Hollywood is keen to adapt video games for the big screen - here's our wishlist
Gaming has become a hot commodity in Hollywood in recent years, and rights to iconic gaming franchises are being snapped by major Hollywood studios in search of the next hit.
This year alone has seen the likes of 'Uncharted' and 'Sonic' gross $800 million dollars between them, making movies based on games a no-brainer for Hollywood executives looking for a potential franchise.
A film based on the 'Borderlands' games starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Jamie Lee Curtis is due for release soon, while big-budget streaming series' based on 'Halo' and 'Resident Evil' have gained popularity.
With that table dressing, we're here to help Hollywood pick the games that most deserve a big-budget blockbuster, from some older titles, to games that are tailor-made for the big screen.
What game do you think deserves the Hollywood treatment? Let us know in the comments.
Hitman
The 'Hitman' games have received the cinematic treatment before, but lets face it, none of them were very good.
We received movies based on 'Hitman' in 2007 and 2015, but neither of them really captured the spirit of the games.
The films had decent casts - everyone from Timothy Olyphant, Zachary Quinto, our own Ciarán Hinds, and Dougray Scott try to give the films gravitas - but the film version may as well have been an episode of 'Coronation Street' for all they had to do with the games.
The recent trilogy of 'Hitman' games are ripe for a cinematic adaptation, with exotic locales, a twisty and turny story, some inventive kills and a jet-black sense of humour.
Done properly, a good 'Hitman' movie based on the World of Assassination trilogy could be a blast, and the success of the 'John Wick' franchise shows us that there is an appetite for slick, almost balletic action sequences mixed with a dense mythology.
Who wouldn't want to see Agent 47 jet off around the world to bump off his targets?
An action movie set-piece based on the Sapienza level from the 2016 version of 'Hitman' is just crying out to be filmed.
Returnal
In 2021, it became the law for games to feature time loops.
When it came time to pick our favourite games of 2021, 'Deathloop' won out over 'Returnal' which had to settle for third place on our list, but 'Returnal' is perhaps the time loop game best suited to the big screen.
Time loop movies are a reliable Hollywood genre, and lend themselves to hilarious comedies like 'Groundhog Day' or 'Palm Springs' or sci-fi action flicks like 'Edge Of Tomorrow'.
'Returnal' has an appealing premise, following the ordeal of Celeste as she attempts to get off a hostile planet.
Every time she dies, the loop resets, yet she learns more about the environment each time.
The cinematic applications of this premise are near-endless, and audiences can easily get hooked on a smart, story-driven sci-fi flick with tonnes of action.
'Returnal' would have a very small cast, with one performer tasked with carrying the weight of the story on their back.
One actor carrying a film has been done before - think Robert Redford in 'All Is Lost' or Sandra Bullock in 'Gravity' - and this high-concept sci-fi game is ripe for a cinematic outing.
Mass Effect
Ever since 'Star Wars' changed the face of pop culture in 1977, there have been many attempts to capture the magical and sweeping majesty of George Lucas' creation.
Gaming is no exception, and the 'Mass Effect' series is the closest to matching the scope and ambition of the galaxy far, far away.
Players take control of Commander Shepherd as they see off galaxy-threatening foes in the form of the long-dormant Reapers.
'Mass Effect' is maybe the trickiest game on this list to adapt as it is largely predicated on choices, and a consensus would need to be reached with the game's fanbase on what path to take, but the storytelling potential with a 'Mass Effect' film is vast.
The series touches upon themes of nationalism, xenophobia, identity, imperialism, corporate greed, the pursuit of knowledge at all costs, and learning to rebuild.
With 3 great games to adapt, the sky is the limit for a 'Mass Effect' film.
One branching choice that fans can agree on is that a 'Mass Effect' movie would star a female Commander Shepherd, because who honestly plays as the default Male Shep?
Just Cause
From a game with a lot of plot to a game with barely any.
The 'Just Cause' games are the ultimate action movie sandbox, allowing you to pull off the kind of death-defying stunts that would make a peak Jackie Chan blush.
The games have very basic, rudimentary plots - you are tasked with overthrowing an evil dictator, here are unlimited explosives and helicopters - but it lays the groundwork for some wonderfully over-the-top action.
