Eternal Darkness: The Movie

[EdenMaster]

Source: Planet GameCube

<b>Max Roivas rumored to believe "this isn't happening."</b>

Hypnotic, a Hollywood production company, has acquired the TV and feature rights to Nintendo and Silicon Knights' critically acclaimed 2002 title, "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem." The three companies have worked together in the past, as Hypnotic was responsible for overseeing the Eternal Darkness Films contest last summer.

Here's a little snippet from the Variety.com article:

"We are thrilled to once again work with Nintendo to extend this brand and its powerful story to the masses," said CEO Dave Bartis. "We are eager to get the project started and to leverage our relationships in both the entertainment and marketing worlds to propel 'Eternal Darkness' to another entertainment platform."

Okay, Hypnotic, listen closely. Eternal Darkness is one of those rare games that, if done well, would absolutely rock as a movie. If you do choose to make it, hire some good actors and spare no expense, and you'll make plenty off of it.

[Dark Jaguar]

So is it a series or a movie they are making? It says either or...

Regardless, we all know deep down that American movies based on games ALWAYS suck... Hmm, they seem "eager" right now, but what if this ends up being shelved for like, ever, like many other liscense aquiring projects.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, unlike most games ED would make a great movie. It really deserves a good movie be made... which is unfortunately not too likely given the history of game-movies...

[Darunia]

They're making another Resident Evil movie... which is a bad thing, since the first one SUCKED HORRIBLY and had NOTHING to do with the games. The new one will have ONE (1) real character from the series, and will have that weird (albeit hot) girl in the leading role...again. Is it SO HARD to stay close to the true game? How much would an RE movie kick ass if it had Jill, and Chris, Wesker and Barry; in a cool mansion like in the REMake...

[A Black Falcon]

Since the first one did decently it gets a sequel... who cares that its bad since no one expected it to be good anyway...

[Great Rumbler]

What I want to know if why do companies feel the need to create an entirely new story that has almost nothing to with the game? Why could Resident Evil the Movie have been based on any one of the four games that were out? Why couldn't Final Fantasy the Spirits Within have been based on any one of the NINE FF games there were out? You don't Peter Jackson writing a whole new story for the Lord of Rings movies, he took the books and translated them into movies. So, why can't other directors do the same with games that have perfectly good stories?!

I hope the Eternal Darkness movie sticks close to the game, if it does it could turn out to be a good movie.

[A Black Falcon]

FF: TSW was made by Square... and until X-2 no FF game had ever even had a seqel... I'd say that that explains that one.

[Great Rumbler]

They could have at least TRIED to make FF: TSW similar to the Final Fantasy universe. FF: TSW wasn't a bad movie, I liked it, but I wanted a FF7 movie!!

[A Black Falcon]

True... FF generally is fantasy or techno-fantasy, but TSW is full-blown scifi. It probably should have had a fantasy part, but its not that bad... FF does have sci-fi elements, after all, in most its installments.

[EdenMaster]

Getting back on topic...Eternal Darkness has a level of depth not often seen in video games, and if done correctly, it would be a great movie. Sure, most of ED is slaying monsters and casting spells, but take out those elements and leave the story intact, with some good special effects, it could do well.

Now then, which alignment would the movie / TV series take on? Or will they create a new one? Or will they use Mantorok! We need to know more!

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, in ED you spend a lot of time fighting but its really not the focus of the game. Its really just there to give the game length... its the adventure, exploration, sanity, story that are the real focus of that game...

I'd go as far as to say that its not just an action game, its really an action-adventure. Which, unlike most action-adventure games, honestly at times feels like an adventure game... I LOVED how there were text descriptions of things, especially, and the nice puzzles were good too...

And it'd be a great movie when cut and simplified. The question is... will it be? I don't know.

[EdenMaster]

If there is a movie, lets try and guess actors and actresses!

Alex Roivas - Heather Locklear
Paul Luther - Patrick Stuart
Peter Jacob - Toby Macguire (or however his name is spelled)

Any other guesses?

