The Cube Video Game That Never Was

Vincenzo Natali's 1997 film Cube didn't have a huge theatrical release when it first came out, but it subsequently became a hit on DVD, enough to warrant two direct-to-DVD sequels. During my interview with Natali, he spoke about how he never wanted to make a sequel to Cube. But a video game? That's another story.

On the possibility of a Cube video game, Natali explained:

I will say this: If I ever had the opportunity to make a Cube game, I would jump at that. I would love that. I really think it lends itself to that. When I was writing [Cube] with my co-writer, Andrei Bijelic, we kept asking ourselves, "Are we writing a film or a game?" Because it really has that kind of structure to it. So, I think it would adapt beautifully. It would be seamless. I actually wrote an outline for a game, in fact. I also thought it would be interesting, because in addition to dealing with the traps, you'd have to deal with the other people.

The episodic nature of Cube does seem to lend itself to a video game, especially a simple puzzle game. But I am less sure about integrating some of the psychological elements of the film, since to date, most games that have attempted similar things resort to fairly simple and predictable algorithms (see "The Sims" as an example).

It seems unlikely that a Cube game will ever be made, given that it's so long after the film first came out. Stranger things have happened, though, like the Fight Club game that came out five years after that film's release (or the fact that a Fight Club video game was even made). And all that being said, I'm always fascinated by film directors venturing into other genres.

Here's the trailer for the original film:

Discuss: Would you ever want to see a Cube video game?