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Lights, Camera, Game Over!: How Video Game Movies Get Made
Since 1993, Hollywood has been rendering popular video games on the silver screen, mainly to critical derision and box office failure. While a few have succeeded, many have been hailed as the "worst movie ever" and left gamers asking: how did that get made? Super Mario fans expecting plumbers jumping on Goombas got an inter-dimensional battle between humans and evolved dinosaurs. Players expecting to see Ryu, Ken, and the rest of the World Warriors compete in the Street Fighter Tournament instead got a live-action GI Joe movie. This in-depth and entertaining work recounts the production histories of many of these movies, revealing the sometimes inspired and convoluted path Hollywood took to turn pixels into living flesh, with insights from more than 40 industry insiders, including film directors Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil), Simon West (Tomb Raider), and Steven de Souza (Street Fighter).
- GenresVideo GamesNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published July 28, 2017
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60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 30, 2017
I love video games and I love movies, so surely a book about the checkered production histories of some of these movies ought to be an entertaining read?
Unfortunately, quite the contrary - it ends up that the production histories of making these movies are rather boring.
We have inflated egos, conflicting visions and of course money issues at the heart of these productions, the kind of ingredients that never bode well for any artform.
A well-researched book on its subject matter, but more for superfans than the ordinary reader.
Unfortunately, quite the contrary - it ends up that the production histories of making these movies are rather boring.
We have inflated egos, conflicting visions and of course money issues at the heart of these productions, the kind of ingredients that never bode well for any artform.
A well-researched book on its subject matter, but more for superfans than the ordinary reader.
August 27, 2017
In his new book, Lights, Camera, Game Over: How Video Game Movies Get Made, writer Luke Owen tackles a diverse array of film adaptations. From 1993's Super Mario Bros., all the way through 2015's Adam Sandler vehicle, Pixels, it's a remarkable set of tales. Owen, the deputy editor for the UK pop culture site, Flickering Myth, works mostly chronologically, telling the story of each game in its own, most self-contained chapter.
The self-containment works nicely, in that you can jump around and look at the games and/or films that interest you most, if you're so inclined, but reading Lights, Camera, Game Over! cover-to-cover will also provide a few through-lines which help flesh out a larger narrative. The success or failure of each adaptation influences those which come after, and it's strange to see that one book by a podcaster demonstrates so definitively what dozens of executives couldn't figure out.
What Owen's book makes clear is that there are a few big things which make producing a film adaptation of a video game property difficuly. Firstly, there's the friction between the studio producing the movie and the game studio which created the property. One wants to make money, the other wants to make sure that their creativity and years of work isn't undone in 90 minutes of screen time.
This results in the second issue, which is that initial screenplays or story ideas are frequently received with adoration and fanfare from those who encounter them, only to be turned into something else entirely through a series of rewrites. That's the at best scenario, too: so many films change scripts, directors, stars, and budgets that the end product is drastically different from the initial announcement.
The money is the final flaw. Films don't get a good budget, because nobody wants to risk too much money on something about which they're unsure. Thus, the film sees a series compromises, which changes the game into something very different -- Street Fighter becoming not a fighting tournament, but something more akin to a G.I. Joe storyline, for example. Because the story's different, nobody goes to the movie, which means it doesn't make money, which means the next adaptation doesn't get money, and so on in a cycle of kind of always being sub-par.
There are, obviously, some successes. The Resident Evil series takes up a large portion of the book, due to its length and massive success, but even those films aren't without their critics, both fans and professional. It kind of results in Lights, Camera, Game Over! being a series of depressing stories in which, occasionally, people manage to create something which people enjoy.
While the author does speak about direct-to-video, animated, or online series, the stories Owens covers are strictly big-screen adaptations -- at least initially. Props to him for being able to track down and speak with so many of the people involved, as well as finding some great contemporaneous articles from which to pull, in that any one of the chapters in Lights, Camera, Game Over! would make for an excellent magazine feature. As a book, it's definitely an intriguing read, and should appeal to both video game fans and those interested in a deep behind-the-scenes look at the film industry.
The self-containment works nicely, in that you can jump around and look at the games and/or films that interest you most, if you're so inclined, but reading Lights, Camera, Game Over! cover-to-cover will also provide a few through-lines which help flesh out a larger narrative. The success or failure of each adaptation influences those which come after, and it's strange to see that one book by a podcaster demonstrates so definitively what dozens of executives couldn't figure out.
What Owen's book makes clear is that there are a few big things which make producing a film adaptation of a video game property difficuly. Firstly, there's the friction between the studio producing the movie and the game studio which created the property. One wants to make money, the other wants to make sure that their creativity and years of work isn't undone in 90 minutes of screen time.
This results in the second issue, which is that initial screenplays or story ideas are frequently received with adoration and fanfare from those who encounter them, only to be turned into something else entirely through a series of rewrites. That's the at best scenario, too: so many films change scripts, directors, stars, and budgets that the end product is drastically different from the initial announcement.
