Hollywood Bites Back at Electronic Arts' Riccitiello
Bioshock and Assassin's Creed to becomes movies?
Electronic Arts' CEO, John Riccitiello's comments in The Financial Times yesterday regarding video games and Hollywood have niggled the voice of the ageing media, Variety magazine.
The latter's 'video games reporter and reviews editor', a chap by the name of Ben Fritz, has responded to the following comments made by EA's top man to the influential newspaper.
"The buzz in Hollywood, which I heard from some Hollywood folks . . . is people are worried whether Iron Man the movie is going to get killed by Grand Theft Auto the game. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before.
"There is more interest today from Hollywood to make movies out of our games than there is interest in our industry to make games out of their movies. There’s a big reset happening now.”
Fritz responding begins his rebuttal by saying that Riccitiello's comments, " are pretty confident/cocky about the status of videogames as opposed to movies and TV. They're also, I think, misguided if not totally wrong".
We can't recall Riccitiello mentioning television in his interview - but we're so unhip that we still equate the word 'Hollywood' with blockbusters, Tom Cruise and mediocre plot lines on the big screen.
Along with pummelling the EA man's point regarding GTA IV being the first time he's heard of a video game launch that has frightened other media (Fritz quoted Halo 3's launch) he also has a pop at EA's own movie-to-game output.
"It is true that Hollywood's becoming more and more interested in adapting videogame properties, though it has yet to do so really succesfully (sic). But there's no evidence I can see that videogames are becoming less interested in adapting big Hollywood properties -- even at Riccitiello's own EA, home of "Lord of the Rings," "Harry Potter," "The Simpsons," and the Steven Spielberg deal."
Before walking off into the sunset, however, Fritz does leave a snippet of information regarding some IPs that Hollywood is interested in, saying, "More importantly, however, that second statement is just not supported by the facts, I think. Sure, recently we've seen "Resident Evil," "Doom," "Silent Hill," and there are projects like "Gears of War," "World of Warcraft," and EA's own "Dead Space." And a few big games like "Bioshock" and "Assassin's Creed" are, I hear, on Hollywood's radar."
Hollywood wants to get is claws into Bioshock? For gods' sakes, no! Also, isn't it about time that the video game industry stopped making comparisons between itself and 'da movies'?
You can read the rebuttal here.
The latter's 'video games reporter and reviews editor', a chap by the name of Ben Fritz, has responded to the following comments made by EA's top man to the influential newspaper.
"The buzz in Hollywood, which I heard from some Hollywood folks . . . is people are worried whether Iron Man the movie is going to get killed by Grand Theft Auto the game. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before.
"There is more interest today from Hollywood to make movies out of our games than there is interest in our industry to make games out of their movies. There’s a big reset happening now.”
Fritz responding begins his rebuttal by saying that Riccitiello's comments, " are pretty confident/cocky about the status of videogames as opposed to movies and TV. They're also, I think, misguided if not totally wrong".
We can't recall Riccitiello mentioning television in his interview - but we're so unhip that we still equate the word 'Hollywood' with blockbusters, Tom Cruise and mediocre plot lines on the big screen.
Along with pummelling the EA man's point regarding GTA IV being the first time he's heard of a video game launch that has frightened other media (Fritz quoted Halo 3's launch) he also has a pop at EA's own movie-to-game output.
"It is true that Hollywood's becoming more and more interested in adapting videogame properties, though it has yet to do so really succesfully (sic). But there's no evidence I can see that videogames are becoming less interested in adapting big Hollywood properties -- even at Riccitiello's own EA, home of "Lord of the Rings," "Harry Potter," "The Simpsons," and the Steven Spielberg deal."
Before walking off into the sunset, however, Fritz does leave a snippet of information regarding some IPs that Hollywood is interested in, saying, "More importantly, however, that second statement is just not supported by the facts, I think. Sure, recently we've seen "Resident Evil," "Doom," "Silent Hill," and there are projects like "Gears of War," "World of Warcraft," and EA's own "Dead Space." And a few big games like "Bioshock" and "Assassin's Creed" are, I hear, on Hollywood's radar."
