Hollywood loves a good announcement
The Super Mario Bros. Movie lit up the box office this year with more than $1 billion in ticket sales, putting video game movies back in the spotlight. It wasn't the first video game movie and it won't be the last.
But not every video game movie is so successful, and many that were announced and had directors and writers attached were never made at all. In this post, we're running through 20 video game movies that were announced but never panned out.
This list includes the Halo movie from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the movie based on The Division starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, and the Atari movie featuring none other than Leonardo DiCaprio as Nolan Bushnell.
It's also worth bearing in mind that in Hollywood, this type of thing is normal. A studio buying the movie rights to a franchise does not guarantee that a project will see the light of day. It just means the company has the option to do so. With that out of the way, here we go.
1. Halo
Perhaps the most high-profile video game movie that was announced but never came out was the Halo film. Following the success of the Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson was hired to be an executive producer on a Halo film that would feature CG work from Weta Digital. The original announcement included beaming quotes from Jackson, who said he was "excited to bring Halo's premise, action, and settings to the screen. I'm a huge fan of the game and look forward to helping it come alive on the cinema screen," he said. "The movie, which was written by 28 Days Later scribe Alex Garland and D.B Weiss (who would go on to create HBO's Game of Thrones with David Benioff), was booked to come to theaters in the summer of 2007.
But that never happened.
The film was indefinitely postponed in October 2006. Director Neill Blomkamp stayed on board, but Garland and Weiss dropped out. Efforts were reportedly made to help Halo come to the big screen, but nothing ever came of it. All was not lost, however, as Blomkamp and Jackson took some of what they created for Halo and made the celebrated low-budget film District 9, which ended up putting Blomkamp on the map. Despite how it all went down, Blomkamp said in 2017 that he would jump at the chance to try again with Halo. As for the Halo series outside of video games, a TV show starring Pablo Schreiber was released in 2022 on Paramount+.
2. BioShock
A film based on the Ken Levine-directed video game BioShock was first announced in 2008, with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski attached to direct. Production was halted the following year due to concerns over the project's ballooning $160 million budget. Verbinski clarified the film's fate in 2011, revealing that the BioShock movie's budget would only be approved for a PG-13 take on the material, a compromise he felt was unacceptable. After Verbinski dropped out, other directors came aboard to try to pick up the pieces, including Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who made 28 Days Later and Intact.
While that version of the BioShock movie never panned out, Netflix announced in 2022 that it is partnering with 2K and Take-Two to make a BioShock movie for the streaming service. It's still super early days, and just because Netflix has announced its intention to make a movie, that doesn't mean the company will actually do it.
3. Portal
Feature films based on Valve's popular games Half-Life and Portal were announced back in 2013. At the time, Valve said it would work with director JJ Abrams on these movies, and for a time, it sounded like the films might actually come out. Abrams said in 2021 that the Portal movie had a script and was moving ahead at Warner Bros. Abrams said Portal has "enormous potential" as a film. Too bad that we haven't heard a peep about it since!
4. Half-Life
In addition to the Portal movie, JJ Abrams was at one point developing a Half-Life film. Abrams delivered some tough news in 2021, saying his team at Bad Robot is "not actively involved" in it. There is always a possibility that a different studio could pick up the pieces and run with it, but it remains to be seen if that will happen soon… or ever.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio as Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell
Some may recall that in 2008, Paramount agreed to make a biopic about Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. And who would play Bushnell? None other than Leonardo DiCaprio. Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman wrote the screenplay, after they convinced Bushnell personally that they could "do his unique story justice." Bushnell played a major role in the origins of the video game industry with titles like Pong and the Atari 2600 system. He also founded Chuck E. Cheese's. The movie, of course, never panned out. The exact reasons why are unknown, but it's pretty common in Hollywood for hyped movies to ultimately fizzle out.
6. Vin Diesel's Wheelman
Who could forget that, in 2006, Vin Diesel himself confirmed plans to make a Wheelman movie with Midway Games, MTV Films, and Paramount Pictures. Diesel was very excited about it at the time, saying, "With The Wheelman, we have created the first integrated franchise being launched for both the gaming and film industries." XXX writer Rich Wilkes was attached to pen the screenplay, but no director, release date, or plot details were released for the film. The plan, as Diesel alluded to, was to create a new Wheelman film and a video game. Midway CEO David Zucker said this would be a "groundbreaking new model" for entertainment. But it was not meant to be, at least not completely. A Wheelman video game starring Diesel was released in 2009, but the film adaptation? It never happened. Diesel and his team didn't abandon this idea altogether, though, as he starred in the Chronicles of Riddick video game and feature film. In the future, Diesel is set to star in the dinosaur survival game Ark 2 and has announced generic plans for an Ark 2 film. Only time will tell if it all comes together as Diesel is envisioning it.