The money is the final flaw. Films don't get a good budget, because nobody wants to risk too much money on something about which they're unsure. Thus, the film sees a series compromises, which changes the game into something very different -- Street Fighter becoming not a fighting tournament, but something more akin to a G.I. Joe storyline, for example. Because the story's different, nobody goes to the movie, which means it doesn't make money, which means the next adaptation doesn't get money, and so on in a cycle of kind of always being sub-par.
There are, obviously, some successes. The Resident Evil series takes up a large portion of the book, due to its length and massive success, but even those films aren't without their critics, both fans and professional. It kind of results in Lights, Camera, Game Over! being a series of depressing stories in which, occasionally, people manage to create something which people enjoy.
While the author does speak about direct-to-video, animated, or online series, the stories Owens covers are strictly big-screen adaptations -- at least initially. Props to him for being able to track down and speak with so many of the people involved, as well as finding some great contemporaneous articles from which to pull, in that any one of the chapters in Lights, Camera, Game Over! would make for an excellent magazine feature. As a book, it's definitely an intriguing read, and should appeal to both video game fans and those interested in a deep behind-the-scenes look at the film industry.
September 27, 2017
Deciding on the rating for this book was hard. I go with 3.5 and am conflicted as I write this. The problem is not how it's written or what it contains but what it is missing.
Light, Camera, Game Over! chronicles the history of video games being turned into movies. Research included interviews with cast and crew as well a look into the development process. It his many major movies starting with the mess that was Super Mario Brothers.
The book was entertaining and I loved learned about specific movies and learning what they did right or wrong. I loved how the author was passionate about video games and their movies. But I wasn't happy with the bias. Silent Hill is mentioned only a few times and usually in reference to how bad the author feels it was. The director loved the game and tried hard to stay true to the story and atmosphere while trying to balance a box office movie. This fact alone makes it an important entry in video game adaptations history as well as the fact that the movie contained a shot for shot remake of a scene from the game gives it a special place in video game history. (On a personal note, the first ,movie is one of my favorite adaptions. So there's my bias. lol)
You can also see how the author feels about the progression of the Resident Evil movies,. The entries about each movie gets shorter as he gets into more movies. The final movie doesn't even get more than a few paragraphs and I wanted to know more about that one. I guess he got bored writing about them because he got bored with the movies.
Luke Owen tries to be very professional with his writing which I like. It's not just a bunch of fan spewing. But it seemed to leave out some of the geekier facts. For example, in the Tomb Raider chapter, it only talked about the casting of Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig and makes no mentioned of Iain Glen. who played the villain. The reason this matters at all is that Glen would then become a staple in the video game movie world as he became a villain in Resident Evil as well. Other actors such as Kim Coates are never mentioned even though they have worked on several adaptions. Luckily, Linden Ashby gets a mention for working with Paul W.S. Anderson again and that was a plus on his side. (Can you tell that video games movies are my thing? lol)
But the biggest oversight was that Final Fantasy Spirits Within was completely ignored. While not an adaption of a specific game, it was a movie that took the series to the big screen and then caused a lot of problems from the company. How this is left out in video game movies history and Pixels and Dead or Alive are deemed important enough for inclusion blows my mind. (In a nutshell Squaresoft made a film that was named Final Fantasy but didn't have any of the FF elements and that made everyone mad. The movie was a beautiful piece of CG work that bombed because fans were pissed off to the point that the company struggled finically).
I enjoyed this book, I really did, but like with many video games movie adaptions, I was left wanting more.
I received an ARC from NetGalley; all opinions are my own.
Light, Camera, Game Over! chronicles the history of video games being turned into movies. Research included interviews with cast and crew as well a look into the development process. It his many major movies starting with the mess that was Super Mario Brothers.
The book was entertaining and I loved learned about specific movies and learning what they did right or wrong. I loved how the author was passionate about video games and their movies. But I wasn't happy with the bias. Silent Hill is mentioned only a few times and usually in reference to how bad the author feels it was. The director loved the game and tried hard to stay true to the story and atmosphere while trying to balance a box office movie. This fact alone makes it an important entry in video game adaptations history as well as the fact that the movie contained a shot for shot remake of a scene from the game gives it a special place in video game history. (On a personal note, the first ,movie is one of my favorite adaptions. So there's my bias. lol)
You can also see how the author feels about the progression of the Resident Evil movies,. The entries about each movie gets shorter as he gets into more movies. The final movie doesn't even get more than a few paragraphs and I wanted to know more about that one. I guess he got bored writing about them because he got bored with the movies.
