So how do you make a good movie based on a video game? According to Tull, forget that it’s a video game and focus on the story. He acknowledges that it was much tougher to make movies based on classic games like Pong, but now they have the ability to tell great stories because video game plotlines have vastly improved in the past several years:
“I think first of all is to lose the fact that it’s a videogame movie and just concentrate on do you have a story that’s worth telling? Because if you look back to the 80’s, comic book movies were not anywhere near what they are today. They weren’t given the resources and you didn’t have the level of directors that you have today working on these things. I think with videogames it’s just become much more sophisticated storytelling, hard to do a movie off of Pong, but today when you have stuff like Mass Effect, you have things like Warcraft, you have things like Skyrim where very cool worlds have been created, that’s what we’re attracted to. We took our time with Warcraft because just saying “How many people play the game? Well then that means X number of people will buy a ticket.” That’s a death trap, that’s the surest way to make a crap movie, and that’s not an option. So we took our time wanted to make sure that we used all the canon that’s been built up over years and years by Blizzard.”
Tull became a little more vague on the specifics of the project’s status, but firmly believes that they have the resources, the script, and the leader they need in Duncan Jones:
“We’re huge believers in Duncan Jones, and I think what we’re going to bring to screen and to bear with Duncan, he is going to break that mold because it’s going to have the resources, the talent around it, and a Field General in Duncan Jones. It’s, again, the reason we took our time, made sure we had the right guy, the right person to make the movie, and then it will speak for itself when it comes out.”
He added that we’ll soon be hearing updates regarding the production status, script, and release date.
