Half-Life: The Movie

[DraconianOne]

I actually typed Cloverfield in my list but deleted it because I've not seen the whole film, just clips. Also, I didn't necessarily mean low-budget, I meant that I thought it should have a gritty, realistic feel to it, which is why I chose those 3 examples. Possibly not the best phrased explanation of what I meant but whatever :p  You actually described what I was thinking much better with your Cloverfield example. I should get round to watching that.

Special effects and stunts have to be there ofc, but I don't want them to be *obviously* effects and stunts - much more Tremors than Matrix, if you get what I mean.

Yeah. I just got wound up by you mentioning Blair Witch - that's a red rag to a bull topic with me. I fucking loathe that film - even more so because of everything that it stands for.

[Tebonas]

Puking because of Motion Sickness?

If so, I agree.

[apocrypha]

Yeah. I just got wound up by you mentioning Blair Witch - that's a red rag to a bull topic with me. I fucking loathe that film - even more so because of everything that it stands for.

Oddly enough I saw it kind of randomly. I had no idea what it was about and hadn't seen any of the hype about it. It was on an ftp server I had access to at the time and I saw it and thought "never heard of that, need something to watch, download". Scared the shit out of me.

When i found out about all the bullshit surrounding it afterward I was vaguely bemused. Watching it again was total meh. I think it works *once* and only if it's a complete unknown. But it's definitely not something anyone should ever seek to emulate in filmmaking.

Er, anyway, /derail.

One thought that has occurred to me - do we really NEED a Half Life movie? I mean the game itself was practically a movie anyway. Would there really be anything much to be gained? I suspect that it would run the risk of losing far more than it would ever gain compared to the experience of actually playing it.

[Oban]

I watched Blair Witch alone in a movie theater.  Being the only person in a theater sitting in the center... let's just say, it was the scariest movie experience I have ever had.

[Cadaverine]

Maybe I'm just broken, but I didn't find Blair Witch the least bit scary, disturbing, or anything, other than boring as hell.  If I remember right, I fell asleep during the movie.

Probably doesn't help that the first movie I recall seeing is Alien, when it first came out.

[DraconianOne]

One thought that has occurred to me - do we really NEED a Half Life movie? I mean the game itself was practically a movie anyway. Would there really be anything much to be gained? I suspect that it would run the risk of losing far more than it would ever gain compared to the experience of actually playing it.

1. This is a purely academic exercise.
2. They're different media, therefore different experiences. The film may well appeal to people who don't play video games or haven't played these games. (I've seen Resident Evil and Silent Hill but I've never actually played any of the games and actually have no intention of doing so although that is nothing to do with having seen the films).
3. You can ask the same question about any adaptation. Did we need an adaptation of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Did we need another Batman film this year (or any Batman film ever?) Did we need to make a film out of "The Godfather"?  Perhaps what we do need is an adaptation of a video game that not only works but is actually really fucking good.  Perhaps Half-life is the right IP for that.  Perhaps it isn't.


EDIT:

Maybe I'm just broken, but I didn't find Blair Witch the least bit scary, disturbing, or anything, other than boring as hell.

No. No, you're not broken.

[HaemishM]

Why bother making a new live-action movie? Take all the cutscenes, string in some first-person action bits that move the story along, and cut it together as a CGI film. Fuck, the game itself is just a movie with some interactive bits thrown in, it doesn't need to be remade.

[Salamok]

Why bother making a new live-action movie? Take all the cutscenes, string in some first-person action bits that move the story along, and cut it together as a CGI film. Fuck, the game itself is just a movie with some interactive bits thrown in, it doesn't need to be remade.

Maybe if you took that and MST3K'd in Gordon's dialog you might have something.

[apocrypha]

1. This is a purely academic exercise.
2. They're different media, therefore different experiences. The film may well appeal to people who don't play video games or haven't played these games. (I've seen Resident Evil and Silent Hill but I've never actually played any of the games and actually have no intention of doing so although that is nothing to do with having seen the films).
3. You can ask the same question about any adaptation. Did we need an adaptation of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Did we need another Batman film this year (or any Batman film ever?) Did we need to make a film out of "The Godfather"?  Perhaps what we do need is an adaptation of a video game that not only works but is actually really fucking good.  Perhaps Half-life is the right IP for that.  Perhaps it isn't.

OK, good points, carry on! :P

And briefly (last time I promise) back to the Blair Witch thing, it probably scared me cos I'm a total wimp about scary movies. I love them, but they scare me lots. Watched The Descent yesterday, alone in the house with all the lights off and quite drunk. Crap film but got me a good scare factor going :)

[stu]

I brought my younger cousins to see Blair Witch Project (they were 10, 11 & 13 at the time) thinking the flick was going to scare the bejeebus out of them. The two girls talked about ponies for an hour and a half and the thirteen year old fell asleep. The Descent, on the other hand... that movie is freaky.

[justdave]

Okay, cast someone unknown (who can act like a motherfucker) as Gordon, fill the rest of the cast semi-known and mid-range people, that would be awesomely meta. But...good lord.

The G-man?

Creepy? Speech patterns from hell? Gaunt?



Unless it's the totally disjointed, HEV-cam Cloverfield Half-Life, there's simply no alternative. In which case, you just keep Gordon as a mute audience-replacement, lest he turn into Hub. And the rest of the casting doesn't matter, as people are seen in shaky half-shots.

EDIT: Spel is hard.

[DraconianOne]

G-Man?  Walken's Brooklyn accent would distract no end.

I was thinking Wayne Pygram



Played Scorpius in Farscape and also Moff Tarkin in Revenge of the Sith

[schild]

Yea, anyone involved in Star Wars shouldn't be allowed to work in sci-fi again. or else we end with stuff like Jumper. or Farscape (HUR HUR).

[DraconianOne]

Yea, anyone involved in Star Wars shouldn't be allowed to work in sci-fi again. or else we end with stuff like Jumper. or Farscape (HUR HUR).

Damn. I'll have to can one of my current projects then.

[Mrbloodworth]

G-Man?  Walken's Brooklyn accent would distract no end.

I was thinking Wayne Pygram



Played Scorpius in Farscape and also Moff Tarkin in Revenge of the Sith

Quite possibly one of my favorite actors for his role as scorpy.

[TripleDES]

Then there's the whole Xen thing! Frankly, the last act of the original game wasn't that great but would it work in a film? Do you have him facing off against the Nihilianth or do you change it? Do you spend so much time on Xen or bring it back to earth earlier?

I think for a Half-life movie, it'd be better to skip the whole Xen and Nihilant crap. Start the movie in the train in City 17 just like the game and have flashbacks quickly going into that cascade resonance. Question is just how to package all of Half-life 1 in small flashbacks, especially how the G-man relates to it, since you've practically torn the facility up and are known for that with key characters in City 17.

--edit: Also, hell no to a HL1 movie. It'll end up being the generic "oh shit experiment gone wrong base full of monsters gotta fight my way to the outside" scifi movie.