Dead Space: The Movie wants to cut off your legs |
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| BY Lee Bradley Jul. 27th, 2009 | More on: |
Videogame properties are so hot right now in Hollywood. Throw a dart at your game collection it will probably stick in something that has either been made, is being made or has been optioned to become a movie. It doesn’t matter that they usually stink up the cinema like a month-old Necromorph corpse, they’re obviously making somebody some money, so they keep on coming.
This week it’s the turn of EA’s sci-fi/horror limb-lopper Dead Space to get the Hollywood treatment. According to Variety, the EA Redwood Shores (now Visceral Games) game is on its way to the big screen with D.J. Caruso onboard to direct.
The project is still at an early stage with EA, Caruso and the producers currently listening to ideas from prospective screenwriters. The Variety report states that once everybody has agreed on the creative direction of the project, they will auction it off to the highest bidding studio, most likely around September this year.
As Variety notes, EA currently have a few movie projects in the pipeline. An adaptation of the forthcoming action game Dante’s Inferno is on its way following a four-studio bidding battle, as well as versions of The Sims, Mass Effect and Army of Two, all of which are in various stages of pre-production.
While news of a Dead Space film is new, EA’s ambitions to turn the game into a film project are not. Speaking to TVGB last year, the creator of the game Glen Schofield (now of Activision) told us that he could see Dead Space “making a great movie.”
Schofield envisioned a smaller, more intimate film as opposed to a huge, ten million dollar blockbuster. As far as the subject matter is concerned, he said that the story he helped create for Dead Space allows for multiple interpretations. “There’s over a thousand people on the ship and we don’t know them all.”
The Variety article also mentioned that EA are currently working on Dead Space 2 and 3. This remains unconfirmed.
July 27th, 2009
at 1:57 pm
Of all the videogame movies, this and Mass Effect are the ones I care about most. And I’m sure they’ll find some way not to live up to expectations. I mean, how could they possibly?
July 27th, 2009
at 3:03 pm
The interesting thing about Dead Space is that has quite obvious filmic influences that, though generic, work well in a videogame. Put it all back into a film and you’ve got just another aliens on a ship movie. Nothing wrong with them, of course, but we’ll have seen it all before.
July 28th, 2009
at 6:14 am
Rain, I’m right there with you. Those two IPs I care about a lot. But, I think I agree with Lee. It’’s likely to end up as a generic, hybrid zombie/alien movie that will disappoint in every area but the SFX.
September 11th, 2009
at 1:02 pm
I disagree, Dead Space made for a surprisingly great game and the movie will too no doubt. If you’ve never played the game or read the comics then you’ll love the film. If you have played the game then you’ll know what to expect from the film and I seriously doubt that it won’t deliver by the bucketload. Games translate well into films, as long as it’s done well, and that means involving the game developers, far cry 2 and max payne didn’t involve the developers, need i say more.
If Dead Space the movie flops then i’ll eat my radeons! - Bring it on Isacc!!