Now it seems that this might just be for the best as discussions are in place all over the country as to whether each state affected harshly will shut down again.
California seems to be the first state to reach a decision as Governor Newsom recently announced that the state will be going back to its shelter-in-place rules. This means that all businesses that are considered non-essential will be closing their doors to the public once again and it will probably be a long while before they reopen. This just goes to show that things are getting so bad that the worst is starting to come back and businesses are going to suffer. There is no word as to whether this will affect the reopening of the theater chains due to it interfering with reopening plans, but it is safe to say this shut-down will probably not be the only one. Thus, it can also be safe to say that theaters will probably be shut down for awhile longer as it just isn’t a good idea to open any time soon.
Get Some Strange!
