{"id":377908,"date":"2026-04-06T13:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/377908\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:23:09","slug":"as-video-game-movies-go-the-way-of-the-mcu-indies-fight-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/377908\/","title":{"rendered":"As video game movies go the way of the MCU, indies fight back"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest question following The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie\u2018s box-office blowout isn\u2019t whether or not it works as a movie<\/a>, but how its financial haul will affect the future of video game movies. The movie\u2019s record-breaking success\u2014the biggest Wednesday opening in April of all time<\/a>!\u2014suggests that the audience for AAA video game adaptations like The Super Mario Bros. Movie<\/a> ($1.36 billion at the global box office) and A Minecraft Movie<\/a> ($961 million) don\u2019t mind that those movies often feel like narrative-light Easter egg hunts. But the bigger these movies get, the closer they get to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, IP-forward products made by board rooms rather than filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Nintendo president Shigeru Miyamoto has said<\/a> that he\u2019s very interested in using cross-media projects like The Super Mario Bros. Movie to appeal to people who don\u2019t play video games, which may explain why both Mario movies are so impersonal and soulless that they\u2019re only really valuable as brand maintenance. On the flip side, YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Mark Fischbach\u2019s surprising financial success with his claustrophobic indie sci-fi chiller Iron Lung<\/a> suggests that when it comes to video game adaptations, smaller might be better, both in terms of quality and maybe even profitability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fischbach\u2019s detailed and faithful adaptation works as well as it does because he didn\u2019t try to force it to be all things to all people. It went on to gross $50 million on a reported budget of three to four million dollars. Granted, Fischbach\u2019s established online fanbase helped to put his adaptation of David Szymanski\u2019s 2022 Lovecraftian submersible simulator over the top, especially since it didn\u2019t have a traditional advertising budget. But as far as the creative process went, Fischbach was likely helped considerably by the fact that Szymanski was the original game\u2019s solo developer, making him a lot easier to work with than a AAA gaming juggernaut. Szymanski has said<\/a> that he was happy to give Fischbach direct feedback on his adaptation, personally advising him on the screenplay and giving him support during the movie\u2019s pre-production phase.<\/p>\n

So if that\u2019s possible, why do the most prominent AAA game adaptations seem made by a MCU-style committee?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental rule that Hollywood operates by is: As budgets approach infinity, the audience\u2019s intelligence required to understand it approaches zero,\u201d screenwriter C. Robert Cargill tells The A.V. Club. Cargill has worked on both video game adaptations\u2014like unproduced films of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Resident Evil that he co-developed with Black Phone 2<\/a> director Scott Derrickson\u2014and comic book movies like Doctor Strange<\/a>. Cargill argues that there\u2019s now more creative freedom in adapting video games than there is in adapting comic book movies. For writers like Cargill, collaborating with Marvel is like accepting a pair of golden handcuffs. \u201cYou absolutely wanna work for them because everyone\u2019s gonna see those movies,\u201d he says. \u201cBut at the same time, there\u2019s a lot of limitations to working in a cinematic universe like that. You can\u2019t make a story choice on a whim because that may contradict something that has already been shot for a Disney+ show. You don\u2019t have that problem in a video game movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, video game writers and developers aren\u2019t recognized by film industry unions like the Writers Guild Of America, making it easier for big companies, those that spend over $300 million to develop a AAA game<\/a>, to treat movie adaptations like brand extensions instead of self-sufficient works of pop art. Take last year\u2019s Until Dawn<\/a> adaptation, a generic Cabin-In-The-Woods-meets-Groundhog-Day horror pastiche that had little to do<\/a> with Supermassive\u2019s popular and BAFTA-winning horror game. The original game\u2019s writers, indie horror filmmakers Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, weren\u2019t mentioned in the movie\u2019s end credits, where Until Dawn is said only to be \u201cbased on the Playstation Studios video game.\u201d The brand is the most important thing, just like how Marvel and DC Comics adaptations focus more on introducing and showcasing their characters rather than the stories (not to mention writers and artists) that helped to establish those characters in the first place.<\/p>\n