Hollywood wants to get is claws into Bioshock? For gods' sakes, no! Also, isn't it about time that the video game industry stopped making comparisons between itself and 'da movies'?
You can read the rebuttal here.
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Comments
deleted 15 Apr 2008 11:40
1/2
Well, Hollywood its funny you cant make even a single game to film adaptation thats good but the games industry can take a crapy film and make it shine!
e.g Riddick!
yes games can also take Movie themes and make them amazingly great!
e.g Starwars = Lego Star Wars, KOTOR, X-Wing, and many more,
What have you contributed? what you you given to be part of the gaming revolution that s happening right now?
Nothing i hear, well thats why your scared comments suck!
e.g Riddick!
yes games can also take Movie themes and make them amazingly great!
e.g Starwars = Lego Star Wars, KOTOR, X-Wing, and many more,
What have you contributed? what you you given to be part of the gaming revolution that s happening right now?
Nothing i hear, well thats why your scared comments suck!
Joji 15 Apr 2008 13:51
2/2
I can understand the film industries worry, but they also have to accept some blame here. Their lack of adapting to new technology and business practices, and their lack of accepting scripts etc, is leading to writers looking for breaks elsewhere, in television or the games industry.
Just look at the writers strike a few months ago. It literally brought those stupid greedy studios to their knees, and rightly so. If they are too greedy to give writers a fair deal they deserve it.
The film industry needs to show more respect to the little film makers, and this is why events like Sundance are so important. However, if the little film makers could get a look in by the big wigs, there'd be less need for Sundance. Actors and writers were some of the first to support it, before the big studios even got in the swing of it.
And this is exactly why the games industry is thriving with creativity, because we nurture and encourage the little bedroom coders and small team developers.
Game developers are also more in touch with their audience too, so they'll always stand to make money through feedback and creativity based on that and learning from mistakes.
You are right Haritori, it seems easier in games, to create something new based loosely off of a film license, than it is to follow a dot to dot actually film license game. This is why film license games usually bomb, due to lack of flexibility when creating the game. What's weird though is that game based films seem to break this trend (one topic for another day perhaps).
The film industry failed right here more recently with Aliens vs Predator 2 (as well as its previous version). Instead of them just follow the story of the excellent Dark Horse comics, they deviated so much that the films turned into a bs tour de force. On the flip side of that, take a film like Road to Perdition or Sin City, which stay very close to their GN source material and were superb.
I'll go see Batman, Ironman and Indy, maybe Speed Racer and a few others, but the film industry still has so much to learn and adapt to, in order to get me to go more.
Just look at the writers strike a few months ago. It literally brought those stupid greedy studios to their knees, and rightly so. If they are too greedy to give writers a fair deal they deserve it.
The film industry needs to show more respect to the little film makers, and this is why events like Sundance are so important. However, if the little film makers could get a look in by the big wigs, there'd be less need for Sundance. Actors and writers were some of the first to support it, before the big studios even got in the swing of it.
And this is exactly why the games industry is thriving with creativity, because we nurture and encourage the little bedroom coders and small team developers.
Game developers are also more in touch with their audience too, so they'll always stand to make money through feedback and creativity based on that and learning from mistakes.
You are right Haritori, it seems easier in games, to create something new based loosely off of a film license, than it is to follow a dot to dot actually film license game. This is why film license games usually bomb, due to lack of flexibility when creating the game. What's weird though is that game based films seem to break this trend (one topic for another day perhaps).
The film industry failed right here more recently with Aliens vs Predator 2 (as well as its previous version). Instead of them just follow the story of the excellent Dark Horse comics, they deviated so much that the films turned into a bs tour de force. On the flip side of that, take a film like Road to Perdition or Sin City, which stay very close to their GN source material and were superb.
I'll go see Batman, Ironman and Indy, maybe Speed Racer and a few others, but the film industry still has so much to learn and adapt to, in order to get me to go more.