Action movies are some of the most reliable money makers in the film industry, and often times films with big explosions and a paper-thin story play best with a foreign audience because they need very little in the way of translation.
The impeccable 'RRR' showed us just this year that the language barrier can be transcended if you give your audience unforgettable action sequences, and 'Just Cause' could offer similar thrills to audiences.
If Hollywood wants to anoint another action franchise, they could do far worse than bringing 'Just Cause' to the silver screen.
Throw in psychics-defying stunts, a total disregard for plausibility and a plot outline you could write on a napkin and you have the makings of cinematic gold.
Infamous
Superhero films are all the rage these days, but as the recent Marvel films have proved, it can be a tough sell to introduce new D-list characters to audiences.
Enter 'Infamous'.
By adapting the 'Infamous' games, Hollywood has a ready-made franchise from the off.
The prospect of an 'Infamous' film is fascinating as it could go one of two ways.
The games are based on making either good or evil decisions that shape the story, and straight away a prospective filmmaker would have a dilemma on their hands.
They could make their hero a paragon of virtue or a Homelander-style tyrant.
Like the 'Mass Effect' example, a consensus would have to be reached by the fans as to what path the film takes, but the good and evil plots are the basis for the next superhero blockbuster.
Turok
A bit of a vintage pick for our next entry, but it is a crying shame we haven't gotten a 'Turok' film at this stage.
The success of the 'Jurassic Park' films shows that audiences are wild for dinosaurs, and adding in some gunplay into the mix is sure to get queues out the door.
The 'Turok' games have a fun, almost 'Army Of Darkness' style premise; a time-traveling Native American warrior heads to a land where man and dinosaurs and aliens fight off humans.
With the recent release of 'Prey', there is an inherent appeal to seeing the old-school mix with more modern sci-fi elements.
To wildly paraphrase 'Field Of Dreams', "Build an action movie that mashes up historical and sci-fi elements and they will come."
An appealingly silly but cool plot lends itself to some fun set-pieces - who doesn't want to see a T-Rex face off against a lethal warrior armed with space-age technology?
It's strange that 'Turok' hasn't made the leap to the big screen, and with the franchise dormant for well over a decade, the market conditions are ripe for this dinosaur romp.
Legend of Zelda
One of the most famous franchises in all of gaming, it's strange that the land of Hyrule has never made the transition to the big screen.
Nintendo are incredibly protective of their games being made into films after the debacle that was the 'Super Mario Bros' movie in 1993, but a big screen outing for Link is money in the bank.
The franchise is as big as it's ever been, with 'Breath Of The Wild' proving to be a killer app for the Nintendo Switch.
'Breath Of The Wild' has shifted around 30 million copies worldwide since it launched in 2017, and Hollywood executives and surely hear the cash registers ringing from here.
With such a built-in audience, and with Nintendo given a large degree of input for a possible 'Zelda' film, surely East and West can put their cultural differences aside to make movie magic?
Grand Theft Auto
We saved the best for last.
There is perhaps no more famous franchise in the world than the 'Grand Theft Auto' series, and a film version of the Rockstar franchise would be the only film that could pose a threat to the superhero era of box office dominance.
The 'Grand Theft Auto' games regularly take cues from the crime films of Scorsese, Singleton and Scott, so bringing the trademark madcap energy to your local cinema is a no-brainer.
The question with a 'Grand Theft Auto' film is what game to adapt.
The obvious candidate is 2002's 'Vice City', what with 80's-tinged nostalgia being the flavour of the month.
'Vice City' is indebted to the work of Michael Mann, most specifically 'Miami Vice', and a Mann-influenced crime thriller set to the tunes of the 80s could be just what the doctor ordered.
'Grand Theft Auto' has dabbled in Hollywood before, even casting the late, great Ray Liotta in 'Vice City' and stars like Samuel L. Jackson and Dennis Hopper in 'San Andreas', and took on the Hollywood system itself in 'Grand Theft Auto V'.
A large part of 'Grand Theft Auto' experience is wondering off to steal a taxi and drive around normally, and it would be very tricky to pull this off in a film, but 'Grand Theft Auto' changed what players can expect from video games - who is to say it couldn't change what viewers can expect from watching a film?