DreamWorks' Need for Speed Movie Is Really Happening

[Greg Tito]

DreamWorks' Need for Speed Movie Is Really Happening

A movie based on the racing franchise will try to out-fast, out-furious Vin Diesel.

By this point, bad movies based on videogame franchises is kind of a cliche. While I don't really hold my breath for a Halo movie, or whether the Uncharted film will be any good, at least those franchises have strong narratives and characters from which to form a decent film. A racing game with no clear plot or continuous story? Yeah, I'm not sure what Dreamworks' Steven Spielberg is doing purchasing the rights to EA's Need for Speed franchise, but production is moving forward with a target release date of 2014 for the vehicular action movie. Spielberg tapped John and George Gatins - writers of the robot-boxing movie Real Steel - to pen the screenplay.

"I'm excited about getting back into the creative trenches with John and George Gatins and my partners at EA to bring to life an exhilarating script based on an epic video game that seems to have been made for the movies," said Steven Spielberg, head of Dreamworks and director of E.T, Indiana Jones and many other good movies.

This one won't really be based on the background from any particular Need for Speed game, instead using the license to write a 70s-style car porn movie like Smokey and the Bandit. EA sells the plot with the following buzz words: "[Need for Speed will be] a fast-paced, high-octane film rooted in the tradition of the great car culture films of the 70s."

EA is thrilled. "They are the perfect partner to take Need for Speed to the big screen by creating the exciting action film that we have always envisioned," said Frank Gibeau from EA.

As I said, I'm dubious such a film is necessary as a videogame tie-in. Then again, I haven't seen any movie with "fast" or "furious" in the title and I think about cars only as a conveyance, so maybe I'm not the target audience here. Is anyone interested in a Need for Speed movie?

Source: Game Informer [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/06/22/need-for-speed-movie-edges-closer-to-the-starting-line.aspx]

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[Scrustle]

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH this is actually happening? Please, please no. Just no. Go away. Please let something catastrophically awful happen to this film very soon.

It's so unfair that an inevitable piece of shit like this gets the green light while Bioshock, which could actually make a good film, gets canned. I guess it's early days yet so there is still hope for this piece of crap to burn before it gets anywhere. It better. It's the only fair thing to happen.

But some of the NFS games did kind of have a story. They weren't anything other than "get revenge on/get your car back from the bad guy by racing him", but they exist.

 

[Excludos]

"This one won't really be based on the background from any particular Need for Speed game, instead using the license to write a 70s-style car porn movie like Smokey and the Bandit."

If this sentence has any truth in it, the movie stands a chance.

But there is absolutely no reason to tie a movie into the need for speed franchise except for marketing, which doesn't help me hold high hopes for such a movie. I'm still going to be excited to see it though, because I'm one of those who never learns.

 

[wooty]

I'm not interested in this at all, but I can see a vision.....a vision, of a man called Bob Chipman placing his fist through his computer monitor.

I'll avoid this, and my rev head obsessed friends, like the plague.

 

[Covarr]

There had better be a ton of cop chases in this movie. All the best games in the franchise (III, Most Wanted, and Hot Pursuit) focused on the police element almost as much as the racing itself.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

And that pretty much sums up my feelings. Seriously, Fast and the Furious is bad enough, we don't need something else just like it.

 

[Xanthious]

Well I know one is board game and the other is a video game but I can't help but look to the incredible failure that was the Battleship movie and quietly wonder what in the pikey fuck they are thinking making a Need For Speed movie. I could see taking some random low budget racing movie sitting on the shelf and slapping the Need For Speed label on it to try and get a few more asses in the seats. However, to make an entirely new movie out of this particular property really strikes me a terrible idea.

 

[The Random One]

There already is a Need for Speed movie. It's called The Run. WOOT WOOT MAJOR ZING

seriously though, if the bad guy drives a Nissan Skyline I have no qualms with it.

 

[ivc392]

DreamWorks' Need for Speed Movie Is Really Happening


"[Need for Speed will be] a fast-paced, high-octane film rooted in the tradition of the great car culture films of the 70s."


