Just when you thought movie news couldn't get any crazier, along comes this gem of a tidbit. According to
Pajiba, a
Mafia Wars movie is in the works. Yes, THAT Mafia Wars; the one that has annoying badges pop-up on the sidebar telling you how YOU could be a 'digital don' whenever you're checking status updates on Facebook. Ted Field and Radar Pictures, the producers behind All About Steve and The Box are producing and say it'll be a
crime thriller based on the popular video game. Project is currently out to writers.
Urmm...yeah, okay. I've read a lot of nonsense when it comes to movie-related news, especially of late since the trend is to reboot every remotely-decent 80's flick, turn every 80's toy line into a motion picture, and pick up any old-school Saturday morning cartoon, or Sunday evening board game and attempt to make a movie out of it. But nothing has come close to sounding this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, Mafia Wars isn't even a video game. It's a text-based Facebook app of sorts where you stock up on ammo, "fight" opposing gangs, and get rich. It's basically like Monopoly with gangs and warlords. Maybe Zynga (creators of Mafia Wars) are behind this in a scheme to publicize their game, but even then, how does a studio actually pick something like this up with the slightest amount of optimism that it may somehow become a smash hit? My question is, why buy rights to Mafia Wars when you could just make an original gangster movie about, well, mafia wars? In which way does the Facebook / iPhone app have a storyline whatsoever Ah... it has 12 million users worldwide. And then is the answer... anything with an audience these days is capable of a movie adaptation these days. We'll give it three months until we hear reports of
Farmville...The Movie.