We're in a pretty positive space with video games being adapted to movies and TV shows. The Uncharted movie, while critically panned, did very well at the box office, Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequel broke records, and HBO's The Last of Us show has been extremely well received. The latest doing the rounds is the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which has just hit cinemas and is also looking to perform very well. While promoting the film, actor Jack Black (who voices Bowser in the film) expressed interest in other game adaptations.
"I'm a fan of adaptations, when done right," he told BBC in an interview. He described The Last of Us' TV adaptation as "fantastic" noting "how loyal it is to the original source material". As for what could come next, Black suggested Rockstar should adapt its Western to the big screen: "Maybe there's going to be a Red Dead Redemption movie?" He muses. "There should be, because I think that [has] just as good or [an] even better story than The Last of Us."
It's a fair argument from where we're sitting. The story told across the two Red Dead games is brilliant; we particularly enjoy Arthur Morgan's moral struggle in Red Dead Redemption 2, and there are some explosive set-pieces that would look great in a theatre.
Do you agree with Jack Black about Red Dead Redemption? Does it have potential as a movie? Discuss in the comments section below.
[source bbc.co.uk, via gamesradar.com]
Comments 56
No lies detected.
I don't think that story better at all. I enjoyed it though.
Arthur's character development arc in the game from start to end was perfectly written.....
Red Dead's 2 story is far better then TLoU in my opinion. I feel the themes and Arthur's character arc has way more depth then TLoU.
I mean, a lot of stories are better than The Last Of Us, but that's just like my opinion, man.
I love RDR2 and I'm a huge western fan. I can't tell which story is better, as far as I'm concerned they're both masterpieces.
However, I really doubt RDR2's story can be adapted to the screen. Best it can do is a TV Show, so let's completely forget about live action movies. Aside from that, what makes Arthur such a compelling character isn't really the story of the game.
RDR2's story is really simple. An outlaw sees the fault in his way of living and seeks redemption. It's been done before, movies, books, you name it.
What makes Arthur and RDR2 stand out is the realism of the game and the sheer amount of time the player spends with Arthur. Riding through the country, camping in the hills, buying a new horse, interacting with the people, running into random encounters, robbing people and getting robbed, being ambushed by the Night Folk, attacked by a bear, etc. etc.
I'm not sure how any of that can be translated into a medium where the audience has no participation. The Last of Us works perfectly (aside from everything they had to change for it to fit the new medium, which is great), because it already had that cinematic value.
As a huge fan of TLOU I'd be lying if I said I was more impressed by the gameplay and the time I spent playing than the time when the game would cut into a cinematic. Whereas RDR2 was the opposite. The cinematics and the performances are top-notch and I love it, but I was a lot more impressed by the gameplay and how alive the world felt, which in turn reflected on how I experienced the story.
All that said, I would totally watch an adaptation, but only if it's a TV show. I've lost interest in movie adaptations, honestly. 2 hours is just not enough to adapt such a long story, might as well just write a new, original screenplay instead.
Red Dead would make a better series than a movie. Waay to much to cram in for a movie runtime
I’d rather Rockstar make another game instead of a movie, even if I agree that RDR has a better story than TLOU.
He's not wrong whatsoever, just keep him out of it and get some serious actors for it.
The story isn't just better, the game itself is too!
the game is so slow paced, it would have to be TV.
think rockstar would see a gta film doing better
If it’s handled correctly and doesn’t pander to the woke crowd, it could be great. It needs to have the same gritty sense of realism as the game or it won’t work.
RDR is better than TLOU in every possible way.
@MrMeeeseeeks Oh, you're one of those. Do you people that complain about this kind of thing even think critically about the point it is you're supposedly trying to make or are you simply on autopilot complaining about some fictional bogeyman that you can't even articulate?
Final fantasy 14 is the ultimate game to adapt. I just feel the story is too epic for it work unfortunately
He ain't wrong.
@MrMeeeseeeks
Sshhhh - don’t mention the W word as some people get very offended over here on this site…
@bozz I support representation but not in period movies/tv shows. It destroys immersion when every other character is openly lgbt+ or a poc because it wasn’t like that in 1890 sadly. Applying modern acceptance to period entertainment downplays the struggles people faced back then. Some movies/tv shows do this because they want to be controversial or to get a pat on the back for being progressive - that’s what’s annoying.
