Shadow of the Colossus falling on Hollywood

Team Ico's beloved 2005 PS2 adventure is being turned into a film...by the screenwriter of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

The old showbiz saying goes, "You're only as good as your last job." And though that axiom may hold true for much of Hollywood, it doesn't seem to apply to game-based movie projects. Case in point: Andrzej Bartkowiak, the director of the big-screen version of Doom. When that project bombed, he was promptly given the job of helming Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

The shock of today's announcement was enough to fell the mighty beast.

Now, despite The Legend of Chun-Li adaptation's spectacular flame-out at box offices and with reviewers, its screenwriter has been handed another beloved, award-winning game license. According to both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Marks has been asked to write the script for a big-screen version of Team Ico's Shadow of the Colossus. Currently, the scribe is working on a remake of 20,000 Leagues: Under the Sea for director McG (Terminator: Salvation, Charlie's Angels).

According to the trades, the big-screen Shadow of the Colossus is in the early stages of development at Sony Pictures Entertainment, sibling to the game's publisher, Sony Computer Entertainment. It will be produced by Kevin Misher, who worked on The Interpreter and this summer's Michael Mann-directed, Johnny Depp-starring gangster epic Public Enemies. He is also attached to a new adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel Dune, to be directed by Peter Berg (Hancock).

Hailed by reviewers on its release in 2005, the PlayStation 2-exclusive Shadow of the Colossus sold more than 900,000 copies in the US. Developed by Team Ico, which is working on its PlayStation 3 debut, the game follows a young warrior who has brought his fallen love to a faraway temple in the hopes of restoring her to health. According to a mysterious presence that dwells within the temple's walls, the only way to save this girl is to hunt down and destroy the 16 massive beasts that roam the surrounding lands. To see how the quest goes, check out the video review below.

Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.

632 Comments

  • VXLbeast

    Posted Sep 26, 2009 10:31 am PT

    This could go really well or reall badly.

  • robmisterj20

    Posted Sep 18, 2009 7:05 pm PT

    m7kr0 your dead on with everything you said an also still own the game with no ps2 but I mite have 2 buy one again just to play it again. ridiculously good game! Sony I implore you please dont make this! Just make another game! HD SOTC... yep I just came!!

  • RereKeren

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 10:37 pm PT

    I can just imagine them casting a terrible main character and them making the atmosphere completely nothing like the game.

    There is no way they can decently fit all 16 colossi and most likely will end up skipping some and then just fastforwarding the entire story and it'll just be sh!t.

  • DaMiGi22863

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 11:10 pm PT

    God forbid that they make this game into a Movie, it's already good enough as it is. Don't ruin it.

  • m7kr0

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 7:50 am PT

    I'm terryfied of this being made into a film, you couldn't possibly pull it off, the feeling of scale, emotion, beauty + unimaginable odds transcended the need for dialogue, no questions needed to be asked, you just got the feeling of the character, this is something that needed to be done because he had to, because it was too painful for him to let her go, arrghh! god money makin scumbags, i don't even have a ps2 anymore but kept the game because i refuse to get rid of it, ABSOLUTE MASTERPEICE... Shouldn't be messed with, they are gonna upset a helluva lot of people, me for 1!!!

  • 24k_Solid_Gold

    Posted Aug 13, 2009 9:41 pm PT

    I pray they don't make it. All they'll accomplish is ruining one of the most beautiful games in history.

  • SquareEnixRules

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 7:40 am PT

    This could either be epic, or extreme epic failure and ruin my all time favorite game. We will have to see...

  • Lazule

    Posted May 24, 2009 1:16 am PT

    They would be better off creating a sequel (different main character mind you) than making a movie out of it. They're going to have to create an entirely different story to make this into a movie. SotC is the most beautiful game in history. Don't f*** with it. You'll only end up ruining it.

  • mattr333

    Posted May 24, 2009 12:48 am PT

    There is no way this is going to be good. wow some people need to open there eyes there is one character that does not talk

  • northprophet

    Posted May 23, 2009 8:52 am PT

    Hollywood should have never gotten their hands on this game! People have commented on how little dialogue there would have to be, and how short the script would be, but that's what makes it so rediculously difficult. While the major American studios have been able to pull off deep, profound, epic and beautiful on rare occasion, I've never seen anything come out of Hollywood that could approach the monumental challange that SotC presents as source material. I'd feel more comfortable with this being an independant film or a European or Japanese work. They lack the budgets to do the rediculous scale of this story, but they tend to have styles of writing that are more compatable with SotC. That's the impression I got from the game, like I was "playing" an beautifully epic foreign film.

