back to article Tekken set to kick big screen ass

Dwight Little of Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid fame will direct a movie adaptation of popular Namco martial arts game Tekken, Variety reports. Production on the iron-fisted flick is slated to begin on 4 February. Crystal Sky Pictures is providing the cash to turn Alan McElroy's script into what Little describes as a …

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  1. Alex

    Bated breath

    "The film plays out as a science fiction story set in the near future, about a rebel who rises up against the Tekken Corp. to seize freedom for his people. It's a gladiator story, but the videogame has a complicated enough storyline that it provides the template for a martial arts spectacular"

    That would make it f*ck-all to do with the game then apart from the use of the word "Tekken". It's a bit like that other film based on a game, 'Hero'. I gather it's inspired by Guitar Hero.

  2. Richard
    Thumb Down

    Slated already

    "Production on the iron-fisted flick is slated to begin on 4 February"

    I presume that El Reg don't consider this movie to be of Oscar quality unless they meant "Production on the iron-fisted flick is STATED to begin on 4 February"

  3. Nick Ryan Silver badge
    Alert

    Production Checklist

    * Marketing department

    * Merchandising department

    * Special effects teams

    * Wooden actors

    * Clueless director

    * Video-game tie in

    I'm sure they won't forget anything important, like, for example, plot or dialogue?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    dear god

    NO MAKE THEM STOP!

    Seriously, streetfighter, mortal combat, doa, JUST STOP IT.

    STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT

    It doesn't matter how good the story is (DOA has an epic back story but the film was crap and full of ugly hooker like Americans as opposed to cute Japanese girls.)

    Man one day someone will make a film with an origonal story as opposed to a rip off of a book, game, other film.

  5. Adam White

    Martial arts spectaculars

    ONG BAK was very good. Most other chop socky movies of the last 15 years have underwhelmed.

    I'm not expecting much from this one, but if they can pull it off, I would be happy.

  6. David Temple
    Thumb Up

    @ Richard

    tr.v., slat·ed, slat·ing, slates.

    To cover (a roof, for example) with slate.

    To put on a list of candidates.

    To schedule or designate: Our professor has slated the art history lecture for Thursday afternoon; was slated to direct the studio's next film.

  7. JayB
    Flame

    @Richard

    No, El Reg means "slated". It doesn't just mean "to pan a god awful idea of a movie because believe me it's going to be painful". It also means "to plan for a specific time or date".

    I'm with AC on the "please dear god no..... "

  8. John Macintyre

    @Slated already

    Not sure if you're joking, if you are than haha nice one, if not then you're wrong. You slate a movie, as the clapperboard is called a 'slate' in the industry, ie when you start shooting. a slate is also what people used to write on, ie start producing on a slate.

    Sorry if it was meant in jest, didn't come across as it, thought I'd clarify in case

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @the previous Anonymous Coward

    "Man one day someone will make a film with an origonal story as opposed to a rip off of a book, game, other film."

    ...or a tilogy of films based upon an amusment park ride. (Pirates of the Carribean)

  10. Ash

    Heh...

    Tekken movie is to Tekken game as Doom movie was to Doom game.

    Good for an action flick, but nothing to do with the original.

  11. Shakje

    @John Macintyre

    I'm sure it has more to do with the schedules that the Romans/Greeks used to keep on slates.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's all about the money !

    Don't blame Hollywood, blame the Chavs that buy the cinema tickets.

  13. Simon

    @Ash

    lol, Doom... good action flick?! Not so sure about that...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In other news

    Scientists claim to have isolated the gene responsible for causing some individuals to comment on websites with attempts to belittle a journalist's (or other commenter's) spelling, punctuation and/or grammar. Said the lead researcher, Irene Thastle as she presented at an annual conference: "This phenomenon has long been observed and it's exciting that we've found strong evidence for a hereditary component".

    "Individuals with this condition are often debilitated by the overwhelming urge to interject with text containing no merit or bearing on a relevant subject. This makes them unpopular in society in general and especially with all the pretty girls."

    He continued: "Often the urge is so overpowering that it bypasses the fact-verifying centres of the brain and they inadvertently humiliate themselves in public. Clearly, a non-sufferer would have realised that a simple dictionary check would have sufficed.”

    The professor feels this news is cause for hope in a lot of sufferers, “Our best therapies to date have been ineffective; aggressively mocking a sufferer rarely works because they typically move on to nitpick another person’s text fairly quickly. Future stem-cell research may even be the key to finding a cure.”

    Source: The Grauniad

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Games are Interactive. Movies aren't

    When are they (money grubbing, hollywood producers) going to work that games don't cross into movies.

    Every Single attempt has been crap.

    Message to Hollywood bigwigs: "Create something fuckin' original!"

  16. Graham Jordan

    DOA was awesome!

