Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

Christopher Nolan Talks Making His Movies Into Video Games

The award-winning director of cerebral blockbusters, Christopher Nolan, discusses the challenge of turning one of his movies into a video game.

gamerant.com

In an interview with Geoff Keighley, Canadian video game journalist and host of the Game Awards 2020, film director Christopher Nolan briefly discussed what it would take to turn one of his films into a video game. Keighley tweeted an excerpt concerning Nolan's response hours after what was originally an interview promoting Nolan's latest blockbuster, Tenet.

In the interview, Nolan answers questions from film and game fans alike about Tenet, such as how he chose between a multitude of possible endings and his opinion on how he attempts to structure the sound design for his films. But the questions weren't limited to talk of Tenet, and one fan asked if he ever wanted one of his films adapted into a video game.


Nolan's response is vague but he does bring up an excellent point about similarities in the process behind creating films and games. Both take a very long time, but games often take longer. When balancing the risks and rewards of the time spent working on a project vs. the success of its outcome, Nolan seems to favor filmmaking. He also mentions the importance of creating a game that while inspired by its movie predecessor, is distinct in vision and strives for more than just faithful brand recreation.

 

[Rhazkul]

Great. More video games with a "cinematic experience". I love "playing" interactive movies...

 

[killatopak]

This is why people invited him for the VGAs.

Making people interested in the gaming industry.

Geoff your plan worked.

 

[Jethalal]

Technically, there are Batman games

I wouldn't mind a TENET game even though I have no clue how they will execute it.

 

[Revolutionary]

Nolan might want to have a talk with Guillermo Del Toro before going down this path...

 

[ROMhack]

This isn't the first time I've thought about Nolan and videogames.

He likes to make exposition heavy films which are remarkably similar to games insofar as they guide the player along the difficult parts via dialogue exchange. A recent example of this is in Control where your conversations between missions basically outline everything you know about what's going on (let's face it, you don't through gameplay; it's just confusing).

Nolan's films are hugely similar because the way he gets the message across to the audience comes through the same exchange. Between action parts, two characters typically converse to explain to the viewer what's going on. Quite honestly, it's a style that Hideo Kojima uses a lot too, hence his heightened use of cutscenes.

Dunkirk is an outlier ofc but you definitely see it in the Batman films, Interstellar and especially Inception.

Videogames are really good for experimental narratives, maybe even better than films.

 

[skneogaf]

Tenet could be made by remedy entertainment. Just have a look at quantum break (amazing) and control (pretty good)they both have elements of that movie.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Nolan's response is vague but he does bring up an excellent point about similarities in the process behind creating films and games. Both take a very long time, but games often take longer.

That's because so many games try to pander to broke-student-with-no-money-but-lots-of-time, so we get 100hrs behemoths with repeatable activities just to make people justify their money spent well.

So how about cutting the length in half and making the remaining 50hrs really meaningful?

Also I would love someone to make a game out of Nolan's movie and show him what a professional sound mixing is all about.

 

[Explosive Zombie]

I'm interested in the multitude of different TENET endings thing

 

[ROMhack]

That's because so many games try to pander to broke-student-with-no-money-but-lots-of-time, so we get 100hrs behemoths with repeatable activities just to make people justify their money spent well.

So how about cutting the length in half and making the remaining 50hrs really meaningful?

Also I would love someone to make a game out of Nolan's movie and show him what a professional sound mixing is all about.

Touche.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

He should work with David Cage and free his "story focused" games from pathetic stories.

 

[SJRB]

Yeah I could see Remedy doing a Tenet-style videogame.

 

[ManaByte]

EA also was in development of a Dark Knight game when people decided to stop doing movie tie-in games.

 

[mckmas8808]

Great. More video games with a "cinematic experience". I love "playing" interactive movies...

He literally said the exact opposite of this. You didn't read past the headline did you?

 

[mckmas8808]

This isn't the first time I've thought about Nolan and videogames.

He likes to make exposition heavy films which are remarkably similar to games insofar as they guide the player along the difficult parts via dialogue exchange. A recent example of this is in Control where your conversations between missions basically outline everything you know about what's going on (let's face it, you don't through gameplay; it's just confusing).

Nolan's films are hugely similar because the way he gets the message across to the audience comes through the same exchange. Between action parts, two characters typically converse to explain to the viewer what's going on. Quite honestly, it's a style that Hideo Kojima uses a lot too, hence his heightened use of cutscenes.

Dunkirk is an outlier ofc but you definitely see it in the Batman films, Interstellar and especially Inception.

