WTF? Francis Ford Coppola crowdsources Apocalypse Now game

It has been 38 years since Apocalypse Now burst onto the cinema screen, and now Francis Ford Coppola says he wants to revisit the classic in computer game form – and wants you to pay for it. The renowned auteur, estimated to be worth several hundred million, is trying to raise $900,000 to build the game himself after the game …

[Locky]

Obligatory title

I love the smell of Kickstarter cash in the morning

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure

plenty of idiots will fund a multi-millionaires pet project.

[Francis Boyle]

Considering

a modest home in the suburbs will set you back the better part of a million dollars becoming a multi-millionaire doesn't make you a fat cat - it just means you were moderately successful and invested wisely (or were raking it in and blew most of it on cocaine, booze and hookers).

[FuzzyWuzzys]

Re: I'm sure

So what if they do, if they get what they want from it why is that a problem?

Almost every creative project is a some sort of pet-project of someone. Why is funding a project started by a millionaire any different from funding one by someone with a couple of quid? So long as you get to enjoy the result at a price you're prepared to pay. It's a problem when you pump money in some vanity project that promises you get something and then you find yourself screwed over..

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Crowdsourcing?

WTF? Francis Ford Coppola crowdsources Apocalypse Now game

Crowdsourcing would be if he asked the internet to write the game for him. There's no hint of that in the article.

This is crowdfunding, but so what? The record of Kickstarter projects run by people who know what they're doing is pretty good. I guess you're suggesting that he can afford to finance it himself but the advantage of Kickstarter is that it identifies and locks in demand for the product before you start. Because, as any fule kno, stated preference surveys and observed preference surveys give very different answers to the same question.

I'll probably wait for the Humble Store sale though.

the team thinks they can have the game finished by October 2020 – although given the original movie was over a year behind schedule due to difficult on-set conditions (a hurricane and Martin Sheen's mid-filming heart attack) and extensive reediting, that date might slip.

...huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Crowdsourcing?

"...and wants you to pay for it..." -- I've read that before, recently. Let's see how it goes.

[Cuddles]

Re: Crowdsourcing?

"The record of Kickstarter projects run by people who know what they're doing is pretty good."

Agreed. Francis Ford Coppola is a film writer and director who has never, as far as I am aware, made a video game or even been involved with one in any way, or been involved with crowdfunded projects either. And who hasn't been particularly successful at making films for the last decade or two for that matter. That doesn't mean things are bound to go badly; he should at least have a decent idea of financial management due to his previous work, but when it comes to crowdfunding video games he really wouldn't seem to count as someone who knows what he's doing. There are all too many people who still consider games something of a joke and assume that just because they've been successful in films or similar that it will be a doddle to jump into gaming and show all the idiots how it's supposed to be done, and who invariably fail horribly. Maybe Coppola isn't one of those, but I wouldn't bet money on it just because he made a few good films 20+ years ago.

[graeme leggett]

Re: Crowdsourcing?

"Beta testing... shit; I'm still only in Beta testing... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the alpha"

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Re: Crowdsourcing?

That's a fair criticism of Coppola, but he does appear to have brought a bunch of experienced game designers along for the ride.

[Anonymous Coward]

Get those Ukrainian STALKER guys onboard!

Might be cool.

[Not also known as SC]

Tom Clancy Games

"The player will take on the role of Captain Willard and will have to pass through the jungle to find the elusive Kurtz, but the idea is not to kill everyone and let god sort 'em out, but to stay alive and undiscovered."

Isn't this the idea behind the XBox Tom Clancy stealth games?

[Kane]

Re: Tom Clancy Games

"Isn't this the idea behind the XBox Tom Clancy stealth games?"

It sounded more like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, to me!

[Dave 126]

Re: Tom Clancy Games

On the subject of Metal Gear and its creator:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38737220/hideo-kojima-says-games-and-films-will-merge-together

His latest game will feature the director Guillermo del Toro.

[Kane]

Re: Tom Clancy Games @ Dave 126

Aye, saw that article the other day. Death Stranding is looking mighty fine, judging by the trailers so far. Guillermo del Toro, Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen. It could be the perfect comeback after the cancellation of Silent Hills (I didn't get to play P.T. as I didn't get a PS4 until after it had been removed from the Playstation Store, and I was not prepared to pay up to £1000 for a PS4).

I don't go in for the whole pre-orders thing, but I may end up doing that and booking a few days off work for it.

[Dave 126]

Re: Tom Clancy Games @ Dave 126

Del Toro was working with Kojima on game that Konami cancelled, which is why he tweeted "Fuck Konami" as a Christmas message. Seems Kojima might have some sympathy for Coppola's attitude towards big film studios.

There is spoof photo of a Powerpoint slide doing the rounds on the internet, purported to have been revealed by the infamous Sony leak:

KONAMI - INTERNAL USE ONLY

2015 STRATEGY AND PLANNING

- Fuck Hideo Kojima

- Fuck Metal Gear

- Fuck Silent Hill

- Fuck It

- Fuck You

[jeffdyer]

Never. Leave. The. Boat.

