Movies are game
Video games, Hollywood and the retail products
By Tina Benitez -- Playthings, 10/1/2005
It all started in 1993 with Super Mario Brothers, the two Italian plumbers who made their debut in the United States eight years earlier in a video game from Nintendo, Redmond, Wash. Now, 12 years later, more video games are continuing the tradition by going to the big screen. And collectors and fans are picking up the products tied in.
This month, Doom, Universal Pictures, Universal City, Calif., based on the 1993 video game, comes to the movies with The Rock playing Sarge. Apparel tied to the film will be released from BeeZee Tees, Distribution Way Vista, Calif., this month. In addition to T-shirts, junior tops, novelty knits and fleece clothing, Art Box Entertainment, Irvine, Calif., will release trading cards, figure pieces, collector kits, tins and binders. Adult novels are also slated for release from Publishing Pocket Books, New York.
The Rock also stars in upcoming John Woo-directed Spy Hunter, set for release in 2006, Universal, another video game to movie release, based on the Midway Games, Chicago, arcade game from the 1980s. Silent Hill, from Columbia TriStar Pictures in 2006, is about a mother who travel through a portal in reality where creatures and darkness dwell. Konami, Redwood City, Calif., may rerelease the video game alongside the film.
Production just wrapped up on Bloodrayne, the tale of a half-human, half-vampire heroine. The film, which first came to video game in 2002, will star Ben Kingsley and Michelle Rodriguez. Director Uwe Boll has also started work on another PC-game based film, Dungeon Seige, starring Burt Reynolds and Jason Statham—Boll is also slated to work on films for video games Far Cry, Fear Effect, and Hunter: The Reckoning.
“We tell in the film the story of how Bloodrayne became what she is,” say director Boll. “This is a prequel to the game, to keep the characters, the brand elements and the mood of a game.”
Products for the Bloodrayne film will include apparel from Ripple Junction, Cincinnati, out this holiday season through 2008. Limited edition replica blades will be available from United Cutlery next September. High-end resin statues from Martian Factory, Toronto, are currently available, as well as comics from Echo3, Bayville, N.J. New Bloodrayne comics will continue through 2009.
Games like Tomb Raider and Mortal Combat, have continued in game and movie form. The 1996 Resident Evil video game, Capcom, Sunnyvale, Calif., went to film in 2001, Columbia TriStar. This holiday season, The National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA), Clark, N.J., release Resident Evil collectible figures, series 4, based on the Resident Evil 4 game in November. A Resident Evil 5 game, Capcom, Sunnyvale, Calif., is scheduled for release in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 formats, as well.
