Jerry O’Flaherty, an art director at Epic Games, has been tapped to direct an all-CG Thundercats feature film. Not a terribly surprising development, considering the cinematic presentation of Gears of War, but a good sign for the industry. The fact that talent from a hot studio like Epic is attracting attention in Hollywood really adds an element of legitimacy.
The real question here is, “when will we see the reverse?” Sure, we’ve had names like Spielberg and Peter Jackson dip a toe into the videogame waters, but no one’s really taken the plunge. And I don’t mean the whole “art influenced by” or “consultant to designers” cop-out, but a full-on powerhouse from the world of film, spending a year+ designing a game.
There’s a very specific set of fans that would buy a game that Tim Burton or Wes Anderson were directly involved with (and very likely, the hardware to play it on), but wouldn’t think of touching a piece of “Nightmare Before Christmas” shovelware. Most licensed games based on movies leave a lot to be desired, and it seems like the movies that should inspire games never seem to get the treatment.
Beyond that, movies based on games always end up terrible. Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Super Mario Brothers… all crap. Hopefully, Thundercats will have more going for it
