3. Script
Alright, thinks our imaginary director, All I have to do is make sure I stay faithful to the extremely detailed and individual ideas of millions of fans, work within my means, and Ill have a hit. Not so. A major problem of video game adaptations is the fact that, generally, the genres do not organically mesh in the way films and books do. Video games tend to be almost pure action, with extremely lightly drawn characters (although this has been changing rapidly in the last few years as games have become more and more like interactive movies). Since a Tomb Raider film based strictly on the game would be 99% tomb exploration and 1% cheesy B-movie dialogue, its important to dial down the action somewhat, and flesh out the characters. Including a couple of major set-pieces from the film as action scenes would surely win over some critics, though, as the viewer begins to relate whats happening on the screen to their own experiences as a gamer - which is a huge part of the battle already won. Unless they didnt play the game, in which case theyre experiencing an epic adventure for the first time. Either way, its important to reduce the action content while staying faithful to the game. Where does that leave the director? You need to fill your movie, but you dont want to fall into the trap of inventing entirely new characters and events, as they will probably fail on their own merits and annoy your target audience. Obviously you need to flesh out the existing characters, remaining faithful to their core personalities but adding detail and colour. Video game plots are often quite basic, but may well have an interesting mythology or back-story to work with. Draw on it. Gamers will appreciate it, and non-gamers will probably find it more interesting than the main plot anyway. Some genres of gaming offer themselves more to adaptation than others Angry Birds or Viva Piñata are a good fit for a lively animated childrens classic, while Legend of Zelda or Super Mario are almost impossible to do justice to. Horror games seem especially attractive to film-makers, and after the disappointing Silent Hill I feel the time could be ripe for a more faithful reboot of the Resident Evil franchise, or perhaps an attempt at Dead Space.