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Well, its the Need for Speed franchise we are talking about. Its not like they could possibly degrade the source material any more.
Sooo, best case scenario, we get a glorified 1,5h car chase sequence "a la Robert Rodriguez".

 

[Jaeke]

Oh cool, Fast&Furious 6.

Could be cool. Vin Diesel is fun to watch beat cops to a pulp.

 

[Danzavare]

Up until this article I just assumed Fast & Furious was a movie adaption of Need for Speed (They seem equally generic).

As far as car movies go Drive is easily the best one I've seen (Currently debating on whether to consider it my favourite film or not).

Edit: Mind you, the closest I come to driving is public transport.

 

[Irridium]

Wait, you mean the Fast and Furious movies weren't movie adaptations of the Need for Speed games?

Huh.

 

[RA92]

Oh, if only it could be like Spielberg's first movie, Duel...

 

[BrotherRool]

The Fast & Furious has left it's Need for Speed roots in the latest ones, so this is the perfect time to snatch up that market. And in fairness the two series were already inextricably linked in people's minds. Tokyo Drift and Carbon just happened to be exactly the same thing and released in the same year? Coincidence? Not likely.

Ironically enough, this is probably the most likely game-to-film to be successful, both for its fans and viewers, as a film and an adaptation. It could be fun too.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Why in the holy fuck, could you possibly find anything more shallow... so what's next a FIFA movie? Maybe Madden, or NHL, or Dragon Age... oh wait you already did that horrid abortion of an anime.

 

[BrotherRool]

Well I know one is board game and the other is a video game but I can't help but look to the incredible failure that was the Battleship movie and quietly wonder what in the pikey fuck they are thinking making a Need For Speed movie. I could see taking some random low budget racing movie sitting on the shelf and slapping the Need For Speed label on it to try and get a few more asses in the seats. However, to make an entirely new movie out of this particular property really strikes me a terrible idea.

The difference between the two is, you think Battleship film and... what? No-one knew what that film would be like, there was no logical progression in anyones mind from Battleship to film and so the best it can be is a label stuck on a random film.

Even Prince of Persia, it's the platforming gameplay that people associate with the franchise, so when you say Prince of Persia film, even though we know the setting and even the story possibly, it doesn't feel right and we're confused about why it's not generic film set in middle east.

On the other hand yo say Need For Speed film and everyone knows exactly what it's going to be like. In fact, as evidenced multiple times in this thread, it's a surprisingly common phenomenon to believe that Need For Speed and Fast & Furious were adaptations of each other. So it's very easy to make a successful film that pleases fans of films and fans of games because both are entirely in agreement with what they want to say.

Okay, so the Escapist community in general isn't into the streetracer scene and probably doesn't enjoy the neon and women working past the camera at odd heights, but there are lots of people who love this stuff and at the moment there's a lack of films to appease them (Fast & Furious for some reason decided of all franchises, to try for a darker more realistic tone(?) 5 was full of shots of the beauty but terrible poverty in Rio etc and the only real race happened off screen). So I really think, provided they're quick and do a good job, this has everything chance of being a successful film and despite not being a critically acclaimed genre, has every chance of being 'good'

 

[ElPatron]

There is no need to be a hipster about it, and there is definitely no need to compare this franchise to other games that you people like.

Will watch if they actually stay true to their words about 70's car porn.

Okay, so the Escapist community in general isn't into the streetracer scene and probably doesn't enjoy the neon and women working past the camera at odd heights, but there are lots of people who love this stuff

Gimmie the ricer cars, the Evos, the neon and all that. But from this piece I don't think if tuning will even make an appearance. But hey, there were "ricers" in the movie Cars so I am expecting anything.

Why in the holy fuck, could you possibly find anything more shallow... so what's next a FIFA movie?

You mean this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal!_%28film%29

Just because it's not an attractive french guy being depressed and smoking doesn't mean it's shallow (Family Guy reference).

 

[death525]

I can see this owrking if they focus on some good car chase scenes. If its Dreamworks, I assume it will be animated so they could have some very creative car chases. Also with the whole 70's angle they are going for they could easily have some fairly decent humor and set gags based around both the era and the concept itself.

 

[rees263]

Wow how stupid are these guys. Everyone knows that a Burnout movie would be much better.