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XBox (Games) Media Microsoft Movies

Microsoft Wondering About This Movie Thing 62

Posted by Zonk from the getting-cold-boots dept.
Via some considered analysis at Joystiq, an interview at the Mercury news with Microsoft's Robbie Bach. The article touches on a number of pieces of the Xbox business, and is quite interesting, but folks are focusing on his comments re: the Halo movie. From the piece: "Does it make sense for Microsoft to be in the movie business? It's not what we do, nor would I anticipate us ever doing it. So it's a different business with a different business model. We happen to have great intellectual property with Halo that could be made into a great movie. The No. 1 criteria for us is we have to be confident a great movie is going to be made. It doesn't matter if Universal and Fox do it or somebody else does it. Frankly, if we didn't think a good movie would be produced, we would rather have no movie."
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Microsoft Wondering About This Movie Thing More

Microsoft Wondering About This Movie Thing

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  • Protip (Score:4, Funny)

    by spellraiser ( 764337 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @09:34AM (#17015960) Journal

    Hey, Microsoft ... get Uwe Boll to do the Halo movie. He has an impeccable track record of making excellent movies based on video games!

    And oh, IMDB is a den of lies. Ignore whatever's said there.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • A bunch of Quake rejects running around a low-budget Ringworld, yes, oh yes, I can't wait for the movie.

        Actually, my son showed me a Halo machinima/demo/some piece of crap of an actual battle some friends of his were in. I couldn't believe how slowly they run. It almost felt like I had slipped into Dark Age of Camelot by accident.

        So I showed him Quake Done Quicker, available on YouTube, thanks. Bam!
    • BloodRayne was on of the worst movies ever made... House of the Dead may was only slightly less revolting.

      • Oh, you mean you've actually seen at least two of his movies? Wow ...

        I could never do that ... I'm too afraid I'd just die on the spot due to massive heart failure caused by the excitement of seeing such a legendary masterpiece for real.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Fozzyuw ( 950608 )
        I saw House of the Dead last one night when I was at my parents house. It was on one of the obscure movie stations. I read the digital synopsis of the film and was like "Oh, I didn't know they made a movie on this game, I use to like this game! I'll watch it!". The funny thing is, before I read the synopses, I thought it was some kind of late night softcore pr0n movie (a'la 'skin'amax) since the casting, acting, clothing, and plot all felt about on par. It was like a train wreck, I couldn't help but wa

  • Translation... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by testudorex ( 1019214 )
    If we(microsoft) cannot make a movie that will pull in $300+ million, then we would rather not waste the effort to milk the fanbase.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fbjon ( 692006 )
      So? Anything wrong with not wanting to make a flop?
      • > Anything wrong with not wanting to make a flop?

        Kane: Ya know, Mr. Thatcher. I did lose $100 million on that POS movie last year. I expect to lose $100 million on that new movie this year. I expect to lose $100 million on that even newer movie next year. You know what, Mr. Thatcher? At the rate of $100 million a year, I'll have to stop making movies in...one thousand years.

        (cue horns: wah wah wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh)

  • The last (Score:2, Interesting)

    by El Lobo ( 994537 )
    The last game movie I saw was Doom and the only similarity was the name, I guess. The greatness of a game is that you can be the hero, you can interact, make good or bad moves, die, cheat... In a movie.. all that is GONE. You are just seeing somebody else play for you. Boring.

    • I was going to go see that movie, until I learned that it wasn't all shot in the first-person. I was disappointed.

  • History of Videogame movies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @09:41AM (#17016046)
    With such Classics as:

    Mortal Kombat
    Street Fighter
    Super Mario Bros.
    Wing Commander
    Tomb Raider
    Doom
    Silent Hill
    Blood Rayne
    House of the Dead

    who wouldn't think of making videogame movies; after all its like a licence to print money and all of the games still retain their appeal in the marketplace.

    Seriously, if the Halo movie is made I would bet that every Halo game after it is released has awful sales. Videogame movies tend to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in order to get $20 for the meat off of the carcus. I honestly can't believe that anyone with any business sense would allow their videogame licence to be made into a movie.
    • Yeah, because we all know how poor Mario is doing after the move.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 1u3hr ( 530656 )
        Yeah, because we all know how poor Mario is doing after the move.

        The Mario movie didn't suck. It was no masterpiece, but it was fun, especially for subteens.

