Sony's Landau: 300 The 'First Video Game Movie Translation'

Author: by Staff

As part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview with Sony Pictures Digital's Yair Landau posted today, the exec has been suggesting that the film 300 is closest to being the first truly successful video game-styled movie, despite not being based on a game. Sony Pictures Digital's Landau oversees both Sony Pictures Animation (Surf's Up) and Sony Online Entertainment (EverQuest), and talks to Gamasutra about how convergence is significantly affecting the bond between Hollywood and the game industry, from 300 to The Agency. When discussing the film-game crossover opportunities, Landau points to the Sony Pictures-related Resident Evil movies as being an effective translation, but notes: "We've yet to see a game truly spawn a movie on the caliber of the game." He particularly continues: "I actually think that the phenomenon of 300 is really, in fact, a manifestation of the video game experience in kind of the collective conscience. The audience who came to see 300 was weaned on video games and what they saw in the marketing materials for 300 was a similar experience. They didn't show up because they were interested in the Spartans, or because they read Herodotus, or because they thought the Battle of Thermopylae was a great, untold story. They showed up because they saw a movie experience that was the most similar to the game experiences that they've grown up playing. The movie works because it's violent and it's actually very video game-ish. Even though it's based on a graphic novel, the execution of that graphic novel was more to video games - and so you could say 300 is the first video game movie translation even though it's not really based on a video game." The full interview with Sony Pictures' Landau is now available on Gamasutra, including plenty more detail on Hollywood's influence on games and vice versa, as well as commentary on the relative success of the Mario Bros. and Tomb Raider franchises at the movies.