When I previously reported<\/a> on Fessenden and Reznick\u2019s lack of credit for the Until Dawn movie, I was told that a \u201cwritten by\u201d credit was only guaranteed as part of a union contract with movie studios, according to WGA West Board Of Directors member Rob Foreman. Emailing with me last year, Foreman said that \u201cin video games, that kind of guarantee and protection doesn\u2019t currently exist, so credit can be more arbitrarily determined by individual game companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some indie movie producers are trying to level that drastically uneven playing field. Game writer and podcaster Alanah Pearce recently announced<\/a> that her new production studio, Charred Pictures, would work closely with indie video game developers on forthcoming movie adaptations like the survival horror trilogy Faith: The Unholy Trinity and the first-person psychological horror game Dead Take. \u201cI don\u2019t think it makes any sense at all for an adapted screenplay not to include direct input from the writers of the original source material,\u201d Pearce tells The A.V. Club. \u201cIt\u2019s their world\u2014they created the story, the characters, and the plot that has resonated with the audience so much. They know it better than anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some recent horror video game adaptations, like the supernatural psychodrama The Mortuary Assistant, suggest that Pearce might be on to something. The Mortuary Assistant was directed by Jeremiah Kipp and co-adapted by the game\u2019s original solo developer Brian Clarke. Kipp had previously collaborated on several Fessenden-produced indie horror titles, so he knew about Fessenden and Reznick\u2019s lack of recognition for Until Dawn\u2014something that gave him extra motivation to seek out Clarke\u2019s advice. Better yet, Clarke ensured that Kipp and his co-writer Tracee Beebe maintained creative control over their adaptation, since their movie was produced by Epic Pictures Group, which owns the publishing company that made the game in the first place, DreadXP. \u201cEpic really wanted Brian to be happy, and he protected me,\u201d Kipp tells The A.V. Club. \u201cWhen I was brought on, Brian called me up right away to say, \u2018The best way to honor this game is for you to make a good movie.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke recalls that while Epic Pictures provided some notes throughout the screenwriting process, they mostly suggested ways to better achieve certain storytelling effects. \u201cThey never really had heavy opinions when it came to the story itself,\u201d Clarke says. DreadXP also didn\u2019t provide much feedback on the adaptation since, according to Clarke, \u201cthat\u2019s not their wheelhouse.\u201d Rather than the by-committee approach of these larger adaptations, it was a direct collaboration.<\/p>\n

Conversely, producer-turned-writer-director Genki Kawamura showed his appreciation of the horror-themed walking simulator The Exit 8 by not approaching his movie, Exit 8, like a normal adaptation. That\u2019s partly out of necessity, since Kotake Create\u2019s game doesn\u2019t have a traditional story. Like the game, Kawamura\u2019s movie follows a commuter\u2019s nightmarish journey through a non-descript Japanese subway tunnel that has no traditional exit. Instead, the end of one corridor loops back to its start, like a M\u00f6bius Strip or an improbable M.C. Escher design. The only way for the nameless commuter (Kazunari Ninomiya) to escape is by making eight complete circuits of the tunnel, turning back every time he spots an \u201canomaly\u201d in the tunnel. In Kawamura\u2019s movie, the commuter\u2019s frustrated escape attempts reflect his own tortured mindset after his girlfriend unexpectedly tells him that she\u2019s pregnant and he\u2019s the father.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this movie, we were like architects,\u201d Kawamura tells The A.V. Club. \u201cIt was as if Kotake Create gave me the blueprints for a new structure and I, along with my production designers and other collaborators, built something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, Kawamura took to heart some advice that he received from Nintendo\u2019s Miyamoto, who argued that the key to making a great video game is to make something that\u2019s not only fun for the player to engage with, but also for anyone watching the player. \u201cSometimes I put the movie\u2019s audience in the player\u2019s shoes,\u201d Kawamura says. \u201cOther times I present the game\u2019s action as if the audience is watching another player\u2019s livestream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kawamura adds that he wouldn\u2019t have enjoyed so much creative freedom if Kotake Create was as big as, say, Nintendo. \u201cThe source material is an indie game, so we weren\u2019t interfacing with a giant organization. In reality, it was one person,\u201d referring to Kotake, the company\u2019s solo developer. \u201cSo we were able to communicate with him and tap into the purest form of his vision for his game. This direct interaction between creators is what led to this movie\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n

While involving video game writers and developers in the adaptation process obviously doesn\u2019t guarantee a better movie, having their support and input usually helps. Just don\u2019t expect the makers of AAA games to learn that lesson any time soon, according to Pearce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the system is so focused on profit, AAA publishers are always going to want to ensure their writers are writing full-time on video games, and outsource the film production side of things,\u201d Pearce says. Pearce also doesn\u2019t expect the WGA and other movie unions\u2019 recognition of video game writers to change in the near future either. \u201cI do recognize that including video game writers is difficult for the WGA, being that our contracts work so differently,\u201d Pearce says, referring specifically to how most video game writers are full-time, salaried employees while most screenwriters are contract employees. \u201cI have sympathy for how complicated it might be to find terms that recognize these vastly different approaches. But just because something is hard doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d It might be hard to believe that movie studios would ditch the MCU-style approach that helped create the modern superhero boom in favor of something more creative-friendly, but idealistic and dedicated producers like Pearce\u2014and an incoming wave of smaller adaptations\u2014make it easier to imagine a future where better video game adaptations are made with the help and recognition of their original creators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest question following The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie\u2018s box-office blowout isn\u2019t whether or not it works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-377908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}