Twisted Metal: The Movie

[Burke]

The video game franchise Twisted Metal is coming to the big screen courtesy of the co-director and producers of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Deadline reports that Brian Taylor, half of the Neveldine/Taylor team behind the Crank films and GR2, has sealed a deal to write and direct a live-action feature film version of Twisted Metal for Sony and producers Avi Arad and Ari Arad. Avi Arad, as you may remember, used to run Marvel Studios and remains a producer on the Spider-Man films.

"Like the game, the film will revolve around an underground event that pits a number of combatants in a fight to the death. They are outfitted in armored weaponized cars that are pimped out with heavy weaponry that includes missiles and machine guns. Some drop mines or launch electrical charges," according to Deadline. "The proprietor of the race is Calypso, a string-puller dedicating to examining the human condition, such as what makes a peaceful man violent, what terrifies a violent man and who will make a Faustian bargain in which they risk their lives. The sole survivor will get any wish granted."

The killer clown Sweet Tooth and the mask-wearing, truck-driving Doll Face are expected to appear in the film.

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I hope this is more Death Race 2000 than Transformers. And Sweet Tooth better look badass.

Btw, I'm pissed that the new Twisted Metal game has been delayed until the beginning of next month in the UK. I was looking forward to getting it this week like the US people are.

[Brandon]

This sounds potentially awesome. I hope it features characters from the game though and not originals.

[Burke]

I agree. I want all my old favourites to be in it. Even old ass Warthog.

I'm surprised I didn't think to mention this in the video games you want to see as movies topic.

This really could go either way. In the wrong hands, it could be truly awful if they try and make it a budget Transformers, family friendly type thing. If they get the right director/screenwriter though and make it as dark and violent as the games are then it could be awesome.

[Burke]

uk.movies.ign.com/articles/121/1218790p1.html

What We Want: Twisted Metal Movie

Insane car combat on the big screen? How can they screw that up? Our guide on how to do it right.

It's been a very good week for fans of the Twisted Metal franchise. After a decade-long absence from Sony's PlayStation consoles, the series finally debuted on the PlayStation 3 with a new sequel, simply titled Twisted Metal. But we also learned this week that Sony Pictures Entertainment is moving forward with a live-action Twisted Metal movie from writer/director Brian Taylor and producers Avi and Ari Arad. (The trio previously worked together on Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance.)

This second piece of news is bittersweet, at best, as video game movies still have a reputation for being cheap, lousy cash-ins that don't do justice to the source material. In this feature, we look at a few ways Sony can avoid the mistakes of the past and deliver an adaptation that fans and newbies alike will want to see.

Live-Action or CG?

We haven't seen many video game movies choose the computer animated route over live-action, mostly because the latter is so much cheaper and simpler. On those rare cases an adaptation does go the CG route, like with Resident Evil: Degeneration, the visuals aren't much more impressive than you'd find in the games.



The Twisted Metal series has always featured an interesting blend of live-action cut-scenes and in-game 3D graphics. Even the most recent game sticks to live-action cut-scenes. However, like most FMV sequences in video games, these cut-scenes are more notable for their cheesiness than their dramatic storytelling acumen.

Because of this, some Twisted Metal fans might fear that the franchise just doesn't work in live-action. However, we think that Sony merely needs the right budget and resources to pull it off properly. A computer-animated version of Twisted Metal would be far more expensive and time-consuming to make, and in the end its mature content would limit the potential audience too much.

An R-Rated Video Game Movie

We've seen too many video game and comic book movies suffer because the studios weren't willing to push the content and maturity level as far as they needed to go. A PG-13 Punisher movie? Seriously?



We hope Sony doesn't make the same mistake with Twisted Metal. The games themselves didn't reach M-rated territory until Twisted Metal Black on the PlayStation 2, when the franchise took a darker turn. That's the approach we want to see from the movie. And in any case, it's easier for low-polygon PlayStation games to get away with excessive violence than live-action movies.

The bottom line is that we don't want to see the movie cutting corners or toning down content in order to try to appeal to a wider audience. Twisted Metal is a story about crazy people driving around in souped-up cars blowing each other up. There's nothing PG-13 about that. The movie should have Grindhouse levels of violence, and enough explosions to keep the speakers rumbling through the entire movie.

Keep the Cast Small

On a basic level, a Twisted Metal movie isn't so different from the many adaptations of fighting games various studios have churned out. A group of skilled warriors are brought together to compete in a tournament, with the winner reaping vast rewards.



Of course, fighting game adaptations tend to be terrible, which is one reason we're concerned about Twisted Metal. But one thing Sony can do to minimize the chances of storytelling failure is to keep the cast trimmed to a respectable minimum. Most of the Twisted Metal games feature a dozen or more playable characters. Only a handful of those should feature prominently in the movie.

The first Mortal Kombat is the one example of a genuinely decent fighting game movie. There, the script featured heroes Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage as the main protagonists, and most of the other characters were window dressing. But in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the cast ballooned and the script quickly devolved into nonsense.

The newest Twisted Metal game trimmed the playable characters to three – Sweet Tooth, Dollface, and Mr. Grimm. That limited selection is somewhat of a drawback for a game. Gamers love options, after all. But as far as telling a clean and straightforward story, less is more. The idea of all three characters having factions of followers might be another element worth carrying over to the film.

As long as Sweet Tooth, Dollface, and tournament host Calypso are featured prominently in the movie, the rest of the cast are free to be trimmed.

A Creative Plot

Unhinged racers driving armored cars and trying to kill each other in a violent race? That description could apply to movies like Death Race just as easily as it could Twisted Metal. The games have never been known for their deep, labyrinthine plots in the first place. Each game tends to focus on Calypso bringing together a group of skilled racers to battle to the death in various arenas. The winner receives his one greatest wish (a wish that Calypso often perverts for his own amusement).



If the movie is going to stand out and attract the attention it deserves from non-gamers, it needs to add a little more spice to the recipe. The movie shouldn't pretend that the Twisted Metal franchise is something it isn't, but it also needs to develop a deeper conflict and provide reasons for viewers to latch onto the various characters. What goes on when they aren't in the arena?

The script should also make the most of the near-future setting. Like George Romero's zombie movies, perhaps there can be a little colorful social commentary beneath all the explosions.

Don't Take It Seriously

The Twisted Metal series may have veered into darker territory in more recent iterations, but that hardly makes it a realistic drama by any stretch of the imagination. They aren't thinking man's action games, and they're never going to offer award-winning storylines. We want an engaging plot out of the movie, but it doesn't need to be high art. Too much story and character work is going to distract from a movie that should really be focused on action and spectacle.



Luckily, Sony seems to be on the right track by hiring Brian Taylor to write and direct the movie. Taylor is one half of the duo that brought us such wacky action films as Crank and Gamer. Sony already saw fit to have Taylor and frequent partner Mark Neveldine revamp the Ghost Rider franchise with the pseudo-sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which already seems more enjoyable than the first.

Even without Neveldine joining him, Taylor has the right inclinations to do justice to Twisted Metal. We hope to see the same ridiculous situations, politically incorrect humor, and nonstop action that have defined the Crank movies. Nothing more and nothing less.

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My main hope is that Sweet Tooth is suitably evil and sadistic in the movie.