Just Cause Exploding on to Big Screen

[Logan Westbrook]

Just Cause Exploding on to Big Screen

Tropical beaches, explosions and a handsome hero - Just Cause has everything an action movie could want.

Avalanche Studio's 2006 sandbox action game Just Cause [http://www.amazon.com/Just-Cause-Xbox-360/dp/B000FZZ5UA/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1286199781&sr=1-3] is to make its way to the silver screen via Eric Eisner's L+E Productions. Eisner will develop the property with Hitman [http://www.amazon.com/Hitman-Unrated-Timothy-Olyphant/dp/B0012RLX88/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1286199885&sr=1-2] and Kane & Lynch [http://www.amazon.com/Kane-Lynch-2-Days-Playstation-3/dp/B0023CBZ70/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1286199845&sr=1-3] producer Adrien Askarieh before taking it to studios.

Just Cause tells the story of CIA agent Rico Rodriguez, who heads to the fictional Caribbean island of San Esperito in order to help overthrow a military dictatorship thought to be in possession of weapons of mass destruction. The game is stuffed full of guns, cars and explosions, not to mention grappling hooks and base jumping, and it seems like it would be a really good fit for a summer action blockbuster. Moreover, the game's story is short enough that it can be cut down into a two-hour movie without losing very much.

But despite the good fit, it's unlikely to be plain sailing for the Just Cause movie. Eisner's production company has released just a single film, a Steve Coogan comedy called Hamlet 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Hamlet-2-Steve-Coogan/dp/B001IOQWA4/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1286199916&sr=1-1] which made only half of what the rights were sold for at the Sundance Festival in 2008. On top of that, the attached screenwriter Michael Ross has only had one other script made into a movie, the horror movie Turistas [http://www.amazon.com/Turistas-Unrated-Josh-Duhamel/dp/B000N3AW6G/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1286199943&sr=1-1], which didn't exactly set the box office on fire either. Neither of these facts necessarily means that Just Cause will be bad, but they don't exactly inspire confidence, and could make it harder to attract investors and get the movie made.

Source: Variety [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118024980.html?categoryid=1009&cs=1] via Voodoo Extreme [http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/57425/Just-Cause-Goes-Hollywood]


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[Jared]

...If given to someone who knows what they are doing - Yes
Otherwise...*shudders*

 

[MentalBakura]

This could be alright if done well. Just Cause would make a great stupid action movie.

 

[Trivun]

They should just give it to Sly Stallone. He knew what he was doing with The Expendables, and that turned out to be a kick-ass fun romp through various action film cliches that still turned out to be a pretty good movie. And I'm certain I'm not the only person who kept getting vibes of both Far Cry and Just Cause when watching that film, right? Especially with the divebombing cargo plane with the machine gun on the nose attacking the docks...

Yeah. Sly Stallone can make this good. He's the best bet, really...

 

[Quaxar]

Not Uwe Boll, not Uwe Bool, not Uwe Boll.

And I still expect it to be mediocre at best. Games to films and vice-versa are often very poorly made unfortunately. But let's wait for confirmation before we start bitchin' about it.

 

[Woodsey]

I'd much rather play it.

 

[imPacT31]

I don't really see how this could work, although maybe that's just me.

Just Cause doesn't have much of a plot beyond "A CIA agent is sent to destabilise a country, lots of stuff blows up" and none of the characters have any positive traits beyond standard videogame badassery. While this is a decent base for starting from scratch, as there's barely anything to ruin, I really don't see how you could make a movie that would represent the game.

Maybe something along the lines of Rambo, as directed by Michael Bay, with some parachute stunts and a scene where the hero is hanging from the wing of a plane would suffice?

 

[Saltyk]

I thought it was already an established fact that video games don't make good movies. What makes games great is the interactive aspect of them. Which is something that doesn't translate well into movies.

 

[imPacT31]

I thought it was already an established fact that video games don't make good movies. What makes games great is the interactive aspect of them. Which is something that doesn't translate well into movies.

It also doesn't help that a videogame movie has to compact the story and characterisation into limited screen-time, while balancing courting the fans and aiming for mass market appeal. How on earth do you take a license and adapt it to be to the fans liking, despite having to drop massive amounts of content, and accessible to those with no prior knowledge of the source, without the end product being fundamentally different from that which inspired it?

 

[Jonny49]

This could be alright if done well. Just Cause would make a great stupid action movie.

You forget, they made a Kane & Lynch movie with a black guy. The game has two white guys in it, how can they not see that? I know you have to take artistic licence when turning a book or game into a film but you would like to think they would keep the characters they are in the game.

They haven't made anything yet, they don't even have a director. And as choices go, Jamie Fox is not a bad one. He's a great actor when given the right material.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

How will the grappling hook work?

Half the fun is doing stupid shit with it.

 

[Saltyk]

I thought it was already an established fact that video games don't make good movies. What makes games great is the interactive aspect of them. Which is something that doesn't translate well into movies.

It also doesn't help that a videogame movie has to compact the story and characterisation into limited screen-time, while balancing courting the fans and aiming for mass market appeal. How on earth do you take a license and adapt it to be to the fans liking, despite having to drop massive amounts of content, and accessible to those with no prior knowledge of the source, without the end product being fundamentally different from that which inspired it?

You mean movies like Resident Evil. That's not a question, but rather a statement. I still have no idea what the first one was supposed to be about. All it had in common with the games was a few names. After the first one, they apparently decided to make the movies into stupid action films. At least those are somewhat entertaining. Wouldn't call them good, though.

 

[Numachuka]

At least it's not Uwe Boll right?

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Um, excuse me.
[a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.236412.8427005]As you can see here, I posted this on the Escapist 10 hours ago.[/a] Credit?

Dude, you copied and pasted an article from Kotaku. I'm not entirely sure what you think you deserve credit for.

 

[Void(null)]

Not Uwe Boll, not Uwe Bool, not Uwe Boll.

And I still expect it to be mediocre at best. Games to films and vice-versa are often very poorly made unfortunately. But let's wait for confirmation before we start bitchin' about it.

Oh come on, Uwe Boll's Just Cause would be freaking hilarious. Uwe is such an underrated comedic genius and one of the best trolls of our generation.

 

[Therumancer]

A couple decades ago I think this could have been made into a good movie, but unfortunatly I think the action movie market has changed to the point where this won't o especially well. Of course I could be wrong.

As far as the question of Rico's ethnicity goes, I agree, whomever plays the role pretty much has to be (or at least pass as) having an ethnically spanish-speaking origin (Latino, Hispanic, etc... I'm not sure where Rico's ancestors are supposed to have been from), though the people need to also understand in doing a movie like this that Rico is an extremely patriotic American so using him to make criticisms of the US on various real world issues connected to those ethnicities would be a REALLY bad move given what he's supposed to be doing, who he represents, and how many people he tends to kill in pursuit of American goals without blinking an eye.

This does bring up a question though as to who could actually play this role. Antonio Banderas would have sort of looked the part, but he's aging (and is a very hit or miss actor to begin with). He after all fit the role of Zorro at least physically, and was also able to hold down those over the top El-Mariachi movies (Desperado, etc...). The problem with him though is that sometimes he can do great over the top action movies, but sometimes he does a "Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever"... plus again there is his age.

At any rate, we'll see what happens. Who knows, maybe it will launch the career of a new action hero when it does far better than anyone could possibly expect.