Filmstalker: Shadow of the Colossus the film

Justin Marks has just chalked up another strong screenplay to his already busy slate with the announcement that the PlayStation 2 game Shadow of the Colossus is the next video game to be adapted, and his next project.

The game was released in 2005 and had you controlling the character Wander who had to travel across a wasteland and destroy sixteen creatures called the Colossi in order to save the life of a girl.

Shadow of the Colossus (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com) won a lot of praise and awards for the design, quality, and audio, including the great soundtrack and the unusual game play.

The main character, Wander, had to do just that, wander around the vast landscape to find the next creature to defeat, and these were the only creatures that could be defeated in the game. Riding a horse Wander is returned to the central point of the map after each creature is defeated and he must once again find the next creature, discover their unique weakness, and use it to kill them.

He used a sword which reflected sunlight to guide his path to the next creature and also assist him in finding the weakness, often related to the remote location in which the creature was found. The creature could never be defeated in straight battle and the weak aspect must always be found and used.

The girl, Mono, has been sacrificed and Wander travels to the wasteland to find Dormin, a mysterious being that has the power to raise the dead but has been separated into sixteen parts and placed within each of the Colossi. Dormin grants Wander his wish to resurrect Mono if he can destroy all the Colossi and allow him to reform.

However as Wander travels on his quest he is pursued by another character and his warriors, Lord Emon, who is set on destroying him and stopping him in his task. You can read the entire story over at Wikipedia, which is indeed an interesting read.

Since going through that story I'm much more convinced that the game could make for an interesting film, and also suggest a possible film version of Ico to come, since Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel to that game.

It's no surprise then that Sony are at the head of the adaptation and keen to develop it into a film, and with Justin Marks writing it's sure to be strong. He's a writer gaining a lot of attention lately as he is writing, or written, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Suicide Squad, Green Arrow, Masters of the Universe, Voltron, Hack/Slash, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

According to Variety Kevin Misher is in talks to direct the film, he doesn't have any directing credits to his name so far, but he has been a producer on The Scorpion King, Welcome to the Jungle, The Interpreter, Fighting, Case 39, Public Enemies and the remake of Dune.

For such a cool and intelligent game it seems a little disheartening that a first time director is being considered and the writer responsible for typical superhero action/adventure is tackling the script. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's bad, just a little worrying that what is promising to be something unique and exciting could go the way of average fare.

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Love, love, love the game but very worried about the choice of director and the fact its a game with not very much dialogue or action aside from the journeys to the individual colossus.

Also would they keep the suprising game ending or change it to a more hollywood one?

Posted by: Michelle | April 8, 2009 5:02 PM

The concern would be if they make any of it more Hollywood. I like the storyline of the ending, although I've read it and not played it, but you can see Hollywood just ripping it apart can't you, making it much nicer and happier.

I wonder if they will be tempted to rip apart the whole story though and make it much more Hollywood, more heroic and much more standard fare. That would be worrying for such an interesting sounding story.

I take it you've played it?

Posted by: Richard Brunton | April 8, 2009 8:39 PM

Yes I played it because it was by the people who created ICO (my favourite game by far) I would have thought that out of the two games, that ICO would be the more obvious movie candidate. The story revolves around a boy with horns who wakes up in a castle and has to lead a girl through it to safety whilst being chased by the Queen and her shadow creatures only armed with a stick. Its a gorgeous game and really pulls at the heartstrings.

I really think that a movie treatment of Shadow would totally rip apart the storyline of the game. In the game all we know if that a boy brings a dead girl to a temple and goes on a quest to kill 12 colossus to bring her back to life. Apart from the colossus there are only 3 characters in the game, the dead girl, the boy and the horse Agro.

I think that a movie version would defintely add more characters, provide backstories for everyone and probably make it more hollywood which is the opposite of the games intention.

I would definately recommend that you play both ICO and Shadow (only available on ps2 unfortunately), they are both beautiful and emotional games. They are the only games to make me cry while playing them.

Posted by: Michelle | April 9, 2009 9:23 AM

When I read the original story I thought it was about ICO, and then as I wrote the plot I remembered playing Shadow for a little while. I think I played it briefly before I met ICO.

ICO is a much better game, and I see your point, it has a richer story already made for film and would really work out much better than Shadow.

Of course they could end up making Shadow into a good film, into a prequel for ICO if they do it right.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | April 13, 2009 10:29 AM