[A Black Falcon]

I guess they invent some new cast or something and make it bad.

Er... its more realistic...

[Darunia]

What I want to know if why do companies feel the need to create an entirely new story that has almost nothing to with the game? Why could Resident Evil the Movie have been based on any one of the four games that were out?


Is there an echo in here...? I just said that...but you're right. They made such a dumb blunder, and they're only doing it again with the sequel.

[Weltall]

Having just finished ED, I have a few observations:

First, it would make a terrible movie. ED is a long game with a lot of story, and worse yet, there are many different stories. I think ED would much better be served justice as a miniseries, which would allow for much less being cut out. Cramming all of that into a two-hour movie would result in unquestionable disaster, as either most of the game would simply not even appear, or they would change and cut so much that you wouldn't recognize the end result as even remotely resembing the game you love.

Second, I just don't think it would adapt well to being a movie. As was stated earlier, much of the game involves fighting and spell-casting. All in all there really isn't much story given. Now, there is definitely enough story there to expand upon, when you get right down to it, in all twelve chapters of ED, twelve people in twelve different settings do pretty much exactly the same thing, which I believe gives even more credence to the belief that ED would fare much better as a miniseries. And even to that end, there would have to be quite a liberal creative license given to the writers, as while ED has many stories, none of them are really told in-depth.

Third, many of the best sanity effects really can't apply to a movie, such as my favorites, when all your items disappear, or when a room has a billion pieces of nonexistent ammo :D

[A Black Falcon]

True, it probably would be best as a miniseries... there is a lot of story and cramming it into a movie would be very, very hard and wouldn't work very well.

But either way they certainly could do some cool insanity stuff...

Oh, and you could easily cut most of the combat with no real hurt to the story.

[Dark Jaguar]

My main beef with the game still stands, that the sanity effects are way too blatent, and thus non-effective, instead of subtlety.

Oh and Weltall, I'm sure they could do some sanity effects in a series or a movie :D. Just use your imagination... "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system (Alex) this is only a test (Alex)"... Heheh... Well, as I said, they could do it more subtly, but you know, things like that. Maybe a false tornado warning or something that disappears... (well it would work in my region).

I do agree though, a series would be the best way to do it. However, it better be a GOOD series, and one that tells the story in an anime style, that is, part by part. The series should basically play EXACTLY like if you had a movie and cut it into 30 minute or 1 hour long parts and added "to be continued" to the end of it all. That's the main problem with other series like Star Trek Voyager, FAR too much just random encounters with totally irrelevent situations that are resolved by the end of the show.

At the same time, I also think that if they ever took the book The Silmarrillion and made it into something else, a series would do that the best justice as well, again, in the same way that I described, every single episode being to be continued.

[Weltall]

I agree with your views on the sanity effects. Most of them just made me laugh, and that's not really the effect you'd be looking for when you're doing a serious story. I had a few much better ideas for sanity effects.

I also thought it was insane (:p) how being seen by Zombies lowered your sanity but huge, hulking boss monsters didn't do a damn thing to your mental health. Sorry, but all the zombies in the world wouldn't freak me out as much as the Guardian Peter Jacob has to tangle with.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, a lot of the sanity effects were more cool than scary... and most of the rest were a 'woah thats weird' the first time you see them. They were really cool, but not scary...

[Sacred Jellybean]

Peter Jacob - Toby Macguire (or however his name is spelled)

Peter Jacob is the monk with the beard, isn't he? Who equipped the mace? Toby McGuire (sp?) would look too young.

[Weltall]

Originally posted by Sacred Jellybean
Peter Jacob is the monk with the beard, isn't he? Who equipped the mace? Toby McGuire (sp?) would look too young.

No, Paul Luther is the monk. Peter Jacob is the WWI journalist, and he really is a dead-ringer for MacGuire.

