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Diablo Movie Now in the Works? 101

Posted by Zonk from the everything's-turning-up-blizzard dept.
To go along with the still fairly-mysterious World of Warcraft movie, via CVG comes the word at Blizzplanet that a movie based on Blizzard's Diablo games may be in the works. "Few weeks ago, a rumor circulated the net that Gary Whitta would be working with Legendary Pictures to develop a Diablo film. The participation of Gary Whitta hasn't been confirmed, but surprise-surprise. Legendary Pictures website is listing DIABLO under the 'In Development' section. No press release has been made available. The news section has been replaced by a 'Legendary 2.0 is coming soon' notice. A week ago, the news section over at Legendary Pictures website had not been updated since Q3 2006. Stay tuned for any updates. A press release could be posted by them in a few days. Diablo is coming to the big screen!"
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Diablo Movie Now in the Works? More

Diablo Movie Now in the Works?

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  • Interesting idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hedwards ( 940851 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:27PM (#19553233)
    but will it work. I think that in many respects a Diablo or Fallout based movie has some chance of being worth watching. Whoever gave the green Doom and Resident evil should have been fired. A game can rely on being interactive to advance interest, allowing for the player to make choices, and movies don't at all. The limit to the intereaction is in how one is moved by the movie. In that sense I think that a RPG based movie would have some potential in that adventure movies can and have been well done in the past.
    • When you're basing it upon a game ...

      Well, really GOOD writers could still come up with a good movie. But these people aren't looking to make a good movie.

      They're looking to cash in on the name. They're hoping that enough Diablo players will want to see the movie that they'll turn a profit NO MATTER HOW BAD IT IS.

      Otherwise they'd be mining the hundreds of years of literature for books that have not been made into movies yet.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by StarvingSE ( 875139 )
        Well, really GOOD writers could still come up with a good movie. But these people aren't looking to make a good movie.

        No, the really good writers just aren't interested in writing a game-to-movie port. It doesn't matter how good or deep a game is, video games are still seen as the exact opposite of classic literature and having no intellectual value. Because of this, good writers probably don't want to associate themselves in the genre. Even if they wanted to do a fantasy-themed movie, they would choo

        • Because of this, good writers probably don't want to associate themselves in the genre. Even if they wanted to do a fantasy-themed movie, they would choose to go after Lord of the Rings before Final Fantasy since the former has literary merit.

          Most writers, even the good ones, don't make much money from writing.

          So, throw a LOT of money at one of the good writers and allow him/her to write under a nom de plume.

          Let the writer talk to some of the fans of the game to see what aspects resonate with them. Show the

      • The Pac-Man movie just gave me the munchies.

        • The Pac-Man movie just gave me the munchies.

          Though I thought the soundtrack was rather repetative :)

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by dintech ( 998802 )
            Space Invaders has a great four note soundtrack. Rockin'.
            • Have you heard the techno track on the first Taito arcade compilation for the PS2?
              Cause that features the those 4 notes as part of the intro.
      • I thought Diablo 2 had a very good story, and if the movie was long enough, it would make for something good on the big screen. The in game cinematics were well done and they would look good in the film as well.

        Maybe the movie can tell me how to get D2 to run on Vista. It'd be worth every cent.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by dintech ( 998802 )
        I'm not sure games transfer that well to the screen at all.

        "Drop down! Increase Speed! Reverse Direction!"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kelbear ( 870538 )
          Most media don't transfer well from Medium X to Medium Y because they weren't created towards Medium Y. Books don't match the story you saw in your head when they go to the big screen. Less time to cover everything. Movies have a great deal of detail. A book can also convey the same amount of detail but not in the same time span without becoming dull, a picture's worth a thousand words. Both can accomplish similar goals but they need to bend the advantages of the medium towards that end.

          Games have a very di
    • Resident Evil made enough money that a sequel was made, so whoever greenlighted that probably shouldn't have been fired. People went to see it, it made money, ergo it was the right idea. Art isn't what the movies are about. Art movies generally don't make big bucks, it's just nice when they do.

    • Re:Interesting idea (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ajs ( 35943 ) <[ajs] [at] [ajs.com]> on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:55PM (#19553717) Homepage Journal

      Whoever gave the green Doom and Resident evil should have been fired.
      Yes, but not because the source material did or did not lack a basis for the movies. Actually, R.E. was a decent attempt. They tried fairly hard, but simply got trapped by the ugly rules of horror movies. Had they decided to make an atypical horror movie, it might have worked. I liked the characters. I liked some of the story (though some was too obviously formulaic). The ending was nice, though it could have done with slightly less skin which made a scene that should have felt scary and stark feel more like a peep show in a hospital.