    • Re:History of Videogame movies (Score:5, Funny)

      by greg1104 ( 461138 ) <gsmith@gregsmith.com> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @09:56AM (#17016266) Homepage
      Those games were never going to make good movies. What I think would be totally awesome was if someone released a movie based on that E.T. game for the Atari 2600.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by oc255 ( 218044 )
        Like all pixelated as if the real ET movie hadn't been made? Now, that I'd see. It's like translated text back and forth.
        English -> Japanese -> English
        ET Movie -> ET Game -> ET Movie

        Or maybe you mean this sarcasticlly. In which case I offer another OT jewel:
        I had a roommate back in college who was really into Star Wars. He had the books. He had the collectible plates. He watched QVC buying Star Wars collectibles. One day while he was buying Star Wars loot on QVC I said, "Hey. I know you
      • They did release a movie based on the game. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083866/ [imdb.com] Looks pretty decent too!
    • The problem seem to lie in the games they pick.

      Make a movie out of Grim Fandango and I'd really be eager to watch it.
      On the other hand, what kind of content to mainly a 1-on-1 game like Mortal Kombat have, really?

      • Re:History of Videogame movies (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Flounder ( 42112 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @10:17AM (#17016614)
        Grim Fandango would make a very excellent movie. It seems that adventure games would make good movie properties, yet they always try to adapt action games.

        I can think of several Infocom properties that would make good movies. Planetfall, Zork, and the best one of all, Leather Goddesses of Phobos!

        • That couldn't have anything to do with the fact that action games actually sell in volume, could it? ;)
    • Not to burst your bubble or anything but the Street Fighter movie was so successful that I hear they're planning another!

      Okay so I couldn't type that out with a straight face, but with how horrible the first street fighter I am excited about the new one on the basis on it being physically impossible to make a worse movie. . . To add my two cents to the discussion I think that video game movies could be done far better than they have been historically, but it seems like the production studios are more inter
    • Tomb Raider exponentially increased the value of that franchise. Most of that has to do with being cast with Angelina Jolie. But most of the rest were not-so-notable. Seems like it's pretty hit-or-miss.
    • You forgot Final Fantasy [wikipedia.org].

    • With such Classics as:

      Mortal Kombat
      Street Fighter
      Super Mario Bros.
      Wing Commander
      Tomb Raider
      Doom
      Silent Hill
      Blood Rayne
      House of the Dead

      You forgt Polan^H^H^H^H^H Ultraviolet.

      Ok, so it's not from a video game, but it might as well have been.*

      * Actually, I predict cult status for Ultraviolet as the esthetic purity of her reborn mothering instinct taking charge of the direction of the movie is astoundingly humerous to watch.

    • With such Classics as:

      Mortal Kombat
      Street Fighter
      Super Mario Bros.
      Wing Commander
      Tomb Raider
      Doom
      Silent Hill
      Blood Rayne
      House of the Dead

      Why is it that whenever someone puts out a list of video game movies, Resident Evil is almost never listed? IIRC, both the movies did well, and obviously the franchise had a strong release in RE4...

      Or is it that nobody mentions Resident Evil because it doesn't fit in with the majority of video game movies, thus would hurt their argument?

  • they should make a movie about a software company trying to dominate the world.

  • It might not be a bad thing for a company outside of the movie industry to have a hand at a videogame movie. The movie industry is so corrupt...if they have any inkling that an idea will turn profit, they proceed without caring about the quality of a film. Microsoft or any other company outside of the industry would have to invest so much money into such an endevor that they would have to be confident that the product would be great. MS would have more at stake with IP such as Halo, as well. A great mov
    • "The movie industry is so corrupt...if they have any inkling that an idea will turn profit, they proceed without caring about the quality of a film."

      In what way is that corrupt? Do they have a legal obligation to produce good movies?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ProppaT ( 557551 )
        No, they're just corrupt in the fact that they don't care if they're good or not if they're money makers. It's just a little ironic when the "entertainment industry" isn't "entertaining." Thus the string of horrible videogame movies. Instead of finding ways to give the movie mass appeal, they know there's a built in market for them so they're taking the easiest way out and pushing movies out of the gate to exploit this segment of the population. Not that there's anything "wrong" with this, but there's b
  • I, on the other hand, would not be surprised at all if M$ jumped into the movie-making. They're not a software company guys...I'm using an M$ mouse right now (I know they don't make it themselves) and consider the past.


