Ben Wheatley is at a very interesting crossroads in his career. In the past week, Netflix released his latest feature film, “Rebecca,” which is a remake of a film from Alfred Hitchcock and finds the filmmaker working in the realm of thrillers. However, just as that film hits the streaming platform, the director is prepping his next production, “Tomb Raider 2,” and it was just announced that he’s likely going to direct “The Meg 2,” shortly after. This means, his career is going from a Hitchcockian thriller to a video game adaptation and then onto a massive shark horror-thriller. Quite the eclectic career, to say the least.
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Well, speaking to Polygon, the filmmaker didn’t really talk about “The Meg 2” or “Rebecca” for that matter, but instead, he gave his theory for why video game adaptations, such as his upcoming “Tomb Raider” sequel, have such a hard time connecting with audiences. He says the trick is in understanding the complicated symbiosis between films and video games.
“Video games have trouble crossing back into cinema because they are born out of cinema,” Wheatley said. “But the magic sauce is interaction, which you’re then removing back out of the game to put it back into a film. That’s the trick, the back and forth of it, and that’s why it’s been very hard to make things successful.”
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Before Wheatley, we’ve seen some really talented filmmakers try to make video game adaptations work on the big screen, and most of them have failed, either creatively, financially, or both. There’s Justin Kurzel’s “Assassin’s Creed,” Duncan Jones’ “Warcraft,” Mike Newell’s “Prince of Persia,” and even Roar Uthaug’s original “Tomb Raider,” which was decent but definitely didn’t excite the fanbase as the studio intended.
If there’s one thing that Wheatley knows how to do, it’s how to make entertaining action films. So, the idea of him tackling “Tomb Raider 2” does offer a bit of hope that the sequel might break the dreaded video game movie curse. At least he feels that he knows what to do to make a quality film.