"Bet you can't make a film based on Battleship."

Of all these properties, I actually think Joust makes the best movie, simply because the original concept was super simple and there wasn't a lot of detail to screw up, err uh, draw from. You could actually make a pretty fantastic animated movie that had joust elements in it. Think about it. Floating castles, flying bird knights and warships, a plucky young hero who has to prove he...uh

on second thought, nevermind...

IMAGE(http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/illustrator-steve-thomas-classic-video-game-poster-joust.jpg)

The creative depravity of Hollywood isn't even funny any more, it's just sad.

Monopoly sort of has room for a narrative. Depression era Atlantic City real estate development could work if you squint at it right. The monopolies sort of make sense with the only legally allowed film real estate plot, where the evil developer is trying to oust the last hold out so he can have all the matching colors to build his luxury high-rise or bland suburban development.

But Battleship? As a stylized naval battle? With an American vs. the ships from Supreme Commander? Who thought this was a good idea again?

On the other hand, we've already got a movie based on Clue.

I was skeptical about a movie based on a Disneyworld ride, and was pleasantly surprised. Same would be true if someone had brought up the idea of a movie based on Clue before it came out.

That said, I'm way, way more skeptical about this one.

Saw this trailer today when I went to see Cowboys and Aliens, and thought "I fought those ships in Crysis Warhead."

The trailer? Looks bad.

Neat trailer, but I was expecting something more 8-bit.

Skip to 4:59 for the best part.

Mytch wrote:

I was skeptical about a movie based on a Disneyworld ride, and was pleasantly surprised. Same would be true if someone had brought up the idea of a movie based on Clue before it came out.

That said, I'm way, way more skeptical about this one.

Clue and Pirates both worked because you have actual people involved in the theme of the game/ride. If you play a game of Clue, and keep track of who found what and where, you could piece together a narrative around it. Throw in Tim Curry and BAM movie awesomeness. The board game aspect lets you have fun with the film, keeping it not too serious and lets such bits as the multiple ending feel like a solid part of the film.

With a game like Battleship, or Monopoly, where the basis of the game is on inanimate objects, it becomes near impossible to make a quality film that has anything to do with the source material, except for very basic concepts, IE Battleship the game and movie both have big battleships.

No matter how many board game movies get made, it would be interesting to do a comparison to how the source material is used for a board game movie vs a video game movie. I can see similarities between the two, where there just isn't enough source material to warrant a quality film.

I still absolutely love that Joust poster.

The last US battleships, USS Wisconsin and USS Missouri, were decommissioned in 1991 and 1992, and finally stricken from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register in 2006 and 1995, respectively

This looks terrible.

I've read that the new space combat board game based on the Battleship 'brand' isn't too bad: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1016818_md.jpg)

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1042909_md.jpg)

Liam Neeson in another telecommunicative performance I see.

Gremlin wrote:

Monopoly sort of has room for a narrative. Depression era Atlantic City real estate development could work if you squint at it right. The monopolies sort of make sense with the only legally allowed film real estate plot, where the evil developer is trying to oust the last hold out so he can have all the matching colors to build his luxury high-rise or bland suburban development.

Well, there is Boardwalk Empire on HBO...

MacBrave wrote:

I've read that the new space combat board game based on the Battleship 'brand' isn't too bad: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1016818_md.jpg)

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1042909_md.jpg)

Didn't...am I nuts, or was this one mentioned on the latest RabbitCon edition of the Conference Call? Or am I thinking of another space-based board game?

Yoreel wrote:

Clue and Pirates both worked because you have actual people involved in the theme of the game/ride. If you play a game of Clue, and keep track of who found what and where, you could piece together a narrative around it. Throw in Tim Curry and Madeline Kahn and Christopher Lloyd and Michael McKean and Martin Mull and have John Landis write it and BAM total movie awesomeness. The board game aspect lets you have fun with the film, keeping it not too serious and lets such bits as the multiple ending feel like a solid part of the film.

With a game like Battleship, or Monopoly, where the basis of the game is on inanimate objects, it becomes near impossible to make a quality film that has anything to do with the source material, except for very basic concepts, IE Battleship the game and movie both have big battleships.

FTFY (this is making me want to re-watch Clue)...but yeah, I can go along with that assessment of why I'm much more pessimistic about this concept. Also, there are just a lot more elements to a game like Clue as opposed to the single mechanic of "I guess, you guess" in Battleship. And there was already a rudimentary groundwork for a story in the Pirates ride (even though it was almost nothing like the story in the movie).

But still, I'll try to keep an open mind, and see what the reviews are like when it comes out.

There's only one Battleship related film worth watching.

IMAGE(http://www.fasthack.com/images/weblog/2007/05/death-battleship.jpg)

The big twist at the end will be that Liam Neeson had one of his ships hidden on the top grid the whole time.
Alien Commander: That's cheating!
Liam Neeson: In war, you do whatever it takes to survive. B-6.
Alien Commander: YOU SUNK MY BATTLESHIIIIP!

Mytch wrote:
MacBrave wrote:

I've read that the new space combat board game based on the Battleship 'brand' isn't too bad: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...

Didn't...am I nuts, or was this one mentioned on the latest RabbitCon edition of the Conference Call? Or am I thinking of another space-based board game?

In this instance, you're not nuts.

I can see the pitch meeting in my head... and I know that "Top Gun" was referenced.

Perhaps I am jaded, but my thought is that everyone associated with this film needs to die in a fire.

A $200 million film that will be released on Memorial Day Weekend that is based on a boardgame?

Die. In. A. Fire.

I'm still steadfastly refusing to even look at the trailer.

Thin_J wrote:

I'm still steadfastly refusing to even look at the trailer.

Don't. It's terrible.

And not terrible in a good way.

CrawlingChaos wrote:

I can see the pitch meeting in my head... and I know that "Top Gun" was referenced.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. You'd think they could come up with something better for $200 million.

Or if not, just do something more worthwhile with the money. Like print twenty billion AOL disks or something.

On the upside I'm looking forward to the Mark Kermode review.

I hate how the trailers for this say "FROM HASBRO THE COMPANY THAT BROUGHT YOU TRANSFORMERS".

You make toys, guys, not movies.

And games. They also make games.

Yeah that seemed odd to me that they'd mention Hasbro as some sort of movie cachet. Then again, they know their audience.

Saw a trailer for this right before The Avengers. It looks awful, my wife looked at me and asked 'Is this for real?'.

wordsmythe wrote:

And games. They also make games.

Toy games.

But it has Eric the vampire, Zeus, and Rihanna in it!