[A Black Falcon]

The only thing is of course if they do the game story (as a TV show) they'd be replacing the cast every episode or so... depending on how long it takes to go through a chapter... oh well. It'd still work... but yeah it should be a short series that stays focused on the plot.

[EdenMaster]

It's official.

Yep, it's true. Check out the link.

What? You're too lazy?

The things I do for you people...

Now that Nintendo has released a press release, it's official. The movie should come out on March 33 for the full effect.

HYPNOTIC SECURES EXCLUSIVE FEATURE FILM AND TELEVISION RIGHTS FOR NINTENDO GAME ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEM

Companies Collaborate to Take Popular Brand to Television and Film

LOS ANGELES – (June 27, 2003) - Nintendo of America Inc. and Hypnotic, a New York and Los Angeles-based branded entertainment company, will collaborate to bring Nintendo's popular "Eternal DarknessTM: Sanity's Requiem" video game title to new heights through the development of motion picture and television projects. Hypnotic will spearhead all TV and film development, financing, production and distribution rights for the property, from hiring the writers to brokering studio commitments and distribution deals.

Hypnotic understands the power of the Eternal Darkness brand as it produced the successful Eternal Darkness Filmmaking Competition, in 2001 and 2002, to promote the release of the game. Hypnotic chairman, Liz Hamburg, has worked with Nintendo throughout her career and brings her deep understanding of the entertainment and gaming industries to the table to help propel the brand into the filmed entertainment space.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, gaming's first true psychological thriller, received the 'Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story' award at the 2003 Interactive Achievement Awards, the Oscars® of the video-game community. "The characters in this game are extremely complex and story is truly dynamic," says Gail Tilden, vice president, Brand Management, Nintendo of America, Inc. "We're looking forward to working hand-in-hand with Hypnotic to bring this exciting and innovative entertainment property to an even broader audience."

"We are thrilled to once again work with Nintendo to extend this brand and its powerful story to the masses," says David Bartis, CEO, Hypnotic. "We are eager to get the project started and to leverage our relationships in both the entertainment and marketing worlds to propel Eternal Darkness onto yet another entertainment platform."

Hypnotic's current projects include the development of their latest television series, "The O.C." to air on FOX, the Terry Tate, Office Linebacker original film series and commercials for Reebok, The Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival, Toyota's Scion Screening Series, and numerous development deals leveraging its talent pool and immense short film library.

Chairman Liz Hamburg and in-house producer Steven Hein spearheaded the deal. Gail Tilden helmed the negotiation for Nintendo.

[A Black Falcon]

Has some promise. Lets hope it works out...

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, remember what happened last time a movie was made out of a Nintendo franchise? I do. I actually saw it in theatres and thought, at the time, that it was cool. I've...changed a lot since then.

[A Black Falcon]

The SMB movie was ... different. I thought it was a okay movie, actually, once I pretended that it had nothing to do with the games... if you put it as part of the game universe its awful...

On the other hand I liked The Wizard. But that was straight to video...

[Great Rumbler]

The bobomb with the Reebox was pretty cool.

[Undertow]

Originally posted by Darunia
They're making another Resident Evil movie... which is a bad thing, since the first one SUCKED HORRIBLY and had NOTHING to do with the games. The new one will have ONE (1) real character from the series, and will have that weird (albeit hot) girl in the leading role...again. Is it SO HARD to stay close to the true game? How much would an RE movie kick ass if it had Jill, and Chris, Wesker and Barry; in a cool mansion like in the REMake...

Damn right, that movie was horrible...not really because they didn't follow the games (the movie seemed like its own side story, so it was all good) but the fact the zombies looked HORRIBLE. I've seen scarier looking zombies at the old folks' home. Coupled with the crappy dialogue and horrible CGIs and you get crap flavored soup.

Go out and watch 28 Days Later if you want a decent zombie flick.

On the subject of Eternal Darkness in a movie franchise...they better do it right.

[A Black Falcon]

Exactly why we are so worried.

