The inner workings of the minds of Hollywood's executives often make very little sense. That's as true a statement as saying that the sky is blue or that Snowboard Kids is better than Mario Kart 64. The modern Hollywood exec ideology that confuses me the most though is what seems to be a total inability to understand the audience that certain movies are made for, along with their obsession with the idea that the lower the age rating a movie recieves, the bigger the audience it will get by default.
"We've got Aliens Vs. Predator coming up? PG-13 please! The fans of the old movies will just love that, and just think of all the ten year olds who've never even heard of Ripley we'll draw in! And we're doing Die Hard 4? Great! Let's make sure it's a worthy successor to the series everyone loves by cutting the violence right down and making sure Bruce barely says "f*ck". That's bound to pull in millions of kids to watch a bald middle-aged guy they barely recognize!" For all their talk of demographics they often seem to have no clue whatsoever who they're making movies for.
The latest movie to be castrated into oblivion, if "insider reports" turn out to be true, is the upcoming feature based on IO's Hitman series. After some really promising reports regarding the quality of the script, which apparently takes a very hard-edged and thematically mature approach to the game's adaptation, word has filtered through that Fox has taken control of the final cut from director Xavier Gans and put Die Hard 4.0 editor Nicholas De Toth in control of creating a new, bloodless edit.
If this turns out to be true, then we've got a minor tragedy on our hands. With gaming getting closer and closer to gaining the respect it deserves as a mainstream medium, and Christophe Gans' Silent Hill finally bringing a largely successful adaptation of one of videogames' finest to a wider audience, a good quality Hitman movie looked set to springboard off into a hopeful new era of legitimate games movies. If Hollywood has pulled a, well, Hollywood again, then we've instead probably got another crappy kids' film that will be ignored by the general public and spurned by its intended gamer audience. Come on guys, let's compare and contrast. Streetfighter Vs. Silent Hill. Which movie actually made the most of its franchise's strengths and which turned out best? Coincidence?
Contest:
6:20 PM on 10.10.2007
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F that in the A I say.
Video game movies am fail. They simply aren't necessary, since any games worth having a movie, are already usually cinematic enough within the games themselves.
man i thought most of us live in a democracy
Video game movies am fail. They simply aren't necessary, since any games worth having a movie, are already usually cinematic enough within the games themselves."
Listen to this man, he's absolutely right. The raping of the Silent Hill plot for the movie was indefendable. Right from the first moment I heard they had cut Harry and replaced him with Rose... "Because the movie audience wouldn't relate to a dedicated father", I knew the movie would be an abomination, and I was right. It was well enough made, thematically, but the changes they made to the plot (replacing Harry, Making Dahlia a good guy, having Cynthia killed by the cult and not by the main character, making Alessa nothing but a vengeful evil spirit with no redeeming qualities...) ruined the experience.
Fuckers.
And yeah, the Hitman thing is a hoax. Man, I remember the 80s, where an action movie wasn't an action movie unless someone had a limb torn off and it had an 18+ rating.
We'll find out next month. RE Extinction was good, so can this top it?
Hitman has a cool thing going for it, and it could end up being good (if directed and produced well). This PG-13 isn't that bad. Look at the Bourne movies. All PG-13 and all good movies.
I'll still remain highly cautious about this. The trailer got me really excited, but I dunno.
Where is Jack Thompson when you need him?
Shit, did that just slip out? Hahahaha.
Secondly, this is a dumb move. The game is rated M and is 100% not for kids. Why the hell would you shoot for a PG-13 rating? There has got to be some executive(s) out there thinking that video games are for kids and young teens, unless they're horror games. Either way, this is asinine. The game is about being a hitman. Hollywood, do the math. Dammit.
1.) They already fucked up by not casting Jason Statham as 47.
2.) As Cowboy TTop said, the games are rated M - why the shit would the movie be rated PG-13?! A 13 shouldn't be playing the game!
3.) All video game movies are bad.*
4.) NO ONE is making movies like they used to. The only shred of hope is the new Rambo movie, John Rambo and the upcoming Aliens Vs. Predator Requieum trailers. THESE ARE WHAT MOVIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ME GO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOU'VE BECOME
5.) cocks (meaning, cocks = Hollywood)
Thank you.
First post!
-m
*Silent Hill and Dead or Alive were cool, damnit.
He rips a dude's fucking esophagus out with his bare hands.
HIS. BARE. HANDS.
Now THAT is what I want to see.
3.) Nevertheless, there still is the possibility that Hitman would be PG-13. The "It's an M-rated game" argument simply doesn't cut it. Mortal Kombat was the violent video game of its day, yet the movie had a PG-13 rating.
Im already disappointed in the guy they picked to play him and now this, i think im gonna have to boycott this movie(ill probably end up seeing it)
It’s sad but true, folks: everything always comes down to money. Let’s face facts...interest in this film is probably pretty low from the general public, especially considering there are many gamers who wouldn’t even want to see it. They can make more money with a film that’s rated PG-13, simply because you don’t have to be 17 to buy a ticket (and 21 to buy more than one). What a shame.
Do you really think that trying to compare the Mortal Kombat movies to this situation makes the PG-13 decision look good? Those movies were complete shit.
I did not write my post with "good" in mind. I was responding to the people who went "They can't edit that movie since it's an M-rated game" by saying they can and did that earlier. BTW, I said that the execs can still do it, even though doing so would cause outcry from both gamers who don't want to see their games ruined and Thompson types who don't want Hitman advertised to minors.
It's a film about a guy that kills people for money. I just want to see the guy have a good time doing it.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2jkYkfqj0s]QUEEN-THE HITMAN
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2jkYkfqj0s