At a time when the boundaries between cinema and gaming are increasingly blurred, more and more filmmakers are finding themselves inspired by the immersive worlds and intricate narratives that define the gaming industry.
With the rise of successful adaptations like the American post-apocalyptic HBO drama television series The Last Of Us based on the action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog, the conversation around gaming’s impact on filmmaking has reached new heights.
Symbiotic relationship
Tony Pietra Arjuna, a 47-year-old filmmaker with a multicultural background that spans Indonesia, Malaysia and Germany, recounts his formative years in the 1980s, a decade marked by the rise of both gaming and cinematic innovations. For Tony, the 1982 film Tron was a revelation that profoundly shaped his creative journey.
Tron’s neon-drenched aesthetic, synthesised soundtrack, and overall 1980s vibe have left an indelible mark on Tony’s work. — Walt Disney Pictures
“Watching Tron was a mind-blowing experience,” Tony recalls. “Though it wasn’t based on a video game, I would argue that it is the mother of all gaming movies. I saw it in 1984, when I was just seven. Watching Tron kind of rewired my brain.
“It didn’t look or feel like any other film at the time. It was a pioneer at employing very early CGI to invent, conceptualise and envision what the world of a video game would look like on a microscopic level,” says Tony, who shares that his first exposure to gaming was on the Atari console.
“To be an Atari player and watch a movie that was sort of a manifestation of being inside a game really affected me as a child, and it would go on to influence my course in life to become a filmmaker!”
Tony’s admiration for Tron extends beyond its technical achievements. The film’s neon-drenched aesthetic, synthesised soundtrack, and overall 1980s vibe have left an indelible mark on his own work.
“These elements have been instrumental in my films, particularly Shadowplay (2019), a neo-noir fantasy. With the colour schemes and the neon lighting, I wanted to stylistically convey that we were in some kind of simulated reality, not necessarily a video game but almost as artificial.
“I even tried to incorporate gaming elements, not in terms of video gaming but in terms of game books. If you remember, gamebooks like Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy were very popular in the 1980s, and I grew up on those. I was incorporating that element of gaming into the film, in terms of its narrative and thematic structure.”
Leon Tan, head of Astro Studios, a team of producers, creatives and engineers that creates media experiences across borders and languages, echoes the sentiment that gaming has influenced the cinematic landscape, albeit from a different angle.
Tan feels that games heavily driven by cinematic-style stories would be more adaptable into films or series, as The Last Of Us positively demonstrated. — LEON TAN
For Tan, 52, the success of a game-to-film adaptation hinges on its story. “The most successful game adaptation to my mind has been The Last Of Us. Its success lies in its cinematic storytelling,” Tan states. “It has been acclaimed by critics and audiences worldwide as a hit series and a rare example of an effective adaptation of a game to a series or film.”
Tan feels that the principal success of any film or series is its cinematic story. “Based on that yardstick, games heavily driven by cinematic-style stories would be more adaptable into films or series, as The Last Of Us positively demonstrated.”
Tan’s perspective is grounded in his experience in the industry, where he has witnessed the challenges and triumphs of adapting games for the screen.
He points to Resident Evil, which expanded into a film franchise, as another example of a successful adaptation, attributing its success to the game’s inherently cinematic world and its appeal to sci-fi audiences.
“The biopunk action-horror genre of Resident Evil resonates with audiences, whether they are familiar with the game or not,” he says.
Evolving landscape
While the success of adaptations like The Last Of Us and Resident Evil is undeniable, the road to effective gaming movies has been fraught with missteps.
The rise of successful game-to-screen adaptations like the massively popular and critically acclaimed The Last Of Us has sparked a new conversation around gaming’s impact on filmmaking. — HBO
Tony reflects on the challenges of adapting gaming experiences to the big screen, noting that early attempts often fell short.
“I remember the Mortal Kombat movies from the 1990s, and while the game was intense, the fight scenes in the movies were disappointingly lame,” Tony laments. “Hollywood hadn’t yet caught on to the action choreography that made Hong Kong cinema so iconic.”
