After The Last of Us, 3 great video games we want to see adapted into series!

The big, well-deserved success of The Last of Us, adapted from the studio Naughty Dog’s video game franchise, is to remind us of the obvious: the worlds of certain licenses are so rich and vast, they are immersive. Visual, narrative and thematic approach, sometimes without counting the impressive gallery of characters that they deserve to be treated as a series, even mini-series, on the pain of being irreversibly drained of their substance by losses and accidents. Boxing in the cinema.

What’s more, we completely agree with what Thomas Harlan, the company behind Contradiction Films, the producer of the upcoming Alan Wake series, announced in September 2018: “The series format is much more suited to licensed adaptations of video games than to cinema. How do you squeeze 20, 30 or 40 hours or more of gaming experience into just 90 minutes? I don’t think it’s possible.”

If obviously there have already been adaptations of video game licenses in the form of series, animated or live (for example, Resident Evil on Netflix to give only another recent example), or even that it came, about God of War, for Hollwyood it. There is still a veritable goldmine of intellectual property (in IP jargon) to be mined, with a solid core of millions of fans already in place that can be a solid foundation and only begging to grow.

Stay true enough to the original DNA to not alienate the fan community, while still being able to reach an audience that wasn’t necessarily receptive to video games and didn’t even know it was an adaptation of a video game license. A very difficult balancing act that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman recently managed in the series The last among them.

Hence the idea of ​​a small wish list of famous video games we want to see in the series! By the way, in case you’re wondering: you won’t find Space Opera Mass Effect on this shortlist. As the latest news, the fantasy license is planned for Amazon boxes, in the form of a series. Even if you have to be patient to put some information in your mouth.

Elder Scrolls games saga (Oblivion, Skyrim, Morrowind…)

In July 2020, publisher Bethesda announced the upcoming arrival of a series on Amazon Prime based on its iconic post-apocalyptic video game franchise Fallout, which was born in the mid-1990s and has sold more than 46 million copies. Already in production, it is being helmed by Westworld’s creative tandem, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.

While we’re on the subject of publisher Bethesda games, we might as well continue that momentum with another colossal license from the publisher: RPG Saga. Elder scrolls. One of the most famous video game franchises in the world, born in 1994, Elder Scrolls games are set in a fantasy world.

every episode Elder scrolls It has always brought unique elements to the series in terms of gameplay, including a vast open world and progression system, and incorporates rich and varied cultural references to its original medieval-fantasy inspiration.

Based on the incredibly rich Leor, whether it’s the number of characters crossed, the number of races created or the number of creatures encountered, not to mention the scenery, both diverse and fabulous, the Elder Scrolls saga could give us a fantastic adaptation.

Let’s Be Crazy: A series that will even have an original soundtrack composed by Jeremy Soule, who is already working on a video game license. After a while, The last among them He has (again) enlisted double Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolala, who recently signed on to score the legendary Naughty Dog game soundtrack.

Everyone who threw an extraordinary game The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimReleased in 2011, Jeremy Soul knows just how much he can sign off on a sublime score. The global success of the Game of Thrones series, especially with a hefty budget, has proven that this type of world has a real audience.

Basically, a TV series Elder scrolls Could be a dream combination Game of Thrones, Vikings and Lord of the Rings. And when we know that Amazon was able to drop $1 billion for 5 seasons of adapting JRR Tolkien’s work…

To give you a (very) small idea, below is a great trailer The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimA hypnotic and epic soundtrack by Jeremy Soule. This trailer is a masterpiece in the genre. Moreover, note that the voice of the narrator is none other than the voice of the great actor Max von Sydow, who left us in 2020.

“Mafia” game franchise

Let’s just say: David Chase’s The Sopranos, which immersed us in the family secrets of Tony Soprano, the godfather played by the unforgettable and late James Gandolfini, is one of the best series ever created. The series, which became a cult, made the HBO channel boom.

On that note, we wouldn’t be opposed to a serialized version of a video game franchise Mafia. It can be accurately expressed as the flagship series of the Netflix platform, Narcos, which first focused on the Colombian drug cartels before moving the cameras to the side of the Mexican cartels; All at different times.

