Video game movies get a terrible wrap—mostly because they’re terrible. Mainstream audiences flee from them, and are usually only successful because of overseas box office receipts (see WARCRAFT or the RESIDENT EVIL franchise). But that doesn’t stop Hollywood from buying up properties in hopes to create the next great franchise. Recently, Legendary Pictures bought the rights to the POKEMON movie, while the ASSASSIN’S CREED movie is set for this December.
But not all game franchises can be bought and then turned into bad movie. In an interview with Finder, Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks vice-president, gave a very honest and upfront answer to the possibility of a FALLOUT or ELDER SCROLLS movie:
We get asked to all the time, but the short version is; we make games. That’s what we are known for. And this conversation usually falls into the camp of; are we going to let some other person do their own interpretation of what Fallout is, or Elder Scrolls is, or Dishonored is? Or are we going to hold onto it and let the developers be the only ones that are able to say, ‘this is what Fallout is, or Elder Scrolls, or Wolfenstein, or whatever?'
Just like everyone who puts a large amount of time into all their creations Hines and everyone at the company love their games with a passion, and the idea of not being able to have full say over how the movie will turn out is a big reason why a movie version of any of their games will probably never happen:
Even when they say, “oh no, you will have total control,” well, I don’t know anybody who actually has total control over the film adaptation of their video game. If you did, why would you not just make it yourself? Of course the film studio and the scriptwriter and the director are going to have a tonne of say. They will have their own vision. So we get asked all the time, but we see it as a distraction. We’re a video games company; let’s do what we know.
Unless, however, one director came a knockin’:
I think if Peter Jackson turned up at Todd Howard’s office and said, “I want to do Elder Scrolls,” well that would be a pretty serious conversation you would have to listen to. But I think Peter is probably pretty busy (laughs).
I haven’t really put much time (or any, really) into a FALLOUT or ELDER SCROLLS game, but anyone who’s a fan of the games may like to see a really well-done film version. However, Hine’s philosophy deserves a lot of kudos. Many have lost their creative control once it’s time to make a movie out of their creation, so the idea to just nip the whole thing in the bud and say "no" before anything gets rolling is a smart move from Hines. This way, they can just keep making good games, instead of making a bad movie. I mean, do we really need another RESIDENT EVIL franchise on our hands? No…the answer is no.