      The Doom movie was bad writing and bad casting, but there was nothing about the Doom story that lacked for good source material. In fact, the primary problem with the Doom movie was that they removed the interesting parts of the story (the "demons" were the result of experiments with alien DNA, not demons from hell).

      I maintain that a good movie could have been made from either source. It simply wasn't and the person who greenlighted either film certainly knew that early on.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        In other words, the problem is that movie makers can't simply make a movie out of a game: they have to find a loosely similar standard Hollywood template and force the game story into that.

        Does Hollywood actually set out to crush any hint of originality, or is it just that the studio bosses are so conservative that it's impossible to get funding if you can't sum the movie up as "X meets Y", where X and Y were box-office hits the previous summer?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ajs ( 35943 )

          In other words, the problem is that movie makers can't simply make a movie out of a game: they have to find a loosely similar standard Hollywood template and force the game story into that.

          That's a poor summary. First off, it paints video games as a font of originality being sucked into the shallow world of Hollywood. Both industries (which are tightly coupled) have the same lack of originality for the most part, and both have exceptions to that rule that are rare, but highly notable. The idea that, in making a horror movie out of a horror game, you stick to the established rules of successful horror movies isn't actually that unreasonable. It's just not the way you get a GOOD video game mov

      • Don't be ridiculous. All game movies, ever, are terrible and fundamentally flawed, no matter how talented and interested the people making them, or how fertile the source material is. Didn't you get the memo?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jonwil ( 467024 )
        I think the problem for the people making the DOOM movie was that they didn't want to use the h-word (hell) because of the influence of the various religious groups who would have complained (either about the depiction of hell at all or the depiction of hell in that way)
        • What is absolutely hilarious about that is those same religious groups believe that Hell exists, but do not believe that aliens are possible. Before you say that's why they didn't object to the movie, consider that many people actually believe aliens are possible and don't believe in Hell, you would think it would be in religious group's best interest to correct this. (although they tried with things like Left Behind)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Flimzy ( 657419 )

      I think that a RPG based movie would have some potential
      That explains why Dungeons & Dragons [imdb.com] (2000) was such a wonderful movie, with an average user rating of 3.6 (out of 10).
      • Dungeons and dragons wasn't based on any existing storyline. It used the name to sell itself, and to have elements such as dwarves, elves, and swords.

        Because of this, it can be argued that D&D is just a generic fantasy action movie using stereotypical elements from the general D&D rulebooks and not a true rpg movie.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by werewolf1031 ( 869837 )
        Keep in mind that D&D by itself is no more than a (fairly generic) set of gaming rules designed to facilitate roleplay in a variety of fantasy settings; in and of itself it does provide not a specific world setting with its own rich history. Now, if they'd bothered to draw specifically from one of TSR's old settings designed for the D&D game system, eg. Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc. (sorry I'm out of touch with the newer settings, if there are any), and adapted a story from one of those fictional

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by BJH ( 11355 )
          Dark Sun. Man, there was a gritty setting.
          In fact, a Dark Sun MMORPG would be nice to see.
          • My God, how could I forget that one. I should be tarred, feathered, stabbed, shot, dismembered, and then have my Nerd Card revoked. But yeah, I agree 100%... that would be a badass MMO setting! Hell, Brom's artwork alone would make for brilliant inspiration.
    • The Diablo and Fallout movies should be quite different from each other. The first one should be a CGI-filled demon slicing summer action flick. The latter would be the one with the thought out story. At least if they want to stay true to the games :)

  • Blizzard Would Make Any Annocements (Score:4, Insightful)

    by moore.dustin ( 942289 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:30PM (#19553285) Homepage
    Blizzard would be the place any Diablo movie would be announced, just like everything else they do. They would work it up, start the hype machine, and ride it through the movies release. I highly doubt they are going to let word just, spill out. Nothing should be taken for anything of worth till Blizzard, themselves, say they are making a Diablo movie.

  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:30PM (#19553291)
    Why do they keep on making movies based off video games. Has there ever been a single one that wasn't completely crap? Sure they generate a few bucks, but it's not like any of the actors/directors/writers actually gain any prestige by working on these movies. Why even bother creating such crappy movies.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Supurcell ( 834022 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:42PM (#19553507)
      Sure they generate a few bucks...


      I think you just stumbled upon the secret motivation behind these mysterious thing we have called "companies".

