Hollywood And The Video Game Industry
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Film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, p ...
and
video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...
have a long and detailed common history – the two industries have collaborated many times since the 1980s. This includes collaboration between people from both industries and projects resulting in products such as
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, film adaptations of video games, among other things.


History


1980s

Video games have also been adapted into films, beginning in the early 1980s. Films closely related to the video game industries were done in this time, such as ''
Tron ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...
'' and '' Cloak & Dagger'', but only after the release of several films based on well-known brands has this genre become recognized in its own right. Video game films can take several forms, such as traditionally animated films based on the '' Pokémon'', or computer-animated such as '' Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within''. There exist Original Video Animations (OVAs) based on popular games such as '' Dead Space: Downfall'', ''
Halo Legends ''Halo Legends'' is a collection of 7 short films set in the ''Halo'' universe. Financed by the franchise's overseer 343 Industries, the stories were created by six Japanese anime production houses: Bee Train, Bones, Casio Entertainment, Product ...
'', '' Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic'' which may be released direct-to-video.


1990s

''The 10th Planet'' which was scheduled to be released in October 1997 was canceled. The game was a collaboration between Bethesda Softworks and Centropolis Entertainment(film production company founded by
Roland Emmerich Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of wh ...
and Dean Devlin).
Christopher Weaver Christopher S. Weaver is an American entrepreneur, software developer, scientist, author, and educator. He is known for founding Bethesda Softworks, where he was one of the creators of ''The Elder Scrolls'' role-playing series. Weaver and Bet ...
, the founder of Bethesda was introduced to Devlin and Emmerich through mutual friends. In 1993, ''Super Mario Bros.'' was released, a film loosely based on the Mario video game series by Nintendo. The film was poorly received by critics. Steven Spielberg proposed the concept for the first ''Medal of Honor'' video game in the spring of 1997.


2000s

In 2000,
Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
CEO and Vice Chairman at the time
Jon Feltheimer Jon Feltheimer (born September 2, 1951) is the Chief Executive Officer of Lions Gate Entertainment and has held that position since 2000. Feltheimer has led Lionsgate to grow into the leading Canadian independent filmed entertainment studio. Bi ...
as well as
Dean Devlin Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the The Librarian (franchise), ''Li ...
joined
ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland, and founded in 1999. The company owns publisher Bethesda Softworks with its development unit Bethesda Game Studios (developer of ''The Elder Scrolls,'' ...
as company advisors. Also that year,
Sam Simon Samuel Michael Simon (June 6, 1955 – March 8, 2015) was an American director, producer, writer, animal rights activist and philanthropist, who co-developed the television series ''The Simpsons''. While at Stanford University, Simon w ...
joined ZeniMax as President of e-Nexus Studios. In 2002,
Vin Diesel Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. Diesel began auditio ...
formed his own development studio,
Tigon Studios Tigon Studios is a video game developer owned by One Race Films focused primarily on games featuring actor Vin Diesel, who also founded the company. Following a suspension of development work, Diesel reactivated the company in September 2013. A ...
. In October 2005, Steven Spielberg and
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
partnered to develop 3 video games. In December 2007,
Jerry Bruckheimer Jerome Leon Bruckheimer (born September 21, 1943) is an American film and television producer. He has been active in the genres of action, drama, fantasy, and science fiction. His films include '' Flashdance'', ''Top Gun'', '' The Rock'', '' ...
announced plans to partner with MTV to create a new game studio. Bruckheimer previously joined ZeniMax's board of directors the same year and has since showed up at several launch parties for Bethesda Softworks titles including ''
Fallout 3 ''Fallout 3'' is a 2008 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the ''Fallout'' series, it is the first game to be developed by Bethesda after acquiring ...
'', '' Fallout: New Vegas'', and '' The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim''. In 2009, Bruckheimer unveiled Jerry Bruckheimer Games headed by former
Microsoft Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...
Publishing Executive Producer Jim Veevaert as president of production and Jay Cohen, previously
Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...
's vice president of U.S. publishing, as president of development.


2010s

In 2011 it was rumored that Jerry Bruckheimer Games was working on three titles, but nothing came out of it ever since. In March 2013 Jerry Bruckheimer Games was closed. Although Jerry Bruckheimer Games is closed, Bruckheimer still remained a ZeniMax board member, mostly due to being a close associate of former ZeniMax President
Ernest Del Ernest Del (born January 16, 1952) is an American entertainment attorney. Del served as Senior Advisor at ZeniMax Media from 2017 till 2021. Del previously served as President of ZeniMax from 1999 up until April 2017. He also serves as a director ...
until Microsoft bought ZeniMax in 2021. In February 2015, Lionsgate made a significant investment in
Telltale Games Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
. As part of the deal, Feltheimer joined Telltale's board of directors.


2020s

In July 2020, a Fallout TV series was announced as in development by
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
, based on the video game series of the same name. The series is created by
Lisa Joy Lisa Joy (born May 23, 1977) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and attorney. She is best known as the co-creator, writer, director, and executive producer of the HBO science-fiction drama series ''Westworld'' (2016–2022). For ...
and
Jonathan Nolan Jonathan Nolan (born 6 June 1976) is a British-American screenwriter, producer, director and author. He is the creator of the CBS science fiction series ''Person of Interest'' (2011–2016) and co-creator of the HBO science fiction western s ...
for Amazon Prime Video. The duo will also be writing and executive producing the series with their production company, Kilter Films, working alongside Bethesda Softworks and Bethesda Game Studios. Alongside Joy and Nolan, Kilter Films' Athena Wickham, Bethesda Softworks' James Altman, and Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard will also be executive producing the series. Several high-profile video game films are expected to release, including Mario movie in April 2023. A movie based on the ''
Uncharted ''Uncharted'' is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. Created by Amy Hennig, the ''Uncharted'' franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who travel across th ...
'' video game series was released in February 2022.


See also

*
List of video games This is a list of all video game lists on Wikipedia, sorted by varying classifications. By platform Acorn * List of Acorn Electron games Apple * List of Apple II games * List of Apple IIGS games * List of iOS games * List of Macintosh ga ...
*
Video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...
* Film adaptation


References

{{reflist Video game industry Film industry