40 Videogames That Need Movies

Red Dead Redemption

The Game: It’s already inspired by classic movie Westerns, which makes Red Dead Redemption – a 1911-set thriller following bounty hunter John Marston as he tracks down his former gang members – perfection for adapting.

Movie Version: Javier Bardem plays Marston, looking for revenge after his wife (Maria Bello) is kidnapped by the government.

Directed By: John Hillcoat helmed a 30 minute promotional short film, let’s get him on a feature as well.

Castlevania

The Game: The year is 1961, and regular guy Simon is tasked with defeating neck-munching super-villain Dracula.

Movie Version: A spoofy spin on Dracula lore, as Dracula is positioned as the victim and Simon the arrogant villain whose sole aim is to maim and kill.

Directed By: Tim Burton can do Gothic in his sleep.

StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

The Game: It’s the 26th century, and in a distant sector of the universe, three combating races jostle for space – human exile Terrans, the Zerg super-species and the literally mental Protoss.

Movie Version: Avatar meets Aliens . Jim Raynor (Sam Worthington) attempts to cripple an insurgent group of Terrans, but he’ll need the help of a Protoss to do it.

Directed By: Duncan Jones – go on, let’s see what we can do with something like this.

Mass Effect

The Game: Role-playing shooter in which Commander Shepard must battle Reapers in order to save the galaxy.

Movie Version: An adap’s in the works over at Legendary Pictures, but what do we want? Well, with Firefly / Serenity all but over, let’s give Nathan Fillion the role of Shepard – fighting Reapers can’t be much different from fighting Reavers.

Directed By: JJ Abrams

Halo: Reach

The Game: In 2552, an elite squad of supersoliders known as the Noble Six attempt to bring down the alien Covenant, who are a massive threat to the existence of humanity.

Movie Version: Pretty much stick to the same premise, but let’s have this as a sci-fi version of The Magnificent Seven , in which the relationship between the Six (Vin Diesel’s got to be one of them) is as important as the gunfire.

Directed By: Robert Rodriguez

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

The Game: In October 1944, US commandos undercover Japanese plans for ‘The Black Weapon’, which is unleashed with such force that it can create a tsunami.

Movie Version: A period war movie. With the exception of The Hurt Locker , the majority of Iraq-inspired flicks have been duds, so let’s keep the action in 1944 instead for a tight-wound ticking time bomb.

Directed By: Tomas Alfredson can do period detail, now let's get him on to a little action.

Vanquish

The Game: Futuristic shooter in which overpopulation has led to nations fighting over scraps of land.

Movie Version: Armageddon on steroids, as Sam Gideon (James Marsden) leads a team who have to seize control of a solar energy-driver that the Russians have used to devastate San Francisco.

Directed By: Roland Emmerich – isn’t it time he made another end-of-worlder?

Heavy Rain

The Game: Investigative thriller revolving around the Origami Killer, who kidnaps and kills young boys in the rainy autumn season.

Movie Version: It’s inspired by film noir, so Heavy Rain could easily get transferred to the big screen (in fact, New Line already have the rights). Let’s have Sean Bean as Ethan Mars, whose son’s been kidnapped, with Eva Mendes as journalist Madison Paige, John Slattery as FBI profiler Norman Jayden, and Morgan Freeman as detective Scott Shelby.

Directed By: David Fincher would bring the requisite darkness and period polish.

Deconstructionist

The Game: You’re a massive robot, and you’re built for destruction. Which you do, taking out buildings – but you’ve got to be careful not to damage the homes either side.

Movie Version: That title might be a bit long for the mass market, but the idea remains a gem. So there’s a new (corrupt, naturally) government in power, and they've built a massive machine capable of mass destruction. Except a mad man's nicked it for his own insidious purpose…

Directed By: Joe Carnahan likes nutso action.

Killchain

The Game: A weapon-less assassin has just one thing on his side – time. He can freeze time and set up a chain reaction of deadly events that take out his targets for him.

Movie Version: Inception had slow-mo, but nothing quite like this. Our nameless, time-stopping assassin (Ryan Gosling) is hired because he never leaves any tracks, taking out people using objects in their immediate surroundings. But what happens when a PI gets suspicious? Think Final Destination with a killer hook.

Directed By: Ruben Fleischer can handle comedy, horror and special effects. Perfect.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.