Videogames are really good for experimental narratives, maybe even better than films.

I haven't seen a post on GAF be more on point and correct than this. Best post of the month!!!

 

[Calverz]

Interesting. Im a fan of his films so would be interesting to see what he could do with a game given the resources and team.

 

[kyussman]

Tenet did feel a bit "gamey" I guess.....I mean,I watched it just a couple of days ago and I'm still trying to process what was going on,lol......I'm thinking ten more viewings and I might start to understand it,good job I bought a Blu-Ray copy!

 

[MCplayer]

Am I the only one?

 

[Braag]

Games based on movies have very rarely succeeded. I think making the smaller bite sized games makes most sense instead of some $60 cash in we used to see.

 

[Bkdk]

If he favors branching story narrative then it's great that nolan and naughty dog can swittch place.

 

[ruvikx]

I want Dunkirk The Game & I want to play as ze Germans.

But maybe that's just me.

 

[Rhazkul]

He literally said the exact opposite of this. You didn't read past the headline did you?

I did read the article. It's very vague. Regardless, when Hollywood gets named, it instantly raises skepticism for me. I'm not a fan of the "cinematic experience" and interactive movies. And i'm not a fan how Hollywood is flirting with the games industry (guess games are too lucrative now, so Hollywood is branching out).

Gameplay > everything else.

 

[mckmas8808]

I did read the article. It's very vague. Regardless, when Hollywood gets named, it instantly raises skepticism for me. I'm not a fan of the "cinematic experience" and interactive movies. And i'm not a fan how Hollywood is flirting with the games industry (guess games are too lucrative now, so Hollywood is branching out).

Gameplay > everything else.

To YOU! Of course. For a person like me and literally millions of others, we embrace all types of games.

A Gameplay > Everything else game is this

OR

A narrative driven game where it's Story > Gameplay is this....

OR

I personally love both types of games. Christopher Nolan could do a game that's similar to Detriot: Become Human and it could be good.

 

[Rhazkul]

I personally love both types of games.

More power to you then. I always end up quitting those "cinematic" games because they bore me like crazy. While i can appreciate the craft of "games" like Detroit: Become Human, these type of games often fall flat regarding gameplay (the thing that should define a video game because it's a video GAME first) and i often think: why didn't they just make a movie with the script?

 

[Alfen Dave]

Control and Quantum Break felt somewhat Nolan-ish in their presentation and style.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Mild shock. Gif.

He hinted as much during his rant about streaming services.

 

[PlayerPurple]

I did read the article. It's very vague. Regardless, when Hollywood gets named, it instantly raises skepticism for me. I'm not a fan of the "cinematic experience" and interactive movies. And i'm not a fan how Hollywood is flirting with the games industry (guess games are too lucrative now, so Hollywood is branching out).

Gameplay > everything else.

Absolutely. Gameplay is always king in video games, and we’ve only just figured out proper ways to tell stories via interactivity (Edith Finch, Gone Home).

A popular Hollywood visual storyteller wanting to enter the games industry should be concerning, because the storytelling language they know (and have been very successful with) is largely non-interactive. They’re two completely different media, despite both of them being highly visual.

It’s the same reason you’d be skeptical of a famous Danish pastry chef opening a Viet-Cajun seafood restaurant.

 

[Denton]

Making games is hard as fuck, takes way longer, needs even more people, and then if you fuck up something you get hated and death threats and all that nonsense from menkids. I bet Nolan would love to create an ambitious game, but..all of the above.

 

[CamHostage]

There was a time when Inception was in consideration for a video game adaptation/companion (I kind of thought maybe Nolan's appearance at the VGAs this year might actually be about bringing that project to reality, all this time later,) but it was apparently a vaporware concept.

'Inception' as a videogame: A dream come true?

'Inception' as a videogame: A dream come true?

ew.com

 

[mckmas8808]

More power to you then. I always end up quitting those "cinematic" games because they bore me like crazy. While i can appreciate the craft of "games" like Detroit: Become Human, these type of games often fall flat regarding gameplay (the thing that should define a video game because it's a video GAME first) and i often think: why didn't they just make a movie with the script?

But the word "VIDEO" is before "GAME" though. Plus, we've had many Click and Point games like Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Kings Quest, and Fable from the 90s. They've always been around. Detriot: Become Human is just a modern take on it.

 

[Coconutt]

Imagine if Nolan and Kojima collabed on a project

 

[namekuseijin]

I can see Memento as a VR game.