However, Tony acknowledges that the industry has since evolved, with recent adaptations like the new Mortal Kombat film finally capturing the visceral intensity of the source material.
This 2021 martial arts fantasy film, co-produced and directed by Simon McQuoid, served as a reboot of the Mortal Kombat film series. “The fight sequences in the new MK are pretty damn good,” Tony concedes, highlighting the progress that has been made in translating the kinetic energy of gaming into cinema.
“It wasn’t until Hong Kong-style fight coordinators and choreographers, or directors like John Woo, eventually came over to Hollywood, that things started to change. And they didn’t get it right until Blade and The Matrix incorporated those disciplines. Action cinema in Hollywood hasn’t been the same since.”
Tan says that when you translate a game into a film or series, the rules of films and series apply – compelling characters for audiences to emotionally invest in, strong story arcs for these characters, and believable worlds (even if they are make believe) for these characters to inhabit.
Tan points to Resident Evil, which expanded into a film franchise, as another example of a successful adaptation, attributing its success to the game’s inherently cinematic world and its appeal to sci-fi audiences. — 20th Century Fox
So why then do so many cinematically themed games such as Assassin’s Creed and Warcraft not translate well into film? Tan says: “They didn’t successfully apply the rules and, as such, could not connect as a movie experience for cinema audiences. While these films did make some coin, the general disappointment from gamers and wider audiences failed to turn these films into franchises like Resident Evil.”
Yet, not all gaming movies strive for realism. Tony fondly recalls the 1994 film Street Fighter, a movie he describes as “an absolute cheeseball train wreck and an absolute masterpiece at the same time!”
“It is the 30th anniversary of this film this year, so I want to make a shout-out to Street Fighter with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia. I’ve watched the movie several times already, and it just makes me happy each time I see it. I can’t say if it did the source any justice, because you know the Street Fighter video game is one of the greatest, and I don’t think the film adaptation measures up.”
Despite its flaws, however, Street Fighter has become a cult classic, entertaining audiences with its over-the-top action and campy dialogue. Tony says: “It’s an awesome piece of trash filmmaking. I think what made it work was that writer/director Steven E de Souza was completely aware that he should not take the source material too seriously, and in the end, he just went for broke. The result was probably one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen in my life.”
Merging of mediums
As the lines between gaming and cinema continue to blur, the question arises: What does the future hold for these two industries? Tony believes that the future lies in the integration of gaming and filmmaking, driven by advancements in technology such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI).
“We’re living in a time when almost everything we imagined in sci-fi has come true,” Tony muses. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a literal merging of the cinema-going experience with the video gaming experience.”
Tony envisions a future where films become interactive, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in the narrative in ways previously unimaginable.
Despite its flaws, Street Fighter has become a cult classic, entertaining audiences with its over-the-top action and campy dialogue. — Constantin Film
He points to the potential of AI to revolutionise the filmmaking process, predicting that within the next decade, traditional gaming and cinema may evolve – or even cease to exist – as we know them. “We need to start adapting to the AI revolution now, or at least start integrating AI into our process, because it will dramatically change the way we make films,” Tony says.
Tan is a little more reserved in his predictions. He says: “For me, games are games and films are films. The rules of their audience engagement are different, and while they overlap sometimes, one can sense that games are taking a leaf from filmic stories, not the other way around.
“That said, the technology and tools that come from the gaming industry are fast influencing filmmaking. One such example is Unreal Engine, the gaming platform from Epic Games, which is now the foundation of creating virtual studio environments that run parallax with cameras, often called ‘volumes’, as backdrops replacing actual locations, such as in Disney+’s The Mandalorian series,” he explains.
“An older example is the extensive use of motion capture pioneered and popularised by games for their cut scenes two decades ago, which the VFX industry then fine-tuned for filmmaking. There are many other examples, too numerous to mention, where games were a ‘testbed’ for certain technologies that would later be adopted by filmmaking.”
