Evil Dead Remake Director May Helm Dante's Inferno Movie

[Karloff]

Evil Dead Remake Director May Helm Dante's Inferno Movie

Universal picked up Dante's Inferno before the game came out, and now it wants to make the movie.

Way back in 2008, when animated straight to DVD version [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1472-Dantes-Inferno] you may, or may not, have in your collection, and which came out in 2010. Time passed and gamers' memories may have faded, but the folks at Universal seem to be plugging away at this one with undiminished enthusiasm. Fede Alvarez, the gent who made Panic Attack and the Evil Dead remake, is currently in talks to direct the live action version, according to Deadline.

EA Entertainment's Patrick O'Brien is one of three producers attached to this epic property. This isn't the first time EA has partnered up with Universal; Universal also signed on to make a back in 2008 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482462/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1] nobody really knew what the game was going to be, or how it would be received. It was a Universal gamble, which may yet pay off. Or just go straight to DVD.

It's a bit of a surprise to see the movie surface, years after the game's release, with a presumed screen date some years from now. It's maybe not as much of a surprise to see Alvarez's name attached to it, even 'in talks'; if Universal's going to give it to anyone, it might as well be the guy who put together some good short films, made not much else [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/7093-Evil-Dead].

Source: Deadline [http://www.deadline.com/2013/09/evil-deads-fede-alvarez-going-to-hell-m-universals-dantes-inferno/]


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[Thaluikhain]

Bit off-topic, but a Sims movie? Really?

Though, I guess you could take almost any movie about ordinaryish people in the real world and call it a Sims movie.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Bit off-topic, but a Sims movie? Really?

Though, I guess you could take almost any movie about ordinaryish people in the real world and call it a Sims movie.

Eh, it could work...


What I'm confused about is why Universal felt the need to bid on the EA version of Dante's Inferno when they could've just bought the rights (if you would even need to) to make a film based off the original poem, The Divine Comedy.

 

[fix-the-spade]

A Dante's inferno Movie?

So which major shareholder's child dreamed up the game? They seem illogically desperate to make this complete failure claw it's way out of the forsaken pit.

Maybe it's because EA is the Devil and Dante and Virgil keep drinking all the beer. I'd keep trying trying to to push him out too.

 

[Thaluikhain]

What I'm confused about is why Universal felt the need to bid on the EA version of Dante's Inferno when they could've just bought the rights (if you would even need to) to make a film based off the original poem, The Divine Comedy.

Yeah, that's out of copyright by an order of magnitude. However, might not be a good idea as a tie-in, being authorised let's you make it much closer to what the fans want. Excepting if the game was much closer to the source material than I'm expecting.

 

[AlexanderPeregrine]

I'm willing to bet the producer just wants to make a Divine Comedy film and since the major studios basically won't fund anything that doesn't leech off some recent property, he pitched it as being based on the video game. Kind of similar to how Battleship was just some stupid Transformers wannabe nobody wanted to make until the producers attached it to an old board game no child ever had fun playing.

 

[Vault Citizen]

Wait, there was a bidding war for this? That is the part of this article that surprises me the most.

 

[Something Amyss]

What I'm confused about is why Universal felt the need to bid on the EA version of Dante's Inferno when they could've just bought the rights (if you would even need to) to make a film based off the original poem, The Divine Comedy.

They wouldn't need to. And the beautiful thing is they could cash in on DI's success if there was any.

Granted, there wouldn't be as many QTEs....

 

[Glaice]

How about the original Evil Dead director, not the remake's? What sort of dimwit thought the Sims games can be used to make an actual movie out of? Let me bet that one will tank hard.

 

[Callate]

So, then... All of the problems that come with making a video game film, and none of the beneficial publicity that comes from association with a game that was well-reviewed, or at least recent?

Well, I'm sure that will get the budget necessary to create the kind of fantasy-horror atmosphere necessary to...

I'm sure that will tap into the source works of Dante Alighieri in a way the game never...

I'm sure everyone involved will put forth their best efforts in order to create a...

...

...Maybe it's not to late to hire the protesters back.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I think it could be interesting, not a movie based on the game but based on the real Dante's Inferno, I'm surprised no one has made a movie based off it yet.

The only good thing about the game was the action figure that came with the Game

 

[Falterfire]

Wait, did anybody actually ever play Dante's Inferno? I though it was one of those games that was a controversy storm for a while leading up to release before totally vanishing once it was discovered that none of "THE CHILDREN!!!!!" could be bothered to play it long enough to be "DRIVEN TO VIOLENCE!!!!!!"

 

[TheTygre]

Please, let's not do this.

Look, I'll be up front; I love the Dante's Inferno video game. It's a juvenile and vulgar exercise in adolescent power fantasies that weakly stems from about half the necessary character action system required for a satisfying experience. But I've still played it four times through, and loved it each time. My point is, even if the source material was in any way palpable for a mass audience, there's still one glaring flaw I can't forgive; the game is too damn short. And I feel like that would be the true fatal flaw to any cinematic interpretation as well. I mean, once you hit the malebolge, it becomes painfully clear that Visceral Studios ran out of either money, time, ideas, or all three, and is just bullshitting things until Lucifer shows up. The last thing that it needs is to be cut down even more.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Wait, there was a bidding war for this? That is the part of this article that surprises me the most.

Hollywood studios will pay out of the nose to avoid making something original.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Excepting if the game was much closer to the source material than I'm expecting.

The source material was a beautifully written poem and hit piece aimed squarely at the movers and shakers of early 14th century Italian (often Florentine) politics. It had two notable side effects:
1) It helped cement Tuscan dialect Italian as the standard dialect of the language, and
2) It built the modern conception of Hell (and to a lesser extent Purgatory), infusing the undefined Lake of Fire with a heavy dose of Greek sensibilities, notably in its structure and fondness for ironic punishment.

So, no, it wasn't God of War with the serial numbers filed off.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

I don't really know where to begin on this one. I'll say this though, I think the fact that this is being directed by the Evil Dead Remake director is perhaps the most worrying news. The movie was a complete waste of time, and knowing that he is helming this doesn't help to dissuade any negative thoughts I have