    Consider, for instance, the Zune. Beyond being a potential flop, it showed the culmination of Microsoft getting sick of 3rd party partnerships and jumping it in themselves. PlaysForSure was M$ intellectual property (kind of) that they licensed out to try and leverage the market. Horrible failure. The Zune is a complete reversal, where they entered a non-MS-dominant market fresh and tried to win, getting directly in there. I think if it fails, it will because they waited way too long till the market was saturated, and not because of any product weaknesses.


    Like the Xbox. They've taken industry titans head on, and well, they've won. This was once again direct involvement. Same with many of their video games, ie-Bungie. For those of you who didn't know, Bungie is owned by Microsoft. Direct involvement.


    I really think M$ is going to set up a small studio to at least control the project, even if they don't develop it all the way. I can't see them just handing out the IP to Halo to a movie studio and saying have fun with it.

    • For those of you who didn't know, Bungie is owned by Microsoft. Direct involvement. I believe, Bungie was bought by Microsoft after announcing Halo, thus Microsoft 'bought' themselves a very promising video game for their upcoming console.
      • When MS bought Bungie, Halo was nothing like it was today. First, it was going to be a Mac-exclusive game. Second, it was going to be a strategy game, on a squad level. If I remember correctly, the art style was mostly constant throughout development, but the gameplay changed considerably.
    • Consider, for instance, the Zune. Beyond being a potential flop,

      I think if it fails, it will because they waited way too long till the market was saturated

      poor products are irrelevant
      market saturation is irrelevant
      you will be assimilated
      you will learn to service us
  • If they really are commited to making a good video game movie, I cant see this as a bad thing. Being selective of the director and storyline can only be a good thing. I would love to see a serious sci-fi movie set in the Halo universe. I vote for Bruce Willis as Master Chief or pull a total Shamus and freak out everyone by making Master Chief turn out to be Uma Thurman.

    I do hope they hold out for a good writer and good director. I know hulk was a disaster but I would love to see Ang Lee, he can make gre

  • halo (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @10:38AM (#17017030) Journal
    "We happen to have great intellectual property with Halo that could be made into a great movie." ...Anyone else wondering why they worded it so poorly? Who cares about intellectual property? You either have a great series or you have a poor series, the fact that you own some legal crap for it shouldn't be an issue.

    "Halo would make a great movie, we want to give it a try" would be 100% better since it sounds human and not lawyer based.
    • "Intellectual Property" is just the generic term game executives like to use to refer to their games. It leaves the rhetorical door open for branching a single title out into a series, or a cartoon show, or a movie. It sounds cold and inhuman, but it's definitely the standard these days.
  • MS could have a good movie handed to them on a floppy and still find a way to zune it up somewhere between ad launch and release.

    Remember, it's the singer, not the song.

    Say it with me.... T R O N
  • Hey guys, I suppose most of you already saw the Halo 3 trailer shown at E3. I think it is AS spectacular as ANY standard movie today. They should do a movie in that line. The Halo series are strongly based in its CG Graphics so some more won't hurt. It would be a disaster if they try to do it with real people.

  • I'm gonna have to go ahead and...um, yeah...sorta disagree with slashdotters here.

    Although most video game movies do suck, Halo has a couple things going for it that give it a good chance of defying the norm. First of all, Halo is a MS flagship product. They aren't going to give creative control over to people who care/know little about the story or game. Second, they are going to give it the financial backing it needs if they are going to make it. Third, Halo has a well developed storyline complete wi

  • We happen to have great intellectual property with Halo that could be made into a great movie

    Is it just me or M$ is talking more and more about "intellectual property"?
    If they are moving from a software development company based in copyright to a "intellectual property" company where movie rights and patents are going to be more and more important, then it is no wonder how disastrous Vista's development has been.
    It is not only bureaucracy and red tape. They are becoming a company run by lawyers and bean co
  • UH... Microsoft isn't exactly in the literature business either, but that hasn't stopped them from producing a series of books set in the Halo universe. I like Halo, so I gave the books a shot. Let's just say the books prove Microsoft doesn't give a shit about how poorly its IP gets used in other media. Therefore, the movie will happen, for good or for bad.

  • A reason game movies fail? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The japanese got something called doushinji, wich are manga (strips/comics) made by fans often using an existing setting.

    A huge number of them are pornographic in number and the fast majority of them suck. The problem is simple.

    An original manga has characters with personalities and certain traits that make them characters. This is in any half decent manga more then just the base traits. To put it simple, Beldandy from Ah My Goddess is more then just a female with a complex hairdo and some funky facial make

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