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Sony is Developing a Shadow of the Colossus Movie

Posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

Shadow of the Colossus
In the past I’ve polled some of my video gamer friends, asking them what video games they would like to see turned into a big screen movie. Shadow of the Colossus is one of the games which always seems to make the wish list. THR reports that screenwriter Justin Marks has been hired to write a screenplay based on the video game property. Public Enemies producer Kevin Misher set the project up at Sony.


Marks, who has been hailed as Hollywood’s fanboy screenwriter, has been handed some of the top geek properties currently in development - Voltron, Masters of the Universe, Super Max, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, Hack/Slash and others. But his only released credit thus far is for 20th Century Fox’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which has been bashed by critics and fanboys alike.

The Playstation 2 game focused on young man named Wander who wes sent on a journey on horseback through vast minimalistic landscapes to defeat sixteen beings, simply known as colossi, and restore the life of a girl named Mono. The game is unusual within the action-adventure genre, and has been described more as a puzzle game because there are no towns or dungeons to explore, no characters with which to interact, and no enemies to defeat other than the main bosses.

The game is highly regaurded for its musical score (Awarded EGM’s “Soundtrack of the Year”) and cinematic visuals (GameSpy described it as “possibly the most innovative and visually arresting game of the year for the PS2″). Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) has called the video game a “masterpiece”, a destinction he gives to only one other game - Ico, which was also developed by SCEI’s International Production Studio 1.

Watch the trailer for the video game below:

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  • Ico is good, so is Shadow, and I could see both of them making good movies. But if it's going to be anything like SF: The Legend Of Chun Li, then count me out.
  • Games to movies usually don't make good transitions but I'll hope for the best with this one.
  • Mr. Do
    Shadow of the Collosus is a work of art - hardly a game in any traditional sense.

    I think it's got some potential to have some of the coolest CG as long as the "worlds" are real, moving sets once they've boarded the Collossi.
  • Pedro
    Oh my god.
  • Thumbs up for Shadow of the Colossus, finger down the throat for Justin Marks.

    Ico's great too but if Del Toro thinks it ends there he's missing out on some real beauties.
  • psbp
    like what? I can think of no others games as beautiful and touching as ico and shadow. Anyone read the stories about the link between the two. It's really interested to see how much they are related
  • jimmerzzzz
    ughhhhhh why couldnt they get a better screenwriter. i loved this game but i dont know about letting the guy who just wrote streetfighter get his greasy paws on this awesome material.
  • Knasty
    Shadow of the collosis is my fav game to date. ill keep everything crossed for this 1.
  • filmkid
    i personally dont want Justin Marks to write for this movie he let me down with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
  • Shadow of the Colossus was one of my favorite game for the PS2 (Me and my friend would play for hours). I'm not to sure about Justin Marks (Chun Li was horrible), Shadow of the Colossus needs some real talent to convey the feeling and tone into film (which is no easy task).

    I really hope Sony doesn't treat this poorly and ends up giving us a mediocre.

    Its so crazy how my friend and I spent hours discussing and throwing ideas on how "SOTC" would make such a wonderful film. I honestly thought it was going to be one of those "pipe dream" scenarios and we'd never see it on the big screen,

    I guess I was wrong.
  • Draco the fire colossus
    this one can be done. It just needs s talented and epic director... ... ... PETER JAKSON to the rescue. OMG he would be perfect. the way he worked on lord of the rings if he did that to this then it would easily be one of the geratest movies of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • SombarGraygang
    Yeah! Peter Jackson is the only director capable of this!
  • I think it should be Hayao Miyazaki film it would fit best. It just has stuff that hollywood cant do since its so Japan.
  • Why have they not made a Legend of Zelda game yet, but all these other video games keep getting made?
  • Trust me after the mario movie that is the last thing nintendo wants.
  • Let's put aside all the negativity for a sec. If they pull this off it could amazing. I'd almost say unique but there is already that game. Seriously though, this could be a visual feast. Undoubtedly style over substance...but what style.

    Fingers crossed.
  • I'm so ready to see This movie.
    I would also love to play a next-gen remake of the game.
    bigger chance of us getting one now.
    I bet they change the number of colossi.....colossus's.......
    to less.
    and I bet they try and flash back to before the girl died.
    try and make a tangible story out of it.
    which, for better or worse, I understand.
  • Brad
    This is an awful idea. The game is perfect for what it is AS, what it is. It has almost no dialog, only one real character (two if you count the horse) and is essentially a long string of boss battles broken up by lonesome wandering. There is nothing which can be added to it by making it into a movie without making significant changes to the things that made it great in the first place.
  • Brian
    Very true. Leave it as it is, a true videogame masterpiece.
  • ejs
    its a fantastic idea. the game lends itself to film perfectly. the problem is that it just has to be done right, in an almost Quest for Fire kindof way. Theres nothing wrong with movies that contain little dialogue. Think of Shadows of the Colossus as directed by the Gus Van Sant from Gerry. it would be phenomenal. unfortunately, im sure thats far from what we'll be getting.
  • I would rather a sequel to the game, or a new concept from the developer. I do not condone game to movie films, as you lose the interactivity that makes the game so brilliant.
  • Kai
    well, i'm not sure if you've heard or not. but they're making a new game called The Last Guardian. i'd guess it'd be like Wander's decendants running around with the most awesomenessest creature evar.
  • There is only one director who can make this work and he will NEVER do it.

    Terrence Malik.