The saga of mafia games includes three games, the last of which was released in 2016. Each one takes place in a different historical period and fictional city, but is always based on a real city. For example, the first game (2002) was set in the 1930s in the fictional town of Lost Heaven, which is heavily inspired by 1930s Chicago.

The player played Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver who had to prove his worth to the city’s mafia before gradually rising through its ranks. In the second game, the period begins in post-war 1945 to the early 1960s and follows Vito Scaletta, a Sicilian-American, demobilized after the war, who joins the ranks of the Mafia. The action took place in the fictional city of Empire Bay, which is very much inspired by the cities of New York and San Francisco.

Here’s the trailer again…

Mafia III Meanwhile, set in 1968 in the fictional city of New Bordeaux, the real-life video game counterpart of New Orleans. A game in which we follow the rise of an African-American named Lincoln Clay, demobilized and unemployed after the Vietnam War, to create a crime empire by overthrowing the Italian mafia.

The three games are not artificially connected because, for example, in Mafia II we found very important characters from the first part of the saga. Could the series-adapted mafia video game saga become the new cinematic equivalent of The Godfather?

Below is our report on the game Mafia III. Did you know that historically, the Mafia first settled in New Orleans before coming to New York or Chicago?

“Red Dead Redemption” diptych

Western soap operas are not so unfamiliar territory on the small screen. They are numerous in recent years as well, and sometimes of high quality: Hatefields & McCoys, Hell on Wheels, Godless, 1883… to name just a handful. However, it seems to us that there is still a (large) possible space for a series based on the strongest diptych created by Rockstar studios: Read Dead Redemption.

respectively released in 2010 and 2018, Red Dead Redemption And its sequels are giant open worlds with a Western flavor, featuring hyper-cute characters in an aging and dying West. The West, which had to give way to the modern and industrial civilization of the beginning of the 20th century, willingly or rather by force.

The first part depicts a character named John Marston in 1911. A repentant outlaw, he chose to settle down to spend peaceful days with his family. But he is not the only one who has changed: the world he once knew is no longer the same and has undergone profound upheavals. The federal government, which is trying to assert its authority every day, is now busy enforcing the law throughout the territory by any means necessary.

And when federal agents threaten to attack his family, who have been held hostage, John Marston has no choice but to pick up his gun again to hunt down his former brothers. Tired from years on the highway, his face covered in scars, John Marston sets out across the vast arid expanses in search of his former companions in distress.

To witness the remains of the pioneers of a bygone era, the pioneers of the new frontier, as well as to participate in the upheavals of the Mexican Revolution, which set the country on fire and blood…

In Red Dead Redemption IIActually designed as a prequel to the first part and sold 50 million copies, players control the unfortunate fate of Arthur Morgan, a member of a group of outlaws, the real video game counterpart of the Savage Horde of Sam Peckinpah, who tries to survive. As federal agents backed by the famous detective agency Pinkerton track them down relentlessly.

To the tragic outcome, to the emotional charge of splitting the stones in two. For those who don’t know, the connection between the two games is anything but artificial, as the two main characters in each adventure are connected.

An extraordinary naturalistic immersion in the world of the Western – a cinematic absolute – the likes of which we’ve never seen before (and which we’re here to tell you all the good things we think about it) Red Dead Redemption And what’s more, its sequel was logically imbued with cinematic references: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Hateful Eight, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Outcast’s Ride, Ruthless, Open Range, Once Upon a Revolution. ..

Far from being a “simple” catalog of references, they’ve slipped, sometimes in a very subtle way, into expertly crafted stories of rockstar goldsmiths with science and sheer writing prowess.

It’s not for nothing that their flagship license Grand Theft Auto, aka GTA for insiders, has become a true cultural phenomenon. Ironically, Studio Hollywood has already requested it for a possible adaptation GTA III By Tony Scott.

The attempt is quickly buried with two paddles by Rockstar who doesn’t seem to care. Maybe drop some ballast for the series Read Dead Redemption What exactly can be reduced to two seasons, given the narrative arcs established by the games?