Despite not being very good, video game adaptations continue to be all the rage. I guess studios assume there is a built in audience, regardless of the quality. With a lot of the present franchises taken, studios are looking to the past… way into the past, for new ideas. Or is that for old ideas that can be made into new movies?
Producer Samuel Haddia has acquired the rights for one of the first first-person shooter games: Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The movie is being set up for Roger Avary to write and direct. Previously the rights had been held by Sony but had gone unused and reverted back to game creator ID Software.
The game was an early first person shooter where the player stormed a Nazi Paranormal Division headquarters, stationed in an old German castle. Avary seems knowledgeable and aware enough of the property he’s getting into. Variety has him quoted as saying “I’ve been playing the character of B.J. Blazkowicz since the epic ‘Wolfenstein 3D’ first bruised my brain and have ever since wanted to bring his adventures to life on the bigscreen. It’s time to bust some dams, storm some bunkers and blow up some bridges.”
I guess a Wolfenstein movie could work; a kind of part Hellboy, part Doom adventure (although we wouldn’t mind leaving a silly FPS sequence out like the latter had) following an elite soldier through some weird stuff. It could be quite the explosive film. Then again, it’s a video game adaptation, so we won’t hold our breath. Despite their experience with them (Avary penned Silent Hill and Haddida is behind the Resident Evil flicks) these two have yet to discover the secret in converting these stories from one medium to another.
