Let’s Talk Movies: Games to Live-Action

It isn’t enough that Hollywood producers are taking anime movies and turning them into live action, American adaptations that suck the life out of every anime fan in the planet, they had to do games too.

In the past we’ve had movies like Streetfighter and Mortal Kombat to entertain us by bringing into the big screen game characters we all know from the games we’ve played as kids.

I, for one, am not an avid gamer. But I’m pretty familiar with some of the characters. Familiar enough to know how some characters were really not represented well.

But lately, more and more games that we grew up to as children of the 80’s and the 90’s are being turned into live action films as well. What movies do we have in line?

Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li – Scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, this supposedly action-packed movie is stared by Kristin Kreuk as the main character Chun-Li. Chris Klein, Neil McDonough, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Moon Bloodgood are to play Nash, M. Bison, Balrog, and Maya respectively.  Now I really don’t know if it’s just me, or doesn’t anybody else in the casting department notice how Kristin Kreuk doesn’t look Chinese at all?

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – Scheduled to be released in 2010, this movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as THE Prince of Persia. Not sure about how the story would go, but I agree with what my friend said about how Jake Gyllenhall just doesn’t quite cut it to be the Prince. We were thinking more like Dr. Suresh from Heroes, but with a leaner body.

Tekken – Scheduled to be released late 2009, this film adaptation stars Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (from Mortal Kombat) as Heihachi, Chiyaki Kuriyama (from Kill Bill) as Xiaoyu, and Luke Goss (from Hellboy 2) as Steve Fox. The entire cast list can be found on the movie’s iMDB site. A Japenese girl plays a Chinese character. Wow.

Metal Gear Solid – Scheduled for 2009, not much information has been revealed about this movie except for some rumor that Christian Bale will play the part of Snake. Obi says he does look like Snake in the game. So what the hell?

Halo – One of my friends fried his xbox 360 because of his addiction to this game. One site says it’s scheduled to be release summer of 2009. I’m not quite sure if it’s the same movie I saw in iMDB that says it’s scheduled release date is 2012. No cast list indicated anywhere as of late.

Two game-based movies previously reported to be on their way come 2009 are rumored to be on the rocks. Castlevania, a game created by Konami for the old Nintendo family computer, and Spy Hunter, an arcade game from way back 1983, are both said to be hitting rough patches at the moment. However, no news has been confirmed yet, considering that there are still reports that these movies will air sometime this year.

Rumors of a World of Warcraft movie has been going around as well. Some WoW gamers have expressed excitement over the said news, but some express fear of having their favorite game butchered in its movie adaptation.

Gamer or not, you’re sure to have come across these games or have friends who are into playing these games. Tell me something, do you think movie adaptations are killing your favorite games?