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Funny)

      by EveryNickIsTaken ( 1054794 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:43PM (#19553523)
      Hey! Super Mario Bros. was awesome.
      • They put a product placement (Reeboks) on a bob-omb. Right before it exploded. Those four seconds were worth excusing the rest of the excruciatingly bad movie ("Trust the fungus!"). Granted, I don't know how effective the message was -- "Forget those Nikes, kids, who wants to be like a basketball star? You want to be like a suicide bomber, don't ya?" -- but I enjoyed it all the same.
    • The Tomb Raider movies weren't too bad. I guess all you need is Angelina Jolie (or another hot main character with sideboob shots).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Flimzy ( 657419 )
      I never actually played the games (does that mean I'm not a true geek? *sigh* oh well), but I did enjoy the Final Fantasy movie.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Amouth ( 879122 )
        the first FF movie was cool way ahead of it's time in CGI just late to market due to the extrealy long time it took to render - yes it had next to nothing to do with the game - it was still a cool movie

        the second one is a diffrent story - Advent Children was an extreamly well done movie.. and action sequences that stunt people could only dream of doing.. - the rendering was great - the sound track was great.. - and it had some good suttle comedy (the ring tone was great) - i mean over all Advent children wa

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by amuro98 ( 461673 )
          I enjoyed Advent Children as well. Unfortunately, if you weren't familiar with FF7, the movie wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to you.

          Heck, I've played the game, and parts of the movie STILL didn't make a lot of sense to me.

          Like, what was with the heavy Christian baptism imagery/theme?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dougmc ( 70836 )

      Why do they keep on making movies based off video games. Has there ever been a single one that wasn't completely crap? Sure they generate a few bucks, but it's not like any of the actors/directors/writers actually gain any prestige by working on these movies. Why even bother creating such crappy movies.

      Well, let's look at the list ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_o n_video_games [wikipedia.org] ... They weren't all complete crap (and a few were OK), but a none of them are real winners.

    • Hey, that Monkey Island movie with Johnny Depp and Legolas was a huge success, wasn't it?

      SCNR

  • Excited? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fozzyuw ( 950608 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:31PM (#19553295)

    Diablo is coming to the big screen!

    I cannot say that I'm excited. But it begs to ask, will we see "Diablo 3: the Movie" game?

  • MY script for the movie: (Score:4, Funny)

    by spocksbrain ( 1097145 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:33PM (#19553333)
    *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "inventory is full" x 1,000,000 The End. BTW... they are fun and addicting games, and I still love them. However, I would rather have movies based on the stories from warcraft or starcraft universes, much more depth)

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by iknownuttin ( 1099999 )
      *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "inventory is full" x 1,000,000 The End.

      On the DVD extras of Star Wars III, there's a segment on the pre-production of the movie. Lucas walks in with the script and one of his employees says something like, "That was fast!"
      Lucas then says something like, "It wasn't hard. It's line of dialog and then several pages of 'then they fight'."

      cha-ching! indeed!

    • Re:MY script for the movie: (Score:5, Funny)

      by kkohlbacher ( 922932 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @12:48PM (#19553597)
      I can see it now...
      Sitting in movie theatre, on screen a Paladin emerges from the shadows slowly reaching for the treasure chest below him:

      Paladin: "Here it is. The Brainhew. +14 to Minimum Damage, +4 Light Radius, 10-14% Mana stolen per hit, and 15-35 fire damage. The legends were true..."

      *Movie theatre crowd erupts into cheers, hoots and hollers*

      • Re:MY script for the movie: (Score:4, Funny)

        by everphilski ( 877346 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @01:02PM (#19553847) Journal
        no, no, full Isenharts!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AuMatar ( 183847 )
        More like

        The paladin, swinging his sword bravely at the dragon: "DOTS, DOTS, MORE DOTS! I want to see more DOTS!"
        Paladin: "Who pulled the hatchlings? 50 DKP MINUS!!!!"
      • Paladin: "Here it is. The Brainhew. +14 to Minimum Damage, +4 Light Radius, 10-14% Mana stolen per hit, and 15-35 fire damage. The legends were true..."

        Sorceress: What-ever. Mephisto didn't drop my Orb, again, the bastard. Let's restart so we can kill him again.

        Seriously, they should do it up sort of like Ground Hogs Day, only the "heroes" are more or less in control of the replays.

        Mephisto: You're too late! Ha ha ... Wait... I feel like I've said this before.

        Party: Yeah, you have. We've killed you
      • I thought only the Barbarians could yell, or do each of the audience members have an item that grants them that power as well?
    • Oh it could be done. Starring Johnny Depp as Fighter, Ian McClellan as Sorceror (or Caine), and Angelina Jolie as Rogue it might even be watchable. You've got to mix it up, have some drama. "Please! Find this Butcher and slay him, so that our souls may finally rest!" Dude! Wirt played by Elijah Wood. He'd show up at odd times, and need saving, thus providing comedic relief, plus the antics of Fighter. It would the best horrible movie ever, one of the great camp exercises of our era.
      • Wirt played by Elijah Wood

        Only if they would kill him after he said 'It is now time for you to destroy the soulstone...' for the eleventyeth billion time ...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tcc3 ( 958644 )
        No, man, Cain's gotta be Sean Connery. I would pay money to see either of them do the Cain rap

        "Stay a while..and lishen"
  • in the movie flip equipment into the air and make dupes?

