This director did the 2023 Flash film, so if it comes out I’m probably going to pretend it didn’t
Oh shit, dead in the water for me also.
I honestly have no idea how I’d approach writing the script for a movie about Shadow of the Colossus. It’s one of the few games where the sense of discovery, wondering alone in a desolate landscape is such an integral part of the experience, that removing it and turning it into a movie would ruin the experience imho.
I’m not hating on the movie before it even releases, mind you. I’m just saying that I certainly wouldn’t know how to do it, and that it seems, to me, an odd pick. Would 100% watch it if it’s good.
I think you could do a fair bit by following the priest and his soldiers that are chasing Wander more than the game did. He can provide exposition to the soldiers as they travel, seeing more and more pillars of light in the distance as they do so. Have some banter along the way to get us to like one or two or the soldiers as well. Play up this party’s protagonist energy.
In the meantime, let Wander talk to Dormin more. Dormin remains honest and helpful throughout the game, so I think you could easily add in concern for Wander and curioisity about why he’s doing what he is doing. “What a strange, fascinating little mortal. We do hope he knows what he’s doing.”
I suppose you could probably only show maybe three colossus fights max, including the ending. Picking which ones get done in full would be tough. First one almost certainly has to be on the list. I think the giant flying serpent in the desert is probably the best one visually, so that’d be my other pick
I agree, I think it’s feasible. Start with Wander getting to the temple, revealing the bundle on Agro is Mono when he places her on the pedestal. The first words can be Dormin speaking to him. Then cut to the priest leading his men along the path we saw glimpses of Wander taking.
Alternate back and forth, the priest and Dormin doing the talking, with Wander rarely talking, and to Agro when he does. With the focus on Wander adventuring through the beautiful world, interesting visual storytelling with him, Agro, and their travel. And then the fights.
Though I think you need 4. A human-ish one first, a four-legged bestial one, and a flying one, before the final one. Then the priest and crew arrive, and the end happens. I think it all depends on the director.
I’m pretty sure I’ve said it before, but I think Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,) David Lowery (The Green Knight,) and Nicholas Ashe Bateman (The Wanting Mare,) could all handle a great movie with limited dialogue and beautiful visuals. They might need help with action, but they could hire for that.
I don’t know about the attached director, Andrés Muschietti (It, It: Chapter 2,) but I’m going to try to not judge him by The Flash.
Though I think you need 4. A human-ish one first, a four-legged bestial one, and a flying one, before the final one. Then the priest and crew arrive, and the end happens.
Oh, I was including what happens after the priest (whose name is Lord Emon, now that I have actually gone to check because I certainly didn’t remember) as one of the colossus battles. Just trying not to openly spoil a nearly 20-year-old game for some reason I guess. My concern is that the value of the colossus battles in the game comes largely in the form of puzzle-solving, something that won’t translate to film very easily. In the game, the fights don’t advance the narrative much. The deteriorating state of Wander and some of the environmental cues do, but neither of those require the actual fight to be shown in full. We need one fight to set up the nature and danger of Wander’s task, at least one more to make tangible that he has to do a bunch of these and they’re all differently dangerous, and the confrontation with Emon because that’s the conclusion to the story.
David Lowery (The Green Knight)
That’s a brilliant suggestion, that film was exactly what would be needed to adapt this game. I don’t have… well, much of any hope for the guy who is actually attached to it, but I suppose it’s unfair to judge him too hard before we have any idea of if or how it will actually happen
So… Is the movie mostly without dialogue or just 1 character who talks to nobody in particular? This is one thing I can not see being anywhere close to what the original is like, because the game wouldn’t really make a good movie if they were faithful to the story.
I remember it a little different.
if they were faithful to the story.
Like that matters to them.
Hoping it’s obscure and artsy fartsy, so I can make up the story. Otherwise they will fuck it up.
I recently watched Flow and with enough care and effort a movie doesn’t need dialog to be impactful and well done. There is often a large gulf between what is possible and what they’re going to do but I’ll be interested to see where this goes
im pretty sure they already made a shadow of the colossus movie staring adam sandler, don cheadle, and pearl jam.
My eyes read “pearl jam”. My brain read “pearl jam”. But my memory of what “pearl jam” was, deleted “pearl jam” and inserted “space jam”.
So even though I was reading and thinking pearl jam, I was also remembering that pearl jam is a 1990s half live action, half cartoon movie starring the looney toons and micheal jordan in an attempt to play basketball better than some aliens for some reason.
That’s pearl jam, alright?
This makes me want to hear the “Quad City DJs - Space Jam” theme sung by Eddie Vedder
Well. I notice the headline doesn’t say the movie has a GOOD script.
I would watch that.