Storytelling at the core
Despite the technological advancements that are set to transform both gaming and filmmaking, filmmakers agree that the core of any successful project remains the story. Tan concurs that a strong narrative is key to successful adaptations, whether in gaming or cinema.
“Cinematic storytelling is what makes a game like The Last Of Us so compelling,” Tan asserts. “It’s about creating characters that audiences can invest in, and when you put them in fantastic situations, it becomes believable – that’s the ultimate interactive experience.”
Tan also points out that, at times, films and series allow games to explore material that games themselves cannot. “Games may do some world-building for their settings, but these are limited as the gameplay is very focused on tasks and quests that players need to accomplish at each level. There aren’t many opportunities to expand the ‘universe’ of the game while playing.”
Recent adaptations like the new Mortal Kombat film have finally succeeded in capturing the visceral intensity of the source material, industry insiders say. — New Line Cinema
One of the cool moments in The Last Of Us series, he says, involves a scene set in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was not in the game as it wasn’t relevant to the gameplay.
“The showrunners (Neil Druckmann was also the creator of The Last Of Us game) used the medium of film or series to tell larger stories – in this case, making the setting a global apocalypse. This dramatically and cinematically made the story bigger and more engaging, which the game could not do.”
Tan says the connection between gaming and filmmaking comes down to whether filmmakers can tell great stories on screen. “These screen stories may stray from the gameplay itself, but audiences understand that they’re watching a movie, not playing a game. Rather, these audiences are seeking an expanded experience, a deeper, richer immersion that is a movie or series, but based on the game they love. Much like fans of certain books expect from their book film adaptations, for example.
“So for all filmmakers, the challenge is to perfect the craft of screen storytelling with all the tools at their disposal, from scripts to post-production, and tell great stories – whether they may come from books, games, comics, or their own imagination.”
Gavin Yap, 47, a filmmaker known for his work in both film and theatre, shares this sentiment. He emphasises the importance of emotional engagement in storytelling, regardless of the medium.
Yap, filmmaker known for his work in both film and theatre, emphasises the importance of emotional engagement in storytelling, regardless of the medium. — Handout
“I think what matters most, the same with adapting any material, is recognising what the fans love about it and honouring that, and not trying to be too clever about it with an overcomplicated plot. Part of what I love about Mortal Kombat (one of his favourite game-to-movie adaptations) is the simplicity of it. The filmmakers understood that more than anything, we just wanted to watch those characters fight.”
Yap, who calls himself more of a ‘comics, anime and movie guy’, admits that he used to go to the arcade when he was a kid to play Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Raiden. He says: “Games now have such rich narratives, and from what I’ve seen, the world-building is incredible. That’s definitely something filmmakers can tap into and learn from.”
Has gaming influenced his own approach when it comes to storytelling? “I wouldn’t say it’s influenced my story-telling consciously,” Yap reckons. “Although now that I think about it, you could see certain aspects of my most recent film, Geng Kubur (a coming-of-age horror and a mystery thriller set in Malaysia), as characters going into different levels of a game. That’s not at all how it was conceived, nor was it my intention, but I can imagine some people, especially gamers, seeing it that way.”
A new frontier
As we move into a new era of entertainment where the lines between gaming and filmmaking are increasingly blurred, filmmakers like Tony, Tan and Yap are in the thick of things. Their work reflects an understanding of both mediums and a commitment to pushing the boundaries of storytelling.
While technology will undoubtedly play a significant role in shaping the future of cinema and gaming, these filmmakers remind us that the heart of any successful project remains the story.
As Tony aptly puts it, “Movies are ultimately about making the audience feel something. When you have a seamless integration between gaming and cinema, that’s a recipe for success.”
As filmmakers continue to draw inspiration from the gaming world, we can look forward to a future filled with innovative, immersive and unforgettable experiences.