    Think of all that Badlands and Days of Heaven cinematography being used for this.
  • psbp
    i tipe god
  • Bioshock is definitely not beautiful or touching, but I'd call it as close to a masterpiece as a mainstream game could be.
  • Tristan
    Metal Gear? Okami? Idk... probably missing your point, but I had to bring those up. ZELDA! Okay, sorry.
  • In all fairness, the studios could have deviated from the screenplay and made changes of their own. My friend, who's a student at University of Texas, had Beau Thorne as a teacher. (Beau Thorne wrote the screenplay for Max Payne) He claimed he was a huge fan of the games, and that the studio didn't even really use his screenplay to heart and switched things up. He was disappointed, but he got a whole ton of cash- so he's cool with it.
  • Justin Marks wrote "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li". Think about it?

    "Bison moves through the raindrops." What a gem! =/

    Fire Marks!
  • Spooky
    It's like someone manifested the Mona Lisa just to let her appear in a bukkake porn. Sad, just sad.
  • Karl Hungus
    Not sure it would be something Terrence Malick would do, just not the type of artist, not only that but Connie Hall is gone :(

    Others that come to mind however is a director like Wolfgang Peterson, in the style of The Never Ending Story or even in the theme of Return to Oz by Walter Murch.
    Though it's likely if it did get made, it would be a terrible CGI fest with no meaning or depth.
  • Afro
    The game is impossible to translate to a mainstream movie, there are 4 characters in the game and three of them don't talk. One of which is comatose. At best this can be a mute Neverending story with a lot of action scenes but it's just going to be impossible to be able to get the feel to translate to a movie without it getting repetitive.

    The Game is a masterpiece but it's just going to blow as a movie.
  • Josh
    its the stark minimalism of the game that makes it amazing. it needs a tartovsky touch to do it any justice as a movie.
  • Wow, who knew someone other than Uwe Boll would be interested in adaptating a video game?
  • Stripetg
    In that Adam Sandler/Don Cheadle movie, Reign on Me, Colossus was played extensively by the main character.
  • Erik U
    Honestly, this should be a writer/directors dream project. As Tercotta said above Terrence Malik immediately comes to mind. The game lends itself perfectly to someone with artistic vision, who can fill in the gaps in a creative way that is consistent with the tone of the game. There is almost no explicit story but an insane amount of story implied, especially if you've played Ico. The game rest entirely on atmosphere and feeling, particularly the feelings of loneliness and longing. These are the things that embody all of what makes cinema great as an art form, and to see a studio likely turn it into a highly commercial product is tragic.
  • Chris P
    This is a bad idea, first off movie goers will not get the rush of taking down a colossus if they can't do it, SOC was made to be a game and nothing more, further more the choice of a director is god awful, if SONY wants this idea to be jaw dropping they should find a director who played this game, and is creative enough to bring that sense of realism the game brings, to be honest with you I won't be sold on the idea until Fumito Ueda (the creator of ICO, and SOC) is involved with the movie 100% or at least 80%, personally SOC is too soon, if SONY wants to mae a film based on Ueda's masterpiece they should focus on ICO, because the connection between ICO and SOC is a big leap in hopes that movie goers will follow, granted SOC is a prequel to ICO... but still ICO is a better idea to be made into a movie... again unless Ueda is involved count me out....
  • Goobity
    I like the idea on one hand, but the main 'weight' of the game (and more so in ICO) is the interactivity. You cared about the character(s) because you are controlling their actions. When things go wrong (don't worry - I won't spoil the endings), you feel like you're a part of it. A movie just couldn't pull it off in the same way. Those of you who've played the games know what I mean. ;)

    I fear Hollywood would be compelled to include a talkative / exposition-crazed sidekick in on the adventure - in other words ruin it.
  • I'm feeling a 90 min narration voiced by the main actor.
  • starscream9289
    The game definetely had the best graphics of its time. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.
  • He's actually a good writer. Both The Masters of the Universe script and the Supermax are solid scripts, but I haven't read the Street Fighter script. More than anything I'd fault the failure of Chun-li with Fox, they haven't made a decent adaptation in 5 years.
  • GoreBaby
    This could be a beautiful film, but I highly doubt it will be able to capture the magnificence held in the game. Exciting news only because of what this film COULD be (seeing as SOC is one of my favorite games) but isn't when you think about what the film will probably end up as. I hope I'm wrong.
  • This game is awesome, the soundtrack is probably one of the best ever.

    That said, this would suck as a movie.
  • Oh god the thought of Malick doing a Shadow of the Colossus movie is too much for me to handle. I can imagine 2 hours + of no dialog and pure poetry on the screen.
  • Would that be a good thing for you? (I can't tell by your wording and I'm generally curious)
  • oh yes. Malick is my favorite filmmaker. The man is 4/4 in my book and soon to be 5/5.
  • In my first year of film studies we've done Badlands and Days of Heaven. Gonna watch the rest of his catalog over summer after exams. I'm stoked.
  • Nice. Badlands is my favorite film of his with The Thin Red Line a very very close second followed by Days of Heaven and The New World. I've only seen Days of Heaven and The New World once each as opposed to the dozen or so times for the other two. I was so disappointed to find out that Tree of Life is being pushed to 2010.
  • People now a days simply do not know how to translate videogames to film, and there is not that much insentive/will to do so.

    But don't worry, by the time a become an A-list director/writer/producer, all that will change.
  • I don't see how this could possibly work as a mainstream film. Most games are already badly positioned for a film transition, but this game truly has no dialogue or real plot structure. To make a deep film that's entirely composed of one monster being slayed after another would take a master directer. Adding any original story would ruin the mythology and mystery of the game. At the very least it will be interesting to see how well they create the colossi, they are some of the best creatures I've ever seen realized.
  • Del Toro or Jackson would also be a good choice and probably more feasible than Malick.
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