Films of games in 'actually watchable' shocker!

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There's hope yet for Hollywood adaptations...

In 2006, men such as Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner can talk with Jerry Bruckheimer (who you may know from such works as Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbour and CSI) about a big screen version of the Prince's Babylon. Five years ago, if you were interested in game-films you'd be talking to Uwe Boll.

This madcap German has been likened, in the more polite criticism, to the famously awful director Ed Wood - a man so lacking in talent it was almost anti-talent. And certainly Boll seems to be doing his bit to get game adaptations a shamefully bad reputation.

His notorious version of House of the Dead wedged actual game footage alongside terrible acting, dreadful and often improvised dialogue and a near total lack of plot. Interestingly, Uwe Boll once made a film actually called Fiasco.

More recently Boll's managed to make BloodRayne nearly unwatchable despite the presence of Kristanna Loken (the Her-minator from Terminator 3), Michelle Rodriguez, Billy Zane, Meatloaf (for some reason) and even highly respected thesp Ben Kingsley, and done just the same with Alone in the Dark. Though to be fair, actress Tara Reid should shoulder some of the blame for that - Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff didn't really stand a chance.

Sadly, Boll is currently finishing up a Dungeon Siege film and has announced his intention to film Fear Effect, Postal and Far Cry.

But the landscape is changing. Such trash - assuming Postal's interpretation of a game about running amok with weapons for no reason other than madness doesn't shock us all with an Oscar - will go straight to the bargain bin. And low-budget oddities based on fighting games, lightgun shooters and poor FPSs will no longer define what games based on movies can be.