7. The Division
In 2016, it was announced that Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain would star in a movie based on Ubisoft's The Division. That was some pretty exciting news, given the caliber of both. Then we learned that Oscar-winner Stephen Gaghan would write and direct the movie. More exciting news! However, plans later shifted, with John Wick's David Leitch coming aboard. That was pretty fun and exciting news, too, given his pedigree. But it wasn't meant to be, as Leitch reportedly dropped out due to his busy schedule, with Skyscraper's Rawson Marshall Thurber stepping in to take over. That's the latest word in what has been a lengthy development process. Since it's been so long, it remains to be seen if Gyllenhaal and Chastain remain attached.
8. Ghost Recon
All the way back in 2013, Ubisoft announced it was working with action movie legend Michael Bay on a Ghost Recon movie. Writers Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia were hired. But it's been 10 years and there is no movie, nor have there been any meaningful updates about it.
9. Splinter Cell
Another Ubisoft movie that is seemingly in development hell is the Splinter Cell film. This project was announced back in 2012, but had been in the works for six years prior, dating back to 2006. In 2017, producer Basil Iwanyk said the script was finished and was headed to Hardy for consideration. Whether or not that ever happened is unknown, but Iwanyk stressed that Hardy is a big-time gamer himself and was keen to play Sam Fisher. Jason Bourne director Doug Liman was at one point attached to direct, but he later bowed out. The current status of the project is unknown, but in classic Hollywood fashion, studio executives began thinking about a sequel long before the first movie was released.
10. Just Dance
Another Ubisoft video game that was at one point destined for the silver screen was… Just Dance. Yes, really. The game where you dance in your living room. In 2019, Screen Gems acquired the rights to make a Just Dance movie based on the series that debuted in 2009. Neither Ubisoft nor Sony Pictures shared specifics for just how Just Dance could work as a film, but in Hollywood, truly anything is possible.
These won't be Ubisoft's first movies, as the company partnered with Fox for 2016's Assassin's Creed, which starred Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Irons.
11. Call Of Duty
It might not be very widely known, but gaming giant Activision Blizzard has a film and TV division called Activision Blizzard Studios. One of the projects in the works is a Marvel-style extended film universe for the Call of Duty series. In 2017, multiple scripts had been written and plans seemed to be coming together. The plan, at least at one point in time, was to make movies based on Call of Duty sub-brands like Black Ops and Modern Warfare, and potentially for them to connect in some fashion. But the momentum has seemingly slowed down and there have not been any meaningful updates on the Call of Duty movie universe in recent years. Activision has had some success in the film space, as 2016's Warcraft was the highest-grossing video game movie of all time globally until The Super Mario Bros. Movie came along.
12. The Last of Us
Long before HBO adapted Naughty Dog's The Last of Us into the celebrated TV series that was released in 2023, the game studio was working with Sony Pictures on a Last of Us feature film. In 2021, writer-director Neil Druckmann said one of the key issues was a push from above to include more action and bigger set pieces. That didn't feel genuine to the story, so Druckmann didn't move forward with The Last of Us as a film. As a video game, The Last of Us featured a number of set pieces and action sequences to help players learn the controls. But for TV, none of that matters. Druckmann said he was excited to bring The Last of Us to TV because it allowed him and the team to "play to the strengths of this medium."
13. Dante's Inferno
Remember Dante's Inferno? EA's big action game from 2010 that the company spent big money to promote with a Super Bowl commercial? There was so much excitement behind the property, apparently, that Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez was rumored to be in the mix to direct a live-action adaptation of the game for Universal Pictures. The game itself is an adaptation of Dante Alighiere's classic Divine Comedy poem, in which Dante must traverse the nine circles of Hell to rescue his beloved Beatrice. Jay Basu (The Dinosaur Project, Fast Girl) and Bruce McKenna (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) wrote scripts for the film throughout the development process. Despite some buzz and excitement around the movie, it never came to fruition and the game never got a sequel.
