There are worse directors in the world than Brett Ratner. For example, despite trouncing the great character work found in the first two X-Men films and dishonoring their memory, X3 was at least competently directed with action scenes that made some sort of visual sense. But here at /Film, Ratner is someone that we love to hate, a hired-gun director who seems completely content to make films that can best be described as stunningly mediocre. It comes as no surprise, then, that Ratner recently expressed a desire to make a film version of Guitar Hero.

In a recent interview with MTV’s Jocelyn Vena, Ratner divulged his desire to make a film based on the monstrously popular game:

I love ‘Guitar Hero’ and I think it’s a part of pop culture. I would love to do a ‘Guitar Hero’ movie, if Activision would ever let me. I’m trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a ‘Guitar Hero’ movie…It could be about a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the ‘Guitar Hero’ competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts.

Over 21 million copies of Guitar Hero have been sold and that gravy train doesn’t look like it’s going to be derailed anytime soon. Still, it’s understandable that Activision would not want a crappy film tarnishing its precious franchise. My feeling is that in a nuclear situation where a Ratner film ends up being spectacularly bad, sales of the game units would be unaffected, although executives might look back at the film as a curious misstep in brand management.

One other thing to think about: In Ratner’s brief description of what the plot of the film might be, the “Guitar Hero” competition sounds like a real-life competition with actual guitars. This reduces the movie to a generic musical success story, only with some crass Guitar Hero branding. Why not go the South Park route and have the kid compete at a “Guitar Hero” competition, where they actually play the “Guitar Hero” videogame? (I’m kidding, I’m kidding…or am I?)

Discuss: Who thinks a Guitar Hero game is remotely close to a good idea? If so, should “Guitar Hero” the videogame play any part in “Guitar Hero” the movie?

via 1up