Speaking with the BBC as part of a press tour for the new Super Mario Bros. movie out now in theaters, renowned actor and comedian Jack Black said he would love to see a Red Dead Redemption movie adaptation because he reckons the game’s story is even better than that The Last of Us (which he also praised for the recent highly successful HBO TV series adaptation).
I’m a fan of adaptations, when done right. The Last of Us was fantastic. And what’s crazy is how loyal it is to the original source material. It’s basically all from the game with just a couple of tweaks. It’s going to win all the awards. They used the video game almost like a storyboard and I was like, ‘Whoa, this looks just the same.’
And there are some great games that have yet to be explored in television or film. Maybe there’s going to be a Red Dead Redemption movie? There should be, because I think that has just as good or even better story than The Last of Us.
While the opinion on which is better remains a personal preference and anyone may be entitled to feel differently, Jack Black is definitely right in that the plot of either of the two Red Dead Redemption games could easily be used as the foundation of a great Western film. That said, there were never any rumors that Rockstar was entertaining the idea, though they certainly might have done so in a private fashion.
While we may not be getting a Red Dead Redemption movie any time soon, the amount of gaming adaptations for the big and small screen has literally exploded in the past few years with the likes of Sonic, Detective Pikachu, Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, Halo, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil and many more to come (Gran Turismo, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Borderlands, Fallout, Death Stranding, BioShock, and Silent Hill just to name a few).
In the aforementioned interview, Jack Black (who starred in Double Fine’s Brütal Legend, Broken Age, and Psychonauts 2 games) went on to say that we can expect even more gaming adaptations to the cinema and TV formats in the coming years.
In the future, film and television are going to keep going towards using the stories told in video games because that market seems to be growing and growing exponentially.
The TV and film industries seem to be seeing a little bit of shrinkage. It will be interesting to see what happens to the entertainment industry over the next 20 to 30 years, but I think we will be seeing more storytelling from the gaming universe.
Do you agree with Jack Black? Would you like to see John Marston’s story adapted to the big screen in a Red Dead Redemption movie? Let us know in the comments.