RDR 2's narrative didn't do it for me. Arthur's personal arc was good but pretty much everything else around it was poor. It was too unfocused, uneven and had plot holes you could drive a truck through.
@MrMeeeseeeks I'm with you, I'm accepting of all but please don't try to rewrite history because it offends you, it is what it is. Its like people wanting a black bond. Now don't get me wrong Idris Elba would be a good bond but it's not the character
I mean, JB is right.
It's not a high bar at all, but he's right.
No doubt if it was made there would be some joke about horse genitals.
If you have not seen his RDR2 video play-throughs over at JablinskiGames they are soooo entertaining - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL21Is2UmiCIOjWc2pHE_wvvyye6Y2dbA7
@BeerIsAwesome the dude abides 😎
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A RDR2 adaptation would be sick.
I love both stories but this is pretty sad imo.
Just make some new stories
My favorite video game of all time, if this is what it takes to get a next gen update for 60FPS then i am all for it. Plus even tho i have both red dead games on Series X, the first game at the moment isn’t even available to PS5 users and thats not right, that needs to be fixed. Throw in how bad the online was and still is, and rockstar has a lot of work to do with this series and yet all we hear is GTA online news and GTA 6 cause thats their cash cow.
@Danloaded I'd say do it in 4 movies, John wick style. 2 for Arthur and 2 for John
@SplooshDmg “RDR is better than TLOU in every possible way”
BIG FACTS!!! And i like TLOU, but nothing touches RDR for me. If that series went exclusive to a $3000 dollar PC I would buy it.
If there was a red dead adaptation I'd want Clint Eastwood too direct it. Knows the genre plus he's a brilliant director, love the tone of his films
I don't like this trend of TV shows/movies replacing games. Like RDR1 isn't even playable on PS4/PS5 or Switch and both systems have huge 7th gen catalogs.
^ Bullocks. Sheer and utterly utterly bullocks.
@Green-Bandit I like TLOU as much as I could possibly like anything in the horror genre, but Dan Houser's writing is basically untouchable, as far I'm concerned. I really, really hope Rockstar can continue to deliver the quality they are known for now that he has left the house, but I'm not going to be convinced until I see it. Writers like him aren't really just a dime a dozen. Even GTAV, as much as people like to knock on it because it's hyper popular and we're all way beyond burnt out on GTAO. The story is just such a sublime and masterfully told crime drama.
@QualityGeezer
I’m black myself (well half black half white) and I fully agree with you about a diverse Bond.
Bond is a white male character. Anything else would just be weird to me. I don’t need him to look like me to enjoy the character.
Instead what I want to see is Tom Hardy playing Bond and Idris Elba playing the main villain. Make it a story where Elba’s villain is ultimately the main character; give him a legitimate cause for doing what he’s doing. Make it to the point that Hardy’s Bond actually sympathizes with his cause, but cannot agree with the extremes Elba’s character is willing to go to achieve the results.
I kind of imagine a story where Elba plays a former commander in the British Royal Marines. During a mission where the Royal Marines are assisting a smaller country fight off a larger nation Elba calls in a report that a large air strike package is coming to their location. He requests aerial support from the nearby HMS Queen Elizabeth. Due to political reasons, London refuses his mission support request. He and his forces are decimated by the air strike forces, leaving him with significant scarring and burns around his neck (fitting for a Bond villain to have some sort of physical ailment; most of them have it) and most of his men killed.
A few years later he launches a plan of revenge against the government that wronged him.
From there I’m kind of out of ideas lol. Not a writer. But that’s a kind of idea I would really enjoy for a gritty Bond film where he has to question his own moral compass since the villain’s cause makes perfect sense.
@OrtadragoonX mate I'd pay too see that 👍
The story in rdr1 is better in my opinion.
@SplooshDmg i agree 100% with you on all those points. I loved the Story in GTA5. Granted i am more a Red Dead fan, but Dan’s work speaks for itself. That was a big loss for Rockstar. I am waiting the best i can to hear something good for Red Dead, i really want them to get the first game remade so it will be on PS consoles forever. Of course i want an update to RDR2, just give it 60FPS on Series X and PS5 and we will all be happy. But they claim all hands on deck for GTA6, so thats what I’ll be playing next it seems.
