Two-hour telefilm could be pilot for full-fledged series; future installments in game franchise will be developed in cooperation with television network's game arm.
In February, publisher THQ and cable channel SyFy announced a deal that would see the latter develop a show based on the former's hit platformer de Blob. Today, Broadcasting & Cable reports that the science-fiction-focused network is now developing a telefilm based on another THQ property: Red Faction.
According to the trade, the two-hour Red Faction movie will be a potential pilot for a TV series based on the franchise, which was itself partially inspired by the film Total Recall. A similar arrangement saw a 2003 miniseries remake based on the 1970s show Battlestar Galactica turn into a full-fledged--and award-winning--series that ran from 2004 to 2009.
"It is the kind of content that fits our genre," senior VP of SyFy Ventures Alan Seiffert told B&C. "It is a great fit for a big SyFy Saturday movie, and if it really works, it is a great backdoor pilot."
The deal will cut both ways, with future Red Faction games being coproduced by the SyFy Games label. According to the latest THQ financial report, Red Faction 4 has been moved up to arrive during the publisher's current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2011. CEO Brian Farrell said the game's release had been advanced to capitalize on the popularity of the critically acclaimed Red Faction: Guerrilla and promised "robust online gameplay" and increased environmental destruction.
The network has also struck a deal with THQ to develop a DS, iPhone, and iPad game based on the upcoming reality show Ghost Hunters Academy. The show will be a spin-off of the current SyFy series Ghost Hunters, which follows two paranormal sleuths trying to capture evidence of supernatural activities.
"Both Ghost Hunters and Red Faction are great examples of how we are absolutely committed to [gaming], and it is going to be more than just taking the name; it is going to really be part of the overall experience," Seiffert said.
I hate how people totally shoot down games that are based on movies and movies that are based on games. Even when they havn't even seen any pictures or trailers of it yet. Yes it's true that there are a lot of crappy ones out there but you should at least keep an open mind, it could be good. You never know. I'm looking forward to see how this Red Faction movie turns out. Not sure about the ghost hunters game though, not the best concept for a game.
I hope it's good. I'm afraid of most video games turned movie as history has shown us, it's usually done poorly. A good example is hitman. What a TERRIBLE movie. If they had at least stuck to the story in the original game as a base, it might have been mildly interesting even as a terribly produced movie. But instead, like many games-turned-movie, we got something with the same name that had little to do with the game. Hint: the writers behind the games are better writers than you screenplay writers. Hire them when you make your movies.
Wow so many negative comments here, and much hate for the channel known as SyFy(Stupid name change). The channel is very different here in the UK. To the point that the good shows they make or had exclusivity with are shown on Sky or BBC (BSG/Heroes/Farscape), but I do agree the show could be awful but it could also be excellent. Imagine all of the US tuning in to see a show all about terrorists trying to overthrow an evil money obssesed corporation and then to add to the irony it being shown by the Murdock owned Sky in the UK. So I am hoping they pull of a BSG with this one.
Well now that Syfy has announced that they are going to be showing professional wrestling on Friday nights (and have a cooking show on as well, sorry don't know what night on that one) they may be confused on what this game is really about. Or maybe they will twist it into a Dancing with the Stars alternative.
We all know that making a movie based off video games will fail 99.9% of the time. Especially if it goes directly to TV.
SyFy has given us the greatest romantic line ever said to a women: "But you know I'm really wired. What do you say I... take you home and eat your pu**y." From Shark Attack 3
oh my...uh, ok. :shock: y'know the moment I saw that title I just couldn't stop imagining the mad suckage that will come of this....c'mon we ALL know how lame Sci channel movies are. This will NOT help further the video game movie movement AT ALL. I think we just further got set back another 15 yrs. I don't even think Uwe Boll could take this low....seriously. :|
Oh god. Why can't they come up with ideas other than making horrible game-to-films. You know this won't be good.
If they do make an RF movie I hope they make it like the first Red Faction cause that was awesome, I played it on the PS2 :-)
well, i don't know what they'll do with this or what direction they'll go with this, but I pray to god uwe boll will have absolutely no part in this project what so ever, believe me when I say he's done enough damage to video game movies already. and those movies know who they are!