  • OnionTree

    Posted May 23, 2009 5:05 am PT

    It could have no sound and no picture, and Hollywood would STILL manage to find a way to royally **** it up.

  • phroido

    Posted May 22, 2009 5:42 pm PT

    This would be a great movie as long there in NO dialog.

  • lanmanna

    Posted May 22, 2009 10:01 am PT

    *sigh* This is going to be like making a film about a painting. You can't mess with art!

  • OnionTree

    Posted May 22, 2009 3:17 am PT

    I don't need to say it, you don't need to say it. It doesn't take a nerd or an analyst to know that this is going to blow epic chunks.

  • Blink3r

    Posted May 21, 2009 10:57 pm PT

    awwwwwww dammmmmmmmn why do they have to ruin such an amazing game? T.T

    sotc doesn't have much content for an entire film so they'll add lots of crap.... noooooooooooooo =(

  • RDB26

    Posted May 21, 2009 7:51 pm PT

    This isn't sitting too well with me. SotC's mood comes from being thrown into a strange, isolated world completly be your self with no help from anyone. This won't translate well into a movie, there will be no dialouge and there is no way and there is no way that the movie can capture the feeling of the quest of traversing the land and finding than slaying 16 Colossi in an hour and a half to three hours. And who will Wanderer talk to the whole time? The horse?
    Ico, with more developed characters and dioglouge wounldn't even make a good movie. The silent teamwork and building of trust between Ico and Yorda was what made their relationship special. The two kids had nothing in common but needing to escape but they were still able to form a stong bond. Games do not make good movies and movies don't usually translate into the best games...

  • 01Cappo10

    Posted May 21, 2009 6:58 pm PT

    why wnt it wrk?

  • jddawg0808

    Posted May 21, 2009 5:35 pm PT

    No! People who play the game know why this won't work.

  • rapid_fire915

    Posted May 21, 2009 4:23 pm PT

    This will be money well spent.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted May 20, 2009 7:29 pm PT

    NobleEskimo, I would LOVE to give you a hundred thumbs-down, but I believe that you are being deliberately inane.

  • NobleEskimo

    Posted May 20, 2009 11:09 am PT

    I can't wait for this movie. I loved Doom and Street Fighter (both of them!), and all of Uwe Boll's movies for that matter. This movie is going to be full of exploding zombies and boobs; I can't wait!!!!

  • Barighm

    Posted May 20, 2009 8:28 am PT

    There is no talent working on this project. It will suck. Hollywood will kill the best argument we have that video games can be art...which is what they want, I'm sure.

    I'm sad. :'(

  • cardinalphoenix

    Posted May 20, 2009 8:06 am PT

    Yeah, this isn't likely to go well. I mean, games like Shadow of the Colossus and Doom, although wildly in different genres, do share one commonality...they both give the player fairly minimal plot and premise, and expect you to fill in the holes en route through the gameplay till you reach the conclusion, which may or not explain things to a satisfying degree depending on your expectations. The fact that Shadow's movie has a whole script already doesn't bode well. That game hardly had any speech as it was! Doom was the same thing, the main character didn't speak a syllable.

    Real easy tip, in case those guys are reading...okay...Shadow's movie can be great, if you do it this way...make the movie shorter! Fit more pertinent info into the beginning, leave the viewer with lots of questions (same as the players, 'cause let's face it, we all had questions through that whole masterpiece), fit in some fancy colossus battles in the middle and make the final wrap up no longer than 2 or so minutes at the end, so that we have resolution to the story, without explaining every little detail.

    That way, newbies to the universe will be able to enjoy it like we all did, :-D

  • RJLateralus

    Posted May 20, 2009 7:24 am PT

    I totally agree with SkylinePigeon

  • SkylinePigeon Site moderator

    Posted May 20, 2009 6:40 am PT

    Nooooo this is terrible. Oh dear... it's ok to make movies of games like Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, Doom, etc. because while they may be good games, they don't carry any emotional heft. Shadow of the Colossus is art. Masterful art at that, something that doesn't deserved to be sullied by this guy.

  • cheetah_TM

    Posted May 19, 2009 8:21 pm PT

    Maybe Peter Jackson could pull it off, but I bet this this movie will be a disgrace to the game.

  • fyinz

    Posted May 11, 2009 1:59 am PT

    making movie a bad idea.

  • akram112

    Posted May 10, 2009 6:22 am PT

    well said, sequekhan! I keep hoping that a good game based movie will come, but no. I sincerely hope this movie doesnt turn out to be crap.

