Shadow of the Colossus falling on Hollywood

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Apr 7, 2009 5:19 pm PT

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.

633 Comments

  • ifoundyou37

    Posted Nov 29, 2009 9:15 am PT

    i don't see how they can make it sure its a great game but there are 16 colossus how are they going to fit them all in . it would be best if they did a t.v show instead also he doesn't really even talk to anyone

  • 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.

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