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

Absolutely godamm right... unless you're going all the way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4dFDBYWuTc

[Tony Paulazzo]

Already been done, 1990, Gunboat. For the Amiga, ST & PC'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_(video_game)

It was awesome! :)

[PhilipN]

The decision to crowbar films into games to create a parallel income stream has ruined many movie franchises. It is a relief that Apocalypse Now came out several decades ago. If it had been made today with an eye on the gaming market it would have been one of the worst movies ever made instead of one of the best.

A new game based on the film, though - I am intrigued.

I am similarly intrigued at the thought that models of Kurtz, military choppers playing Wagner and other items (such as Frederic Forrest's severed head) could end up in toy shops.

Not sure whether a game would be allowed if it included a trip to an opium den (Apolocalypse Now Redux) but either way I'd buy it - if only to ensure that the surfer (Sam Bottoms) has his head blown off at the first opportunity.

[Stuart Castle]

"The decision to crowbar films into games to create a parallel income stream has ruined many movie franchises. It is a relief that Apocalypse Now came out several decades ago. If it had been made today with an eye on the gaming market it would have been one of the worst movies ever made instead of one of the best."

Not too sure it would have been one of the worst movies ever made, but I can see them adding the Ride of the Valkyries scene into the game, possible as a sort of helicopter chase.

I can see what you mean though. In Star Wars: EP1, the pod racing scene was arguably one of the most exciting scenes. It also felt like it was bolted on so they could get at least one game out of it.

Damn, I might have just given the developers an idea.

[MJI]

Will it have

The helicopter tune?

[graeme leggett]

Re: Will it have

It is out of copyright...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Will it have

by a few hundred years.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Will it have

> the helicopter tune

You now picture airborne assault on pajama-clad peasants to the sound of Nyancat.

Meanwhile: How I Tried to Transplant the Musical Heart of Apocalypse Now: Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch describes the surprising idiosyncrasies of film scoring.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: Will it have

It's from The Ring of the Nibelung, so less than 100, actually

[Tom_]

Re: Will it have

May as well. They had it in Battlefield: Vietnam after all.

[Anonymous Coward]

crowdourcing is THE THING, gentlemen!

Practically no fuss and, most importantly, NO RISK of sinking your own money. Fools will sink THEIR money for you. Not like those pesky banks that not only charge high interest, but even want to grab a large share of your hard-won profit afterwards.

Keep diggin!

[WraithCadmus]

We already have a Heart of Darkness-based game

It's called Spec Ops: The Line.

Icon: I love the smell in the morning

[Paul Westerman]

Re: We already have a Heart of Darkness-based game

Great game. I finished it in FUBAR mode. So there :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: We already have a Heart of Darkness-based game

I was gonna mention that,

And as Apocalypse Now was an updated culturally relevant retelling of Heart of Darkness so to was Spec Ops the Line.

[DNTP]

Re: We already have a Heart of Darkness-based game

It's also called "Far Cry 2"; unfortunately it wasn't as interesting as it should have been.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Terminate... with extreme prejudice.

In Vietnam everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission... and for my sins they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over... I would never want another.

The horror... the horror.

Something about snails and razor blades.

[Snow Hill Island]

Koyaanisqatsi

or possibly more appropriately, "Naqoyqatsi"...

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: Koyaanisqatsi

Sure that Indian Nation must be going a bit crazy when they open the news.

(OTOH, there's casinos to run)

[disgruntled yank]

I'll Pass

Roy Blount, in an essay on the sad decline of the art of f***ing up, remarked that "Apocalypse Now" might have been a masterpiece in that particular art, except that the means were inadequate to the end, as if Napoleon had invaded Russia to take over the style section of Pravda.

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh..

Sounds a bit formulaic...

[robin48gx]

HL2 already has the story line, bloke goes through war zone up a river, takes out eveil command rouge outpost

[DNTP]

1. Hold down key to make airboat move forward (due to a programming error this key is also irrevocably bound to the "set plot_enable 0" command)

2. Incidentia

3. Wait for the story to start again

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

John Milius absent?

Apocalypse Now was more Milius' film than Coppola's. I would play any game that sprung from that mind....can I please go surfing in an artillery barrage?

[Tom_]

Three Million Dollars

That is not enough money to make a modern, multiplatform video game of a quality similar to the orginal film.

Thirty million dollars might get you a good bit of the way there, depending on how well you reign in the scope.

[benderama]

There's a reason the big publishers won't touch his game - and it's not what he says it is. You'll be amazed.

[steve 124]

PLEASE !! WANT!

I can haz PorkLipsNow the game!? WANT! Yes, Pleez!

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Interesting. Although this and that might be lost in translation...

[ma1010]

So, if you complete the game an WIN...

...you meet up with Captain Kurtz? Can the player collect some powerful tranquilizers and a strait jacket on the way there?

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: So, if you complete the game an WIN...

Kurtz was apparently code for "we can win this war if we go full out", so you could also bring a contract to "come back to the Pentagon, we need you".

[Antron Argaiv]

Re: So, if you complete the game an WIN...

I'm going to be a killjoy and say that the war in Vietnam is a poor subject for a game.

A bit too raw.

[anonymous boring coward]

WTF?

Is an excellent, legendary anti-war film going to end up as a version of COD now?

I hope not..

[LoPath]

Funding Canceled

Funding for this project was canceled by the project creator on February 15.

$172,503 pledged of $900,000 goal

2,711 backers