  • sequekhan

    Posted May 2, 2009 9:51 pm PT

    Sad, so sad. There has never been a good game-turned-movie - the only exception perhaps being the first Resident Evil movie. I'll ignore it when it comes out, pretend it isn't there. Ho-hum. Games should stay as games, books as books, movies as movies. They all work differently, they all have their place.

  • jaichigo

    Posted Apr 30, 2009 2:47 pm PT

    Uf...legend of chun li..well, you always have to be given a second chance! And who cares about script, I mean, the game doesn't really have an existent language.

  • TheLunaDivider

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 8:34 am PT

    Why Hollywood why.

    I really can't understand it.

  • mariet

    Posted Apr 23, 2009 8:00 pm PT

    And once again: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
    Why in this world there is nothing sacred?

  • mariet

    Posted Apr 23, 2009 7:57 pm PT

    The only thing I can say:
    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

    Why Sony doesn't chose Guillermo Del Toro? X2
    The producer of this film will be Kevin Misha NOOO!. And to make matters worse Justin Marks will be responsible for the scripts (the same who did the script Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li). Once again: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  • Max_Rage

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 1:04 am PT

    I've never played the game but i figure if it has someone with the same heart as the kreaters of The Ring behind it then it kould build into something.

  • zookeeper56

    Posted Apr 14, 2009 5:40 pm PT

    i dont think a game like this should be a movie, to little diologe, and i perfer people not ruining such a beautiful masterpeice of a game. all the movie will be is a cheap imitation. Unless Fumito ueda himself directs it that would be the best person to make this movie.

  • poorisaac

    Posted Apr 14, 2009 9:49 am PT

    The only way this could get turned into a movie is if you got someone like Peter Jackson to work on it because of its absolutely epic feeling. As for the actual story you need someone like Park Chan Wook (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Veangance) who really knows how to make a movie subtle. There is very little speaking in SOTC and I believe that would have to carry the movie. So pretty much what that guy should be writing in this screen play is "ARO!" and loud groaning sounds. Otherwise I really don't think this movie should happen. It's just too epic in scale to bring to life. SOMEONE CALL UWE BOLL! Just Kidding.

  • ureolympichero

    Posted Apr 14, 2009 2:28 am PT

    Can someone make a decent movie, the answer is NOOO...NOOOOOOO...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

  • Xlyger74

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 9:37 pm PT

    Where the eff is SOTC 2 instead of this.

  • speed45823

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 8:23 pm PT

    here's a hint. if u r a fan of the game then dont watch the movie. those damn fools who r making this movie r gonna get bankrupt...i hope.

  • ATL14

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 7:27 pm PT

    Ah hell no! no, no, no, no, no, NO!!!!!

  • Sauron2

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 6:58 pm PT

    NOoOOOoOooo. my beautiful game...destroyed... anyone who even dared to say "good"... i wont say or do anything...karma will do it for me...i hope...

  • WEST_EVIL

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 3:26 pm PT

    thats good

  • bibliomaniac15

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 2:38 pm PT

    @Legacyoftain:

    Ahem. Might I remind you of the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie? Or what about the 1994 Street Fighter? Or what about the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, the only video game movie probably worth watching, or its 1997 sequel Annihilation? Where were you when the 90s happened?

  • penpusher

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 12:10 pm PT

    you know these devs musta got themselves stuck in a contract they cant bk out of, like a mobile phone contract that looks gd when you start it but later on you wish you could just get rid of :*( lol

  • fall_out_boy96

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 10:45 am PT

    God no. Stop trying to make these wonderful pieces of art into movies and start remaking them for the PS3....as games.

  • VivaKatimari

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 9:31 am PT

    NO way! They Put SotC to shame! and then they will probaly want to make a Ico movie! Those Ba***rds!

  • Legacyoftain

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 9:28 am PT

    This is GREAT! Now that Uwe Boll is "retireing" from making movies Andrzej Bartkowiak can now step up to the plate and continue the legacy of runing great games by making them into abysmal movies. You know..I liked back in the 80's/90's where there were no video game movies..Keep the genres seperate please.

  • HAMODA

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 7:58 am PT

    Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo this is the mistake of life !!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Dixteel

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 6:56 am PT

    There is only one game that I think can truely fit Holleywood movie style: God Hand.

  • Dixteel

    Posted Apr 13, 2009 6:52 am PT

    hmm...I don't get it...why these Japanese publishers allow others to tarnish their franchise? I think they have no clue how many gamers in North America don't really like those movies....

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