    That film was so incredibly bad that it was fantastic! I don't think comedy was intended but i spent most of the movie with my hand down my pants laughing my ass off.

    Never really played Tekken but if it has the same qualitys it gets my vote..

    It cant be worse than a Micheal Bay movie anyway

  17. Brian

    movies

    Um, remember that most films are based in some way on a book, comic, game or remake of something previous or on real life.

    Most of the unique/classic style of films don't really get the limelight or much publicity because they are so different.

    People go into films having seen trailors, read the book, played the game, seen a previous film and they have preconceptions and expect it to be just like what they expect. Everyone is unique.

    I don't care if it follows the game or not. For me, any film based on something like that, does not have to follow what we all expect, far from it, it is something to explore the 'universe' of that game and to expand on things. The Doom series of games is one thing, but the film opened up the publicity for it again. There will obviously be people who have never played Doom (for whatever reason, age, no access to pc, game is too 'low graphics' for them, whatever), but they now have an experience of Doom.

    The FPS part of the film is awesome, yes its short, possibly too short, but if the entire film was like that, then the viewer would see a vent and wonder why the character didn't go through it or would have switched weapon sooner or something. Would you play a game where you actually have no control of anything your doing, at all, but just sit there and watch it happen? Probably not.

    Instead of always comdemning everything when you hear something new is coming out, why not actually wait to see it for yourself? Its not your money that they are using to make it. People, in general, are too quick to be negative and complain.

    As long as your entertained for a while, then what does it really matter?

    Of course, you could feel free to write your own [unique] movie script and pitch that... Maybe if instead of people using all the time they spend complaining, to actually spend it being creative, then there may be more unique films out there? Or games?

  18. Graham Bartlett
    Dead Vulture

    "It's a gladiator story"

    Please excuse me if I don't find this an appealing prospect. To my knowledge, the one film where this worked fairly well was "Bloodsport" - precisely because it didn't go for the "seize freedom for his people" bit. Martial artists almost always can't act, and "Bloodsport" worked because it just let martial artists do what they do best - fight. The only reason "Enter the dragon" managed to escape being total crap was reasonable acting (excluding Bruce Lee, who exemplifies the "martial artists can't act" principle). The rest indeed are a huge steaming pile of poo. So joy to the world - some dummy has decided to add another turd to the pile.

    (Bleeding vulture icon chosen because Chuck Norris caught up with it.)

  19. Curtis W. Rendon
    Flame

    Bleah!

    Yuck.

  20. Kevsy

    While you're waiting...

    ...check out the terrific Hong Kong duff-em-up from 2006: 'Dragon Tiger Gate', starring martial arts supremo Donnie Yen. Doesn't involve the Tekken plot or characters but features superb fights with 'special move' embellishments along similar lines . Also contains some hilariously blatant Nokia product placement! NB not to be confused with the Hong Kong Tekken rip-off 'Avenging Fist', which was bilge.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Brian

    the FPS part of doom was the worst thing I have ever scene.

    Serenity was pretty origonal.

    Although concepts will inevitably be reused you can still make a story that stands up on its own without rehashing other stuff.

    As to my own stuff

    A short

    http://www.strawberry-crush.co.uk/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.81

    I try but it's mostly for my own entertainment - besides it's hard coming up with a story I really want to write. Also I have done my fair share of GMing over the years.

  22. Lasse Saikkonen

    Re: MAKE THEM STOP

    "Man one day someone will make a film with an origonal story as opposed to a rip off of a book, game, other film."

    Yeah! I for one would go see it. I love mathematics and I have already seen The Cube, A Beautiful Mind, Pi, Proof and Primer. Unfortunately none of them had an origonal story. Does anyone know of any films about geometry? I for one would like to see it.

  23. Joseph Zygnerski

    Plenty of plot

    Tekken actually has more plot than a game like Street Fighter (as much as I love SF). I think one of the problems is that these games have so many characters that they need to stick them all into the movie, even if they have to stick them into the wrong spots. If they can streamline the plot and write a movie around it, they'll do well.

    Of course, sometimes they just decide to write whatever the hell they want. That's probably the number one problem.

  24. Scott
    Unhappy

    I'm scared

    "crap and full of ugly hooker like Americans"

    "spent most of the movie with my hand down my pants laughing"

    "I'm not expecting much from this one, but if they can pull it off, I would be happy"

  25. max
    Happy

    I blame the goverment

    Just think of all the good games which influenced history.

    Its well known that Bush went into Iraq after playing a particularly nasty CoD2 game online and getting his ass handed to him by a 12year old japanese boy.

    any hoo... "Space Invaders The Musical" anyone

  26. Santos L Halper
    Coat

    original was it?

    "Serenity was pretty origonal."

    i thought the idea was to find films not based on games/tv, Firefly anyone?

    still kicked some serious posterior tho

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