  • Diablo Movie Now in the Works?


    Hope not. Ask the Dungeons and Dragons franchise how hard it is to bring fantasy hack-n-slash to the big screen.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ajs ( 35943 )

      Ask the Dungeons and Dragons franchise how hard it is to bring fantasy hack-n-slash to the big screen.

      Cheap, but appropriate shot.

      Either source could work well, but I agree that neither was/is likely to.

      Then again, there's a school of thought that says that 90% (or your favorite made-up percentage) of movies are going to suck no matter how many you make, so you might as well crank them out when possible. I'm not sure that that's quite accurate, but it's probably close enough to merit SciFi continuing to crank out the "scary animal of the week" movies until they hit paydirt.

      As for the Diablo movie... take t

      • As for the Diablo movie... take the basic idea that a sole farmer survives the destruction of his home and joins others in a quest to destroy the evil that did it... that's Campbell in a nutshell, so sure it can work. It's just hard to get a writer and director and actors that are good enough to make it work into a room together with a budget.

        Farmer...quest...and a multi-billion dollar franchise grown out of low-budget actors. I think you just said "Star Wars".

        • It actually was a direct reference to Star Wars. The OP assumed the Slashdot crowd would know who Joseph Campbell was.

      • As for the Diablo movie... take the basic idea that a sole farmer survives the destruction of his home and joins others in a quest to destroy the evil that did it
        No, that's Body Harvest Moon.
    • Hey, now, Wrath of the Dragon God (aka D&D 2) wasn't bad, especially compared to the abomination that preceded it.

    • Have you ever seen the Diablo 2 cinematics?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by morari ( 1080535 )
      D&D was lame to begin with however. Ask Conan instead. ;)
  • Too bad Frank Gorshin is dead, he could have reprised his role from the Diablo 2...
  • 90% of the movie will be about clearing the same sections over and over until the main characters gets the right ubber drop.

    No wait it could be about the main characters fighting cows with weapons...that actually might be fun to watch :-)
    • I'm guessing they'll hire at least 20 extras to shout "PK" and run about in panic, in the background.
  • At least this time, no one will release a horrible movie tie-in game to try to either take advantage of the movie's hype or to increase the level of hype around the movie.
  • i think starcraft 2 followed by diablo 2 & a diablo movie would be some major blockbusters for blizzard... hopefully these rumors will come true. can't wait!

  • Details (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @01:42PM (#19554525)
    Maybe they'll finally explain how tiny little Rakanishu can hide two magical halberds and a pile of gold coins under his loincloth.
  • As we follow our fearless band of gold farmers thru the tunnel systems, hoping to bring home $2 for a long hard day's work.
  • Basic Plotline:

    Somewhere in the ice caves (or whatever they're called, I forget) the bastard necromancer wearing his best armor and a shield with 6 diamonds meets up with this huge group of yetis with the one in the middle sporting healing, lightning and multiple shot. Blood Golem hits yeti, yeti lets out lightning, golem dies (taking out 50% of necromancer's life with him), lightning glob hits necromancer...dead. Necromancer resurrects, has to run into the cave in his underwear to collect all his loot...
  • They better get Sean Connery to play Decard Cain!
  • I can see the title now: "Diablo: The Quest for an SoJ"

  • Spoiler warning (Score:3, Funny)

    by roystgnr ( 4015 ) <roy@stogn[ ].org ['ers' in gap]> on Monday June 18, 2007 @03:56PM (#19556709) Homepage
    click click click click click click click click click click click click

    Hmm... Slashdot thinks that my description of a typical Diablo game violates their "lameness filter". I agree, but why should my post be punished for that? It's Blizzard's fault.

  • Been there done that (Score:4, Funny)

    by aarku ( 151823 ) on Monday June 18, 2007 @04:16PM (#19556927) Journal
    It's a musical and it goes something like this:

    *Sung to the tune of Badger badger badger [badgerbadgerbadger.com]*

    Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky

    UNIQUE! UNIQUE!

    CaClicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky

    UNIQUE! UNIQUE!

    Oooooooh, a rare, ooooh it's a rare.

    (Repeat ad infinitum.)
  • It's going to be directed by Uwe Boll, the grand master of videogame movies!
  • If your going to have a Diablo movie, you gotta have the cow's. It would be great to have maybe a 5 minute movie after the credits with everything besides the main character being a Cow. COWQUEST!!!!!
  • I'd like to see the main character trying to do the dupe/drop trick. He'd look absolutely retarded. Then after say, 10 tries, he'd realize he's in D2, not D1. Haha, he's a nub.

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