14. The Sims
Back in 2007, EA and 20th Century Fox announced that the popular Sims video game would become a movie. It was planned as a live-action movie, so the idea would be that real human actors would become the Sims that are controlled by human players in the game. Brian Lynch, who would later write Minions and the Secret Life of Pets films, was hired to pen the script for The Sims. At the time, EA boss Rod Humble said the Sims franchise is all about what it's like to have "infinite power and how do you deal with it." Humble said that's a tale as old as time, remarking that it would "easily" translate to a traditional storytelling medium like film. Maybe so, or maybe not, because the planned Sims film never panned out and Hollywood hasn't tried again since.
15. Firewatch
2016's Firewatch is a bold and beautiful game that scored fantastic reviews upon release, so it was little surprise when Hollywood came calling for the movie rights. Developer Campo Santo brokered a deal with movie companies Good Universe to create a Firewatch film. The game is set in 1989 Wyoming and features the voices of Cissy Jones (The Walking Dead) and Rich Sommer (Mad Men).
You play as a fire lookout named Henry and can only communicate with a voice on the other side of a radio. To say much more about the story would be giving something away.
When the film was announced, Campo Santo founder Sean Vanaman said the studio and the movie companies had shared values and that they were excited to get started. No directors or actors were ever announced for the film, and it never materialized. That's not to say it will never happen, only that it hasn't yet.
16. Dead Island
Deep Silver's popular zombie game Dead Island garnered a lot of attention for its eye-catching original trailer where events unfolded backward. It was an emotionally gripping device, and it was so exciting that Hollywood got involved and struck a movie deal. In 2011, Deep Silver cut a deal with Hunger Games studio Lionsgate, but the project fell through and the rights reverted back to the game company. In 2014, Deep Silver tried again with Occupant Entertainment, but similarly, the project didn't catch fire and we haven't heard about it since. The game series, meanwhile, is still chugging along, with Dead Island 2 releasing in April 2023.
19. RollerCoaster Tycoon
If something is popular, Hollywood will try to make a movie out of it. Case in point: in 2010, Sony Pictures Animation announced that it had acquired the film rights to the RollerCoaster Tycoon series of theme park management games. It was reported at the time that the movie would be a hybrid of live-action and animation. Harald Zwart, who directed Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther II, and the Karate Kid remake, was an executive producer and potential director.
That's all we ever heard about the movie. Sadly, it never came to be, leaving fans to wonder what it could have been. Maybe it was for the best…
20. Just Cause
A movie based on the over-the-top action game series Just Cause from developer Avalanche Studios has been in development since 2010 or earlier, and it's still not here. The movie was at one point in development from the German film company Constantin, which also made the popular Resident Evil series starring Milla Jovovich and the Monster Hunter movie that also starred Jovovich. The movie has had a number of ups and downs and bumps in the road throughout its lengthy development process.
At one point, Aquaman star Jason Momoa was attached to play Rico Rodriguez, with Rampage director Brad Peyton lined up to direct. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World writer John Collee was attached to write, but John Wick creator and writer Derek Kolstad later came aboard as the newest writer in 2019. Unfortunately for those wanting to see a Just Cause movie, there have not been any significant updates on the film in the years since. You can always go back and watch the 1995 crime thriller Just Cause starring Laurence Fishburne and Sean Connery if you want to see a movie called Just Cause.
21. Metal Gear Solid
A movie based on the Metal Gear Solid series has been in development for more than 5 years, but unfortunately for fans, it's never gathered enough steam to actually get cameras rolling. In 2017, Jurassic World's Derek Connolly was writing the script, but in Hollywood, things change all the time and it's not clear if he's still attached or if someone else came on to take over. In terms of casting, Oscar Isaac was at one point attached to play Solid Snake. In 2022, Isaac said the film was still alive, but before production could begin, the filmmakers would need to find a good story. And that could take some time. "We're climbing through air ducts. We're looking for the story," Isaac said at the time
Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, a Metal Gear super-fan and a friend of series designer Hideo Kojima, is lined up to direct the film (or at least he was the last we heard). Similarly, Sony Pictures was attached to produce the Metal Gear movie when we heard last.
22. Saints Row
The high-octane action game series Saints Row has always been in GTA's shadow, but it could achieve something GTA has not: a feature film adaptation. For years, there have been reports about a Saints Row film, and in 2019, it was announced that Fate of the Furious director F. Gary Gray would direct the movie. Greg Russo, who wrote the script for the much-loved Mortal Kombat reboot movie, was at one point attached to write the script when the movie was set up at Warner Bros. This was a few years ago, so whether or not the movie is still happening with the same people and studio remains to be seen. But the franchise certainly seems like it could be well-suited for the silver screen with its over-the-top action, humor, and antics.
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