Adapting a beloved source material can often be tricky for Hollywood to get right, but it seems that filmmakers have now managed to take something with an already existing fanbase and create an excellent movie. While every now and then there's a super hero movie that stumbles, there are at least three within the same year that soar. Disney has figured out several ways to cash in on nostalgia with live action remakes of their own classic films. And it seems that every year sees an adaptation of an admired book that either does well at the box office or gets nominated for a plethora of awards or both.
And yet, there is one area of pop culture that many believe to be cursed when it comes to the filmmaking process. Video game movies have rarely done well critically or commercially, but that's because studios have failed to capture what makes these games special. However, that may be about to change.
2018 has already seen two video game movies do fairly well. March had Tomb Raider which, while not a terrific adaptation, did feature a spot-on performance with Alicia Vikander in the lead role. The month after that saw Rampage, which earned more than triple its budget at the box office and was as good as one would expect a movie about giant animals destroying a city to be.
And there are still so many more to come. While some are stuck in development purgatory, there are others coming sooner than you might think. Here are 15 video game movies currently being made and 15 games that deserve a movie.
30 Coming Soon - Uncharted
While this is one of the projects that’s been stuck in development purgatory for years, recent updates sound like it’s picking up steam. Tom Holland of Spider-Man fame has signed on to play a young Nathan Drake while Bryan Cranston is attached in an unknown role.
But there are more than just a couple of stars attached to Sony’s movie.
Shawn Levy, who directed several Stranger Things episodes and Date Night, is attached to direct while Joe Carnahan, writer of The Grey, is penning the script. Whether it’ll be as good as the splendid Nathan Fillion short is another question.
29 Deserves One - Metroid
Honestly, this seems like a no-brainer. Metroid focuses on an awesome female protagonist who works as a bounty hunter in space and has to fight off multiple types of deadly aliens. That’s already similar to premises of several big-budget sci-fi films. But a Metroid movie could be something a bit more special.
Not only would it explore themes of loneliness in space, it would give fans the chance to see a character they’ve grown up with on the big screen. Maybe if Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. movie does well, we’ll get a Metroid film. And in case you hadn’t heard…
28 Coming Soon - Super Mario Bros.
Yes, Nintendo is giving the idea of a Super Mario Bros. movie another chance. It’s been 25 years since the universally abhorred live-action movie with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, but it sounds like Nintendo is being more careful this time.
Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind Despicable Me and Sing, is set to produce the animated film.
It’s already a smarter choice to go the animated route. And even if Illumination’s movies aren’t your cup of tea, they do make movies that kids adore and fit in line with Nintendo’s family-friendly image. No plot details have been revealed.
27 Deserves One - God Of War
Movies about mythology usually do well as, regardless of which kind, it is an entirely fascinating subject. But with the God of War games, a movie adaptation could leave some things out without feeling like the source material is being cheated.
We wouldn’t need to see Kratos fight every God.
The most important aspect to get right would be the character and his goals. Given the right studio and a big enough budget, a movie about Kratos could be fantastic. Although, it might be better to take some characteristics from his latest iteration as that’s a much more fleshed-out character.
26 Coming Soon - Dance Dance Revolution
You may be wondering how Konami’s dancing franchise could possibly be turned into a movie. But have you ever seen a dance movie? Plots aren’t necessarily the most important facet.
Dance Dance Revolution is the most recent game to be announced to be getting a movie, and the actual plot will surprise you.
Stampede Ventures will produce the film and stated it will be about a “world on the brink of destruction where the only hope is to unite through the universal language of dance.” Which sounds like the most ridiculous movie imaginable and I can’t wait to see it.
25 Deserves One - Overwatch
If you’ve played Blizzard’s massively popular arena shooter, you may have also watched the animated shorts they’ve put out for their characters. These shorts are bursting with fun and color, so a full-length animated movie could probably work just as well.
If you’re unfamiliar with the lore of Overwatch, it focuses on unique members of a task force designed to stop machines who have risen up against humans. While that sounds generic, the group is declared illegal due to certain events and eventually have to operate in secret when demented robots, corporations, and terrorists start to tear the world apart.
24 Coming Soon - Minecraft
Minecraft doesn’t exactly have the deepest story. In fact, it doesn’t really have one at all. But the minds behind the film adaptation have already proven that they don’t need one.
It’s being produced at Vertigo Entertainment for Warner Bros. by the same people who produced The Lego Movie, and that movie was a genuine delight. The plot will center around Steve, a person who doesn’t fit in with his village, and the iron golem Klunk as they go on an adventure. It should make for an insanely popular family movie and will come out May 24th, 2019.
23 Deserves One - BioShock
A BioShock movie could be really interesting for several reasons. First, there’s the concept of creating a city not ruled by any form of government, which could lead to captivating moral and ethical dilemmas for the characters. Then there are the manufactured superpowers called plasmids, which could lead to terrific action sequences.
And the filmmakers wouldn’t necessarily have to adapt the story of one of the games, given how BioShock Infinite ended. As long as they got the atmosphere right, and included Big Daddies and Little Sisters, it could be a sci-fi/horror masterpiece.
22 Coming Soon - Sonic The Hedgehog
Sega’s blue blur has definitely seen better days, but hopefully, his popularity will be restored soon. Sonic Mania was a welcome return to form and Paramount plans to release a feature-length film on November 8th, 2019.
It will blend animation and live-action, but the casting is something to get excited about.
