Highlights

• Recent video game movie adaptations have had success, indicating a shift in the genre’s performance.
• Adapting beloved video game stories into movies allows for the exploration of new perspectives and genres.
• Games like
  Telltale’s The Walking Dead
  and
  Grim Fandango
  have iconic characters and well-rounded stories that will translate well to the big screen.

It’s no secret that video game movies have had a rough go of it, especially since the 2000s run of comically bad Uwe Boll movies based on games like Bloodrayne and Rampage. Regardless, every time a new video game movie is announced based on a popular franchise, it becomes a topic of discourse.

What’s more is that in recent years, the curse seems to be lifting, as the public has received solid adaptations of Uncharted in 2022 and Mortal Kombat in 2021, along with the excellent TV adaptations of The Last of Us, Castlevania, Onimusha, and so on. With this recent success, it might now be time to shift the focus from potential blockbusters to more varied genres in the film space.

Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo

A Tribute To The Master Of Suspense

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• Hitchcock has a lot of movies to pull inspiration from.
• A true modern-day Hitchcock-like movie should have been made a long time ago.

Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo is an original story that follows Ed Miller as he navigates his life following a horrible car accident that supposedly took the lives of his wife and child. Taking reference from the excellent 1958 classic, Vertigo, starring the great James Stewart, the game takes the form of a point-and-click adventure with themes of trauma, loss, and mental health.

Multiple timelines are traversed as the truth behind what happened to Ed’s family is unraveled. Vertigo features numerous twists and turns that keep the player guessing from start to finish. Alfred Hitchcock is considered to be one of the greatest minds in filmmaking history, so adapting this game into a film would make sense as both a long-overdue homage to his work and as an expounding of the ideas that he so famously explored.

Detroit: Become Human

See Androids Gain Free Will From Different Perspectives

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• AI is a huge concern these days.
• The game has multiple perspectives to choose from.

AI is a growing concern in the modern day as the world inches ever closer to a fully automated society. That being said, movies like Blade Runner have been posing questions on the topic for decades, so it might be hard to imagine what else could be explored in this particular corner of sci-fi.

That’s why an adaptation of an already solid story might be the perfect route to take in the pursuit of examining another perspective or three. Detroit: Become Human gives the player control of three unique androids from three separate walks of life, using interactive cutscenes to help the player navigate the androids through their newfound free will. The focus on multiple protagonists is a format that would be an easy approach to keeping movie goer’s interest.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead

Watch What Comes Next For An Iconic Character

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• It’s the only medium the franchise hasn’t explored yet.
• Fans will follow the franchise to the movie theaters.

Now that Telltale’s The Walking Dead series has ended, Clementine, as well as the protagonist of the first game, Lee Everett, have been thoroughly cemented as two of the most iconic characters in all of gaming. Fans have been clamoring for Clementine to be introduced to other mediums in the franchise for years.

While The Walking Dead found its popularity on TV, it’s hard to imagine that wild success wouldn’t translate to a release on the silver screen. A movie could either adapt the stories already told for fans of the franchise that simply don’t play games, or they could further explore Clementine’s life after those games take place. The latter could be a particular boon for fans who don’t necessarily consider the Clementine comic series, released by Image Comics, as canon.

Grim Fandango

A Dark And Hilarious World Fit For Animation

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• There’s already a well-rounded story here.
• Filled with fantastic characters to explore further.

Many games directed by Tim Schafer could probably be turned into excellent movies, but Grim Fandango’s dark, cynical, and funny story could no doubt push the boundaries of video game movie adaptations. The story revolves around Manny, a reaper whose job it is to help the dead find their way to the Land of Eternal rest.

The game takes clear inspiration from classic noir flicks, with surly characters and an effortlessly cool soundtrack that serves to transport the player to a world that is both familiar and wholly unique. An animated movie is the simplest avenue to go down for an adaptation, and it also makes the most sense. Of course, the production of one would have to be expensive to do the inhabitants of The Land of the Dead justice, but it’s the best option to keep the unrelenting style alive.

The Dig

Watch A Crew Struggle To Find A Way Home

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• The game’s premise is cinematic in scope.
• An original story in a setting that has been done to death.

The Dig is a sci-fi tale that follows three brave souls on a mission to save the Earth from certain destruction brought about by an impending asteroid strike. The crew travels to it with the full intention of blowing it up, but instead are transported to a faraway planet. It’s a grand premise that serves to build some huge stakes for the cast of characters.

Even within the vast and ever-growing number of films set in space, The Dig tells a story that hasn’t really been done in this way before. It provides a hefty number of interesting plot points and works through themes of greed that seep through the seams of the story from multiple sides, all the while injecting the game with a healthy dose of sympathy as the player learns of the alien’s relatable search for a place to belong.

Kentucky Route Zero

A Movie That Should Take Its Time

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• A slow-burn that will translate well to the big screen.
• A story that’s told well through its many environments.

It took a good number of years for the entirety of Kentucky Route Zero to be released to the public and that’s probably due to the sheer amount of points-of-view that the game plays with in delivering its story. The game pushes the adventure genre to its limits by forgoing a lot of recognizable tropes in exchange for a thorough character study.

The game allows the player to breathe and take things at whatever pace they wish – something that some of the best films do. From Paul Thomas Anderson’sThere Will Be Blood to Jonah Hill’s Mid90s, movies can be made to first envelop a viewer in its world, and then choose whether to go anywhere at all from there. Kentucky Route Zero would allow for this exact type of environmental and atmosphere-driven storytelling.

Gabriel Knight Series

It Has A Character Arc Worth Further Exploration

Why Would It Work As A Movie?

• A genuinely interesting motive for a main character.
• The second game is already an FMV, proving its merit in live-action.

Gabriel Knight is a point-and-click game that tells the story of the titular author who is simply in search of inspiration for his next story, but suddenly and inexplicably sees his life flipped upside down. It turns out that Knight is destined for greatness in the field of Shadow Hunting, leading him to investigate everything from cults to werewolves, while still in pursuit of a lucrative writing career.

The second game in the series has already made the jump to live-action, as it was an FMV-style point-and-click, showing that this premise would at least work in the live-action format. What the biggest draw to a film based on the series would be, though, is the game’s focus on its imperfect, irresponsible protagonist, and his miraculous maturation as the series develops.

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