[Weltall]

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, gaming's first true psychological thriller

Hello? Silent Hill?

ED was a fun game, fun enough for me to play through all three paths, but it didn't even try to scare me in the slightest bit, so I can't call it a psychological thriller and keep a straight face.

[EdenMaster]

Originally posted by Weltall
ED was a fun game, fun enough for me to play through all three paths, but it didn't even try to scare me in the slightest bit, so I can't call it a psychological thriller and keep a straight face.

It's not Resident Evil thrilling, such as dogs crashing through the window. There are a lot of couch cushions with that distinct smell of urine because of that moment. ED keeps you on your toes, makes you nervous. What's going to happen next, you ask yourself? Your sanity is low, so God only knows what may happen, and while most of the hallucinations are blatant, you can't tell me that you weren't fooled at least once. Ever had your character blow up while they tried to cast a spell? Or shit yourself when you walked into a room with 30,000 zombies in it?

So no, it's not meant to scare you out of your seat, but it's not meant to be boring either.

And yes, I will call it a psychological thriller. :eek2:

[OB1]

The only game that ever scared me a bit was the first SH, but I definitely like ED more. The controls are better, the combat system is better, the story is better, and I simply found it to be a lot more fun than all of the REs and SH's combined.

[A Black Falcon]

Haven't played SH, and have only played RE in RE2 N64 emulation... and barely played that. But ED wasn't exactly scary, true. It was creepy sometimes, and weird... but not SCARY. Which is good, IMO... I don't like horror that much...

[Weltall]

Originally posted by EdenMaster
It's not Resident Evil thrilling, such as dogs crashing through the window. There are a lot of couch cushions with that distinct smell of urine because of that moment. ED keeps you on your toes, makes you nervous. What's going to happen next, you ask yourself? Your sanity is low, so God only knows what may happen, and while most of the hallucinations are blatant, you can't tell me that you weren't fooled at least once. Ever had your character blow up while they tried to cast a spell? Or shit yourself when you walked into a room with 30,000 zombies in it?

So no, it's not meant to scare you out of your seat, but it's not meant to be boring either.

And yes, I will call it a psychological thriller. :eek2:

The sanity effects were often funny. The only one that really got me was the one with Alex in the bathtub. However, since you have a sanity meter, you kinda expect weird things like that and that kinda kills the fun of having them. And since I had played Silent Hill dozens of times, ED was simply tame for me. ED didn't give me a sense of nervousness or dread because the only way you could really die in ED is either be careless or become surrounded in such a way that you couldn't run and had no room to swing your weapon (and that's really unfair and cheap). Plus, it was so easy to regain all of your health, sanity and magic that you are rarely in danger.

Now, that's not to say ED wasn't a good game, it was great, I loved it. But it was not scary, or even nerve-wracking, and all of the thrills in it were purely physical, little of it was psychological at all (AND CALLING IT THE FIRST PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER IS FUCKING BLASPHEMY :supermad:).

But it DID beat the hell out of Resident Evil.

[OB1]

I'll take ED's superior gameplay over SH's clunky controls and crappy puzzles any day of the week. But if I want to get a bit scared I'll pop in SH1.

[Weltall]

[OB1]

Hey I can understand if you like SH more because it's scary and stuff, but you do have to admit that the puzzles are a joke and the controls pale in comparison to ED's.

And ED's story is better times infinity! I win! :kiss:


And don't you mean Obie?

[Weltall]

Originally posted by OB1
Hey I can understand if you like SH more because it's scary and stuff, but you do have to admit that the puzzles are a joke and the controls pale in comparison to ED's.

And ED's story is better times infinity! I win! :kiss:


And don't you mean Obie?

With SH set to 2D control, they are the same. Though only Sh2 has that. However, SH1 has First Person mode which makes up for it!

Puzzles? ED's puzzles were no better than Silent Hill's. Wind the clock, Play the Organ, find the Urns? Same caliber of unintuitive puzzling.

