Wright: Spore spreading to movies, TV

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Aug 13, 2008 12:22 pm PT

EA Maxis founder says upcoming evolution simulation may surface in other mediums to attract wider audiences.

Now that Electronic Arts has signed on top Hollywood representatives United Talent Agency, it's a safe bet that the megapublisher is sizing up all of its properties for their silver-screen suitability. And if EA Maxis cofounder Will Wright has his way, one of the next games to make that conversion is his studio's hotly anticipated evolution simulation, Spore.

"With Spore, we're looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc," Wright told international news service Reuters today. "We're basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game."

Assuming that Spore germinates in Tinsel Town, Wright's latest game would be the second from the celebrated designer to be destined for celluloid. In 2007, 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to make a film based on EA's massively popular Sims franchise, the first installment of which Wright created in 2000. Although details on The Sims are sparse, it will reportedly be a live-action film, produced by John Davis (Predator, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) and written by Brian Lynch (who is also working on the Shrek spin-off, Puss in Boots).

"We're going to be much more intelligent about harvesting other market opportunities for Spore than we were with The Sims, which as big as it was in the game space, pretty much remains in the game space," commented Wright.

Released in July for mobile phones, Spore is expected to ship for the PC, Mac, and Nintendo DS on September 5 in Europe, with the North American release following two days later. An as-yet-undated Wii version is also in development, and EA has indicated that the game may surface on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the future. For the latest on Spore, check out GameSpot's just-published hands-on.

86 Comments

  • jmrwacko

    Posted Sep 19, 2008 12:49 pm PT

    "This is dumb. Each form of entertainment should stay in it's own format. That means books stay books, movies stay movies, and games stay games."

    Some of the best films ever made were based on novels, and many great books' original canon lay in film and video games.

  • XKat20

    Posted Sep 4, 2008 3:12 pm PT

    "If it does end up on other forms of media then all i will say it will end up on is a stupid kids show where the creatures all speak like idiots and have "wacky" adventures.

    Like viva pinata."

    if that happens...

  • wswedin

    Posted Aug 25, 2008 12:50 pm PT

    Ok the idea for the movie in 2009 "Warcraft" based on the warcraft universe will work great, but you have to be nuts to make a Spore or Sims movie. We can hope though, the garfield movies sucked

    For all who want to know legendary pictures is making the Warcraft (live-action) movie.

  • cbnoonan

    Posted Aug 22, 2008 10:55 am PT

    hello

  • enix165

    Posted Aug 21, 2008 4:17 pm PT

    ...The game, sure. But...a movie about one of the most open-ended games ever? Won't work, methinks.

  • FlakyFlakeMachi

    Posted Aug 19, 2008 3:10 pm PT

    i can't see how this is going to translate into a watchable film...

  • Gravidtron

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 2:42 am PT

    "John Davis (Predator, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) and written by Brian Lynch (who is also working on the Shrek spin-off, Puss in Boots)."

    So... the Spore movie is going to about sassy orange cats with lots of attitude, am I right? I hate Mondays!

  • metnav

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 10:08 pm PT

    Spore on the big screen would be great!

  • flame_tiberium

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 2:50 am PT

    hahahahaha yeh toadman

  • toadman682000

    Posted Aug 16, 2008 7:37 pm PT

    "The Spore movie will be procedurally generated!"

  • xxxvvvbbb

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 9:44 pm PT

    A Spore TV series?

    Spokemon :S?

  • MysticDynamite

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 8:48 pm PT

    A movie I can definitely see, but I have a hard time seeing a TV series.

  • HCMBrainCandy

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 8:21 pm PT

    I'm just wondering how Spore (or the Sims for that matter) could possibly be adapted to film or TV. I mean, isn't the whole point of it all to be nonlinear?

  • Caer_Death

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 3:55 pm PT

    Spore is different than most games. I could see it translating into a movie pretty well, so long as it's done right. They just need a team of writers who wouldn't butcher the IP.

  • VelociBlade

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 3:06 pm PT

    This is dumb. Each form of entertainment should stay in it's own format. That means books stay books, movies stay movies, and games stay games.

  • dewd4

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 1:44 pm PT

    If it does end up on other forms of media then all i will say it will end up on is a stupid kids show where the creatures all speak like idiots and have "wacky" adventures.

    Like viva pinata.

  • tiamat555

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 10:11 am PT

    That is one of the stupidest thing I have heard since Microsoft said they where going to take the blood and swearing out of Gear of War. Why is it that everyone always takes the games that have almost no story at all and make it into a movie (Super Mario Brothers, Alone in the Dark, Doom). The first thing they jump at is Halo, Gears of War,Spore and Sims? These game have no proper story, characters or plot yet they want to make movies of them.God of War would make a good movie, as would Metroid and Zelda. Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter are just screaming to be made into animated series or movies. Even Little Big Planet could make a cute animated cartoon. But someone just says Halo or Gears of War movie and they fall all over themselves to make it as quickly as possible. And the worst part is these movies usually suck because the story for the game usually sucks too.

  • Naruto_88

    Posted Aug 14, 2008 9:43 am PT

    It is definitely an interesting concept to turn this game into a movie. I just hope it doesn't suck (like most movies based on video games).

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