Absolutely agree. RDR2's story is also better than GOW. It should have won GOTY
@Green-Bandit I've considered buying RDR2 on PC for the 60fps, but I platinumed it on PS4 and I'm really not sure I ever want to play it again. But something really needs to happen with RDR1. It's a shame that such a great game is so largely unavailable now, outside of Series X|S. It never even had a PC release.
@MrMeeeseeeks
And yet when period dramas show exactly how racist, sexist or homophobic the time period was people like you still complain either that is somehow "woke" or that "it wasn't actually THAT bad".
@Green-Bandit wait what that game is still 30fps on console? Good lord, what a disgrace.
@XOF Well said!
@Grumblevolcano I agree. It feels like at first games companies wanted to expand by just becoming part of the film industry, and now have realized film is bigger and more profitable after all so they'll just go back to being film companies that make companion games for them.
@OrtadragoonX So, basically "James Bond & Knuckles"? 😂
@BeerIsAwesome The Dude abides
@Cherip-the-Ripper crap. I didn’t notice that you already said the same thing.
Red Dead Redemption movie or TV series would be dope, sign me up!
@Sarcasmatwork no worries haha
If anything I'm glad dudism is still thriving 😎
Just noticed half your comments are lebowski related, that's mad 😂
@NEStalgia It feels that way about Sony's future. That instead of those epic single player experiences that PS fans love, you get TV shows/movies and a live service companion game.
Fantastic story, though I prefer TLOU personally. But if the show proved anything it’s that RDR2 definitely should NOT be adapted into a movie. A show like TLOU? On HBO? Yes. But even the TLOU show, while very good, lost some of that emotional resonance I felt for Joel and Ellie, because you lost a lot of the interactions with them you got during gameplay. And they adapted a 10-15 hr game to 9 roughly 1 hr episodes
Now imagine adapting a 50+ hr game to a 2-3 hr movie. Hard pass.
@SplooshDmg yeah it runs great on PC, shame we’ve gotten nothing for it on console and I agree that is a crime about red dead not being on PS anymore, it’s more of a cell processor issue than a rockstar issue, but there was rumors of a remake of RDR and that would have gotten it on PS5. Hope that still happens at some point this gen or next.
@PegasusActual93 Very true although I don't know about the person you're replying to but I find that most people who use that term are the first to also be angry when a movie or series comes our depicting how bad it was, I mean look at Will Smiths Emancipation. Alot of love but alot of "Not another black slave movie" like we should acknowledge it but not actually talk or see something about it. Boggles my mind.
@Grumblevolcano It's a horrifying thought but it really seems like it. It kind of feels like the early 2000s when half of games was licensed movie tie ins and they were always mediocre. Now games created their own movie franchises and will leave the narratives to the big screen and just have themed, cheap to make, gatcha games to go with it.
And sadly the money will roll in, those raised on mobile games will find it amazing, it's what they already know but with amazing graphics. RIP gaming.
The writing was really on the wall the moment Jack Black was Bowser...
It’d be a good change of pace to revitalize the Western genre with a Red Dead Redemption series. We have a few shows now, like Yellowstone and Deadwood, that have rekindled the flame a bit, so let’s fan the flame!
The “Western,” as a film/tv show genre, was hugely popular from the 1950s-early/mid 1970s, with the mainstream American audience gobbling them up just as much as we gobble up zombie/horror programs now. Television shows like Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, The Big Valley were huge, as were movies like High Noon, The Searchers, John Wayne flicks, John Ford flicks, Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, and the Western movies of Clint Eastwood (Good, Bad and Ugly, High Plains Drifter, A Fistful of Dollars, and others). Make it so, Rockstar!! Adapt Red Dead Redemption for the small screen.
Red dead 2 was such a better game/story than last of us!
I totally agree, the story of RDR1 is way better than the last of us, and not just story wise, i think overall RDR2 is a better game. and if done right i'd like to see it adapted into a movie or a tv show.
I loved the bond between Ellie and Joel and thats why is like it better then RDR.
The acting was the thing that made love that game so much. The chemistry between Joel and Ellie made the game so much more special.
The growth of Ellie and Joel, the small chat it all together made it something special and the ending in the first game made it even more special.
Like it's a revelation. Last of us isn't so much about the concept at all but immensely stylistic delivery
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