I don't even understand why they changed their name when they show exactly the same stuff.
the only memorable Syfy movie i can think of was Dog Soldiers and I'm not a huge fan of watching my video games get turned into movies that turn out to be sub-par flings. RF is fine as a game people. come on. hey make minesweeper the movie!
I hate to admit it but I love syfy movies, Raptor Island anyone?? These movies are amazingly bad but so good at the same time.
i agree but my only concern is that as much as i like Syfi network there movies tend to be really really cheap looking, you dont need a high budge but cuase they can do it but if they make it cheep looking than it could ruin the whole idea
This is great news. Screw high-budget video game movies. High budgets ruin these kinds of projects. Everyone knows that the smaller your canvas the more creative you have to be. This should be interesting.
Always love to see game go into other forms of entertainment. I hope Its good, Ive never been a Fan of RF but id watch the show.
Uhg... I can only think of maybe one good SyFy movie - DNA - and that was back when I was really too young to know a good movie or bad movie when I saw it... Let's hope that they don't slaughter an awesome game, but it's very likely that they will. R.I.P. Any hopes for a high-budget, well-produced Red Faction movie.
syfy made movies suck, but sometimes they surprise you. hope fully this one will be surprisingly good
@psycold dont mention it. shows like battlestar succeeded because it was a universal property. they had things at stake with that show and it paid off bc battlestar has a spinoff/prequel in "caprica".
Hopefully it will make me care about the characters from Guerrilla... so I can finally finish the game. Hopefully it won't be terrible, too. I'll even settle for one of the two.
@ mrzero1982pt2 thanks for the info, I agree I would like to see the Red Faction story on film, I've been interested in the universe since the first game came out on PC.
the red faction universe is pretty stale. like someone posted earlier its basically just red faction. pair that up with sci fis horrible reputation for tv movies and you can bet this will suck. i enjoyed the first game. never got around to playing the second. however they reallly screwed up this last came.
... I can't see Red Faction as a good movie. Would rather have a movie of Ace Combat 5, or Killzone 2. Still looking forward to the future HALO movie.
a movie for Red Faction? interesting... a Syfy TV movie for Red Faction? total garbage. :)
TV movie? bah! Most TV movies are rubbish, the only good one i can think of is Stargate Continuum
they already made a movie about red faction, called total recall lol, miners. revolution, aliens! coverups! its all there people!
hey @psycold, most of syfy movies are made from other companies. not really nbc universal who owns usa, syfy and the other channels they own. since syfy has stated they want DIRECT sayso on the red faction games, they will treat this like something which will at least try to make fans proud. and i would like to see red faction as a show if the ratings for the movie do well.
*sigh* The fact that what was once called the Science Fiction Channel has now lowered their title to Syfy, some modern day meaningless drivel pretty much shows what they are capable of for quality. Besides the low budget they love to use and poor actors they seem to hire by group discounts, Red Faction really isn't an interesting story. What makes the game fun is the ability to destroy everything and we all know that won't translate to a low budget SyFy channel movie. Besides constant explosions aren't entertaining when you aren't the one in control of them, case in point the movie "The Marine" non-stop explosions, worst movie ever made.
SciFi channel is known for bad special effects and cheesy movies, I do not have any hope for this
the horror!! I will have to see it, depends on how long I watch it till I hit the DELETE button on the DVR. Lets hope they dont screw it up and go cheapo with the graphics and the backgrounds.
What about the BSG miniseries? That was pretty good and worked pretty well, sounds like they will be doing it like that.
I'd rather they trash this series then something like Mass Effect, but like many of the other comments on this board vast majority of the original stuff on Syfy is crap.
A red faction telefilm? this will probably cool, but most syfy telefilms have failed in the past. So I'm not giving my hopes up.
I have a very bad feeling about this. A well-produced TV series could actually work for the RF universe, but oh...say...EVERY "SyFy" original movie is worse than awful. I really hope something good comes from this, but I certainly won't hold my breath. Nice to see the fourth game moved up, too. Hopefully they are still allowing Volition enough time to make a competent product. I've been a Red Faction fan since the original came out, and the last thing I want to see happen to this great series is for it to become a bunch of quickly-churned out, rehashed BS.
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