[OB1]

All you did in SH was find stupid keys. That's it! And I can't believe you're seriously trying to compare SH's controls to ED's. There's no contest.

[Weltall]

Originally posted by OB1
All you did in SH was find stupid keys. That's it! And I can't believe you're seriously trying to compare SH's controls to ED's. There's no contest.

I can't believe you're trying to tell me that ED's puzzles are somehow deeper than Silent Hill's. All you did puzzle-wise in ED was either open a door or find a key! And they required far less thought to boot!

And why were projectile weapons even included in ED when except in Michael's chapter they're completely worthless?

[OB1]

It's not that they're deeper, it's that they aren't nearly as annoying. I could barely make it through most of SH2 because of the tedious puzzles.

[A Black Falcon]

The point about projectiles is a good one. I pretty much never used them... the melee weapons were just so much more useful.

[EdenMaster]

SH with a better storyline than ED? Eternal Darkness' storyline is made up of 12 induvidual and unique characters, 4 dark and looming environs, and a storyline reaching back 2000 years, encompassing the fate of all mankind.

SH has to be pretty damn good to beat a storlyine as solid and engrossing as that one.

[Undertow]

ED's story line was cool, the way everything just smoothly locked into place. Especially the little surprise you get when you beat all 3 magic types. The story was defiantly worth beating the game three times.

On the other hand SH's was a macabre-ish disturbing story line that didn't explain much (seemingly on purpose for the sake of sequels) but it had its own charms to it, including the evil little twists (ie. if anyone remembers the nurse in the first game and that fat degenerate in the second)

So, I can't choose which storyline I like more. It's like picking a favorite child.

[Darunia]

Wow, all of this praise for Eternal Darkness has almost convinced me to go buy it...

[EdenMaster]

Buy it. Today. Sell and pawn what you must to get the money. If you have a GameCube, you need this game. Now.

[A Black Falcon]

Go away and don't come back without ED. It was, IMO, the most fun Cube game last year... sure Metroid was probably technically better, but I had more fun with ED.

[Weltall]

How could any Cube owner not have ED by now? The game goes for only about $15 NEW.

EM: Silent Hill's storyline I liked more because it wasn't as disjointed as ED's. It's about one person and the town from Hell that he has to traverse in order to either redeem himself or be consigned to an eternity of damnation.

They're very different. I just like SH's better. ED had so many characters that I really didn't have time to become attached to any of them, not enough time was given for any of the characters to develop themselves. Silent Hill is the complete opposite. To each their own.

Except for Pious. Pious was kinda developed. But Pious fucking sucks.

[EdenMaster]

Originally posted by Weltall
How could any Cube owner not have ED by now? The game goes for only about $15 NEW.

EM: Silent Hill's storyline I liked more because it wasn't as disjointed as ED's. It's about one person and the town from Hell that he has to traverse in order to either redeem himself or be consigned to an eternity of damnation.

They're very different. I just like SH's better. ED had so many characters that I really didn't have time to become attached to any of them, not enough time was given for any of the characters to develop themselves. Silent Hill is the complete opposite. To each their own.

Except for Pious. Pious was kinda developed. But Pious fucking sucks.

To each his own, I suppose. Not one to be biased, I'm intending to buy SH as soon as I can find/afford it. Such praise from you must mean something. You were right about Wario Ware, I love that game.

To me though, Eternal Darkness' storyline was perfectly melded. I thought there was enough time to get into the minds of the characters. Paul Luthers escape from his own shattered faith and Karims quest for love, for instance. Them and others were all nicely developed in the short time you played as them.

As I said, to each his own.

Truly though, Darunia, ABF is not exaggerating on the quality of ED. I still consider it one of the best games in my GC libary (which consists of 24 games).

[OB1]

Yeah you really do have to buy ED ASAP, Darunia. It's no Metroid Prime ( :shakeit: @ ABF ), but it is a very good game.