Luckily, the voice of Sonic was given to Ben Schwartz, perhaps best known for playing Jean Ralphio on Parks and Recreation. Jim Carrey will play Dr. Eggman and James Marsden will play Tom Wachowski, a cop aiding Sonic. Jeff Fowler will make his directorial debut.
21 Deserves One - Grand Theft Auto
Because honestly, why not? Rockstar’s crime mega-franchise only gets more popular with each release and that is partially thanks to the morally bankrupt protagonists and the darkly comedic scenarios they find themselves in.
A studio wouldn’t have to adapt one of the stories from the games. They would just need to capture the essence of what makes Grand Theft Auto fun. And since each new game focuses on different characters in different settings, the movie would have more breathing room to create its own story.
20 Coming Soon - Detective Pikachu
A weird one, but still not the weirdest on this list. A movie for the 3DS title Detective Pikachu was announced before the game even made it to American shores. And strangely enough, it will hit theaters long before many movies based on giant games will, on May 10th, 2019.
The game's simple premise should work well for a family movie.
It focuses on a boy who teams up with an intelligent Pikachu to solve mysteries. Ryan Reynolds will be voicing the detective and Rob Letterman, already known for crafting popular family movies like Goosebumps, will direct.
19 Deserves One - Dead Space
There are few things that mix as well as horror and sci-fi. So, a movie based on Dead Space, which blends both into a perfectly tense and bleak experience, would make for a spooky movie.
The game focuses on a team that responds to a distress signal sent out by a mining ship only to be attacked by gross aliens. These creatures are far more gross than the Xenomorphs, and only three team members are left alive at the outset. Isolation, lighting, and creature design would be key. Get that right, and it could be terribly wonderful.
18 Coming Soon - The Angry Birds Movie 2
Just in case you didn’t get enough of the rage-filled birds with the first movie, a sequel is currently in development. The original made buckets of money thanks to the simplistic plot of the mobile game and that it was obviously geared towards kids, so a follow-up makes total sense.
The majority of the voice cast from the first movie will return with SNL’s Leslie Jones as the new villain. Thurop Van Orman, who has written for shows like Adventure Time and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, will direct. It is scheduled for release on September 6th, 2019.
17 Deserves One - The Wolf Among Us
Point-and-click adventure games seem like they might be the easiest to turn into a movie given how story heavy and mechanic light the games already are. And one of the best to come out in the last few years is Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us.
It focuses on Fabletown, a place in New York where fairy tale creatures live while disguised as humans. The story focuses on sheriff Bigby Wolf (aka the Big Bad Wolf) investigating a murder. A blend of noir crime and fantasy would be unlike most movies in theaters. Yes, please.
16 Coming Soon - Borderlands
Lionsgate has been trying to make a Borderlands movie happen since 2015, but an update on the project from April of this year has given fans hope. A casting call sheet was released with descriptions of some of the game’s most well-known characters like Clap-Trap and Sir Hammerlock.
But that is far from the only delicious piece of information.
While it is still not confirmed, Chris McKay, director of The Lego Batman Movie, is rumored to be the attached director. More concretely, however, is attached screenwriter Oren Uriel, who also wrote The Cloverfield Paradox.
15 Deserves One - Fatal Frame
You may think that the whole Japanese Horror trend is over, but Fatal Frame could be turned into a delectably chilling movie. The series centers around female protagonists (plus) who try to capture hostile spirits with a camera obscura, which makes for some tremendous first-person scares (double plus).
It may not be the most widely recognized horror franchise in gaming, but that could actually help the movie stand out. It wouldn’t have the negative connotations that come from video game movies and could exist purely as a horror film with a unique concept.
14 Coming Soon - Call Of Duty
It was only a matter of time before the most popular FPS series on the planet was given a feature-length film, but it sounds like Activision Blizzard Studios is hoping to turn it into a franchise. While they may be getting ahead of themselves, there may be a chance with the director they’ve chosen for the first movie.
Stefano Sollima, director of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, is set to helm the first Call of Duty movie.
Other than that, there isn’t much known about the project. Not even the time period it will be set in.
13 Deserves One - Red Dead Redemption
Part of what could make a Red Dead Redemption movie entertaining is similar to what could make a Grand Theft Auto movie work. But RDR features a much more sympathetic hero with a challenging plot about right and wrong.
The Rockstar title follows former outlaw John Marston as he tries to clear his name by rounding up the other members of his gang.
As he now has a family, he’ll stop at nothing to erase his former lifestyle. It could make for a thought-provoking action movie, of which there are few.
12 Coming Soon - Portal
Valve and J.J. Abrams have actually been in talks to produce films for Portal and Half-Life, but as of 2016 Abrams stated that he would like to focus on Portal first. His interest goes beyond a Hollywood producer wanting to cash in on a game, as the director of a Portal short film (Dan Trachtenberg) was brought in to Abrams’s Cloverfield franchise. So, it’s probably in good hands.
But would a Portal movie work? There are only two characters, one of which is mute. But GLaDOS is entertaining enough to carry the movie. Here’s hoping we hear something else soon.
11 Deserves One - The Legend of Zelda
If The Lord of the Rings can work, why not turn Nintendo’s fantasy franchise into a series of movies? With the right studio and a director who has the same love for the series as Peter Jackson did for J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga, there could be an all-new family friendly fantasy series for audiences to gobble up.
Within the series itself, there are several reoccurring elements, characters, and themes that are all explored in different ways during each game. So, a movie wouldn’t necessarily be forced to retrace a story from one of them, giving the filmmakers more freedom.