Luke Owen tries to be very professional with his writing which I like. It's not just a bunch of fan spewing. But it seemed to leave out some of the geekier facts. For example, in the Tomb Raider chapter, it only talked about the casting of Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig and makes no mentioned of Iain Glen. who played the villain. The reason this matters at all is that Glen would then become a staple in the video game movie world as he became a villain in Resident Evil as well. Other actors such as Kim Coates are never mentioned even though they have worked on several adaptions. Luckily, Linden Ashby gets a mention for working with Paul W.S. Anderson again and that was a plus on his side. (Can you tell that video games movies are my thing? lol)
But the biggest oversight was that Final Fantasy Spirits Within was completely ignored. While not an adaption of a specific game, it was a movie that took the series to the big screen and then caused a lot of problems from the company. How this is left out in video game movies history and Pixels and Dead or Alive are deemed important enough for inclusion blows my mind. (In a nutshell Squaresoft made a film that was named Final Fantasy but didn't have any of the FF elements and that made everyone mad. The movie was a beautiful piece of CG work that bombed because fans were pissed off to the point that the company struggled finically).
I enjoyed this book, I really did, but like with many video games movie adaptions, I was left wanting more.
I received an ARC from NetGalley; all opinions are my own.
February 23, 2018
Een boek over het maken van films over videogames is een goed idee, maar om ze allemaal te bespreken is misschien wel wat veel. Dit 300-pagina boek vol interviews met de filmmakers is dan ook niet compleet. Wat is dan precies de selectieprocedure geweest voor welke wel en niet in het boek zitten?
Ik vrees dat dat simpelweg was wie wilde praten. Het boek is verdeeld in hoofdstukken per filmfranchise, chronologisch ingedeeld. De grote films (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Resident Evil) worden uitgebreid besproken, maar juist die gedeeltes zijn ook niet uiterst boeiend.
Degene die dan wel boeiend zijn (Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat) voelen heel incompleet, alsof ze maar een halve reconstructie konden doen. Voor een groot artikel op een filmsite is dat niet erg, maar voor een (ietswat te objectief en plat geschreven) boek over dat onderwerp valt het tegen.
Nu heb ik veel geleerd over de bureaucratie van Hollywood, hoe iedereen streeft om Mad Max: Fury Road te maken en uitkomt bij Fast & Furious en dat filmmaken maar een bijzaak is. Maar het heeft me wel nieuwsgierig gemaakt hoe al deze verfilmingen eruit zien. Dat wordt een marathonnetje!
Ik vrees dat dat simpelweg was wie wilde praten. Het boek is verdeeld in hoofdstukken per filmfranchise, chronologisch ingedeeld. De grote films (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Resident Evil) worden uitgebreid besproken, maar juist die gedeeltes zijn ook niet uiterst boeiend.
Degene die dan wel boeiend zijn (Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat) voelen heel incompleet, alsof ze maar een halve reconstructie konden doen. Voor een groot artikel op een filmsite is dat niet erg, maar voor een (ietswat te objectief en plat geschreven) boek over dat onderwerp valt het tegen.
Nu heb ik veel geleerd over de bureaucratie van Hollywood, hoe iedereen streeft om Mad Max: Fury Road te maken en uitkomt bij Fast & Furious en dat filmmaken maar een bijzaak is. Maar het heeft me wel nieuwsgierig gemaakt hoe al deze verfilmingen eruit zien. Dat wordt een marathonnetje!
December 1, 2024
This is a niche book about a rather niche topic; it isn’t for everyone. Then again, I don’t think it’s trying to be. If you are like me and grew up with these movies, there is a lot of nostalgia here. This book chronicles the making of several video game films (ranging from 90s cult classics such as Mortal Kombat, to more modern movies such as Columbia Picture’s Pixels (2015)). One of my favorite features of this book is that it includes films that could have been (Pac-Man, Gears of War, and more). For the record, this is not a quick, “read in one sitting” book. It is thoroughly researched; it feels substantially longer than its 320 page count would make you believe. Overall, and this could just be the nostalgia or the nerd in me talking, if you grew up with these films you will find enjoyment here. 5/5
December 24, 2024
This is an amazingly well researched tome of video game adaptations (specifically love action). It covers nearly every live action video game movie and some that were never made (and a few that may still see the light of day. The only one it doesn't cover is the Double Dragon movie, but that one is so forgettable that it's forgiven.
The author has managed to interview a ton of actions, directors, producers, and others in amassing this book. I was blown away by a lot of behind the scenes info on movies like Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat. Some chapters even include comments if earlier versions of the script that were later rejected (but would have been a lot more faithful) in regards to the Mario Brothers film.
This is a good gift fur film and video game history buffs.
The author has managed to interview a ton of actions, directors, producers, and others in amassing this book. I was blown away by a lot of behind the scenes info on movies like Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat. Some chapters even include comments if earlier versions of the script that were later rejected (but would have been a lot more faithful) in regards to the Mario Brothers film.
This is a good gift fur film and video game history buffs.
August 14, 2022
Absolutely fascinating, I loved all the behind the scenes gossip, changes and challenges, particularly with the video game movies I've seen. Linden Ashby is hilarious, he had the best quotes, and Paul W. Anderson is a force in this, just a fountain of interesting insights and opinions. I definitely think video game movies are starting to get much better, so the timing of this book makes all the material that much more prophetic.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews