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Eternal Darkness the Movie?

by Mike Sklens - June 27, 2003, 7:24 am EDT
Total comments: 18 Source: Variety.com

Max Roivas rumored to believe "this isn't happening."

Hypnotic, a Hollywood production company, has acquired the TV and feature rights to Nintendo and Silicon Knights' critically acclaimed 2002 title, "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem." The three companies have worked together in the past, as Hypnotic was responsible for overseeing the Eternal Darkness Films contest last summer.

Here's a little snippet from the Variety.com article:

"We are thrilled to once again work with Nintendo to extend this brand and its powerful story to the masses," said CEO Dave Bartis. "We are eager to get the project started and to leverage our relationships in both the entertainment and marketing worlds to propel 'Eternal Darkness' to another entertainment platform."

Eternal Darkness the Movie Official

Now that Nintendo has released a press release, it's official. The movie should come out on March 33 for the full effect.

HYPNOTIC SECURES EXCLUSIVE FEATURE FILM AND TELEVISION RIGHTS FOR NINTENDO GAME ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEM

Companies Collaborate to Take Popular Brand to Television and Film

LOS ANGELES – (June 27, 2003) - Nintendo of America Inc. and Hypnotic, a New York and Los Angeles-based branded entertainment company, will collaborate to bring Nintendo's popular "Eternal DarknessTM: Sanity's Requiem" video game title to new heights through the development of motion picture and television projects. Hypnotic will spearhead all TV and film development, financing, production and distribution rights for the property, from hiring the writers to brokering studio commitments and distribution deals.

Hypnotic understands the power of the Eternal Darkness brand as it produced the successful Eternal Darkness Filmmaking Competition, in 2001 and 2002, to promote the release of the game. Hypnotic chairman, Liz Hamburg, has worked with Nintendo throughout her career and brings her deep understanding of the entertainment and gaming industries to the table to help propel the brand into the filmed entertainment space.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, gaming's first true psychological thriller, received the 'Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story' award at the 2003 Interactive Achievement Awards, the Oscars® of the video-game community. "The characters in this game are extremely complex and story is truly dynamic," says Gail Tilden, vice president, Brand Management, Nintendo of America, Inc. "We're looking forward to working hand-in-hand with Hypnotic to bring this exciting and innovative entertainment property to an even broader audience."

"We are thrilled to once again work with Nintendo to extend this brand and its powerful story to the masses," says David Bartis, CEO, Hypnotic. "We are eager to get the project started and to leverage our relationships in both the entertainment and marketing worlds to propel Eternal Darkness onto yet another entertainment platform."

Hypnotic's current projects include the development of their latest television series, "The O.C." to air on FOX, the Terry Tate, Office Linebacker original film series and commercials for Reebok, The Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival, Toyota's Scion Screening Series, and numerous development deals leveraging its talent pool and immense short film library.

Chairman Liz Hamburg and in-house producer Steven Hein spearheaded the deal. Gail Tilden helmed the negotiation for Nintendo.

Talkback

Fammy2000June 27, 2003

Haven't we seen enough failed attempts?

ThePermJune 27, 2003

It make a great mini series, think 6, 2 hour long episodes . There was this awesoem mini series about UFOs on the sci fi channel..while watching it i though...hey this is great...it spans through several periods of time telling a gigantic overall story..kinda like eternal darkness...hey maybe they should make a mini series!

mouse_clickerJune 27, 2003

I do NOT want to see Eternal Darkness turned into a television show- a movie or mini-series is great, but I don't the idea of such incredible story content being crammed into 30 minute episodes. I agree with ThePerm- with a mini-series you could accuratley portray each segment of Eternal Darkness into 6 or 12 2 hour segments. Better yet, Denis has said they have a LOT of content they didn't put into Eternal Darkness but a sequel is in doubt due to ED's poor sales- maybe they could transform the content that wasn't in Eternal Darkness into a mini-series or movie.

oohhboyHong Hang Ho, Staff AlumnusJune 27, 2003

I am hoping it is not too long or you end up with the Shinning styles. Not good. Anyway, i never liked mini-series as they try to be movie like, but come off chesser than chesse.

vuduJune 27, 2003

can you say naomi watts as alex?

Grey NinjaJune 27, 2003

Personally, I have high hopes for this. Eternal Darkness has a great story, and if done right, it could be translated into a movie quite well.

dafunkk12June 27, 2003

Just as I'm hesitant about Evangelion's "retelling" of the original 11hr series in a mere length of a movie (for those who haven't heard, a live-action version is being produced by ADV Films with effects by Lord of the Ring's WETA), I also doubt the ability to simply transcribe the game's events into 2hrs. The main idea is the long history and cast of players of the Tome of Eternal Darkness, and conveying that in feature length would provide for a very miniscule time budget for each era. A movie version would have to be a minimum of 3hrs, I say. I vote for a mini-series translation.

DjunknownJune 27, 2003

(Perhaps some minor spoilers. You've been warned...)

hmm...TV series, Mini Series, or Full length movie? As much as I love all three of those options, the question is how the mainstream will recieve it? Will they catch or simply scratch their heads?

I remember Mr.Dyack saying the appeal of ED was that of an Indie film, and since only (relatively) a handful of people bought it, it will be difficult to target an audience. As far as a sequel (or Prequel) to ED is concerned, it MAY be possible; it may not of sold well but it did get props at this years DICE and GDC if memory serves correctly. Getting recognition from your peers has to count for something, right?

Of the three options I mentioned, a movie would be least likely; there'd be no way you can put the focus on the 12 characters equally; it'd have to focus on the Rovias line with the other characters having less than half an hour each. A TV series is more feasible, if the episodes were an hour long, each episode dealing with 1 or 2 characters (assuming they put a lot of effort in this) but it would be over in one season. It could probably use this oppurtunity to fill in gaps that the game purposely left blank. A mini series? I don't know much about them, so I can't say much.

Here is a licscense who's source material is like gold. If Mr.Dyack or some other member of Silicon Knights who were involved in the process (Nothing too major, kind of like the Metal Gear Solid remake where Konami is looking over their shoulder) it may be crazy enough to work. But on the other hand, it was a quirky game, but those who love it, LOVE it, like yours truly face-icon-small-wink.gif

KDR_11kJune 28, 2003

Hehe, imagine a multipart movie like LOTR...

MarioJune 28, 2003

Quote

Originally posted by: kingvudu
can you say naomi watts as alex?


No, but i can say Sarah Michelle Gellar as Alex! face-icon-small-happy.gifface-icon-small-happy.gifface-icon-small-happy.gif

ThePermJune 28, 2003

yeah i agree, alex had no personallity...but buffy does. OI mean what other blond, short girl dop you know who is already fouhgten demon and vampires.

dafunkk12June 28, 2003

Quote

Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Hehe, imagine a multipart movie like LOTR...
Hmm, now that you mention it, the movie idea seems much more feasible that way... But as was mentioned before, the audience just may be too limited. Unless there's some humongous word of mouth work ala My Big Fat Greek Wedding, budget constraints may just constrict such an ambitious thing to direct-to-video.

On that matter, my friends and I were spreading the word about Equilibrium, but it was only in our 24-screen multiplex for all of two weeks, leaving many people unable to experience it (which was resolved by the building hype working towards anticipation of the DVD release). Did the same thing happen at anyone else's theater?

Grey NinjaJune 28, 2003

What makes you guys think the story is the same as the game? I am thinking that Alex would scarcely even be in the game. The Eternal Darkness universe is freaking huge, and the movie/tv series/mini series would most likely focus on entirely different events than the game.

Personally, I would like to see a TV show with each 1 hour episode being devoted to one chapter of the Tome of Eternal Darkness. The chapters are about the right length, and I'm sure that there are enough of them to make a pretty good size TV show out of.

ThePermJune 28, 2003

that 28 days wasa pretty good zombie movie..

Berto2KJune 29, 2003

Quote

Originally posted by: Grey Ninja
What makes you guys think the story is the same as the game? I am thinking that Alex would scarcely even be in the game.


If they put some of the game into the movie then they could also twist in some advertising for it and maybe get some more sales. But if the show had no connection to the game other than the name Eternal Darkness and the Tome, then some people could be left with a sour taste in their mouth like many did when playing ED the first time expecting RE. Sure there would be similarities, but if the content is much different they won't seem like the same ideas.

I feel that it would be better if they include stuff from the game and expand on them to make the episodes (or movies) longer and more detailed. DD said that there was tons of stuff that they couldn't get into the game and wanted to. Why not use those ideas like spinoffs in the show to add more depth. This could attract some of the x-files fanatics if done correctly. This could either succeed or bomb badly. They better have someone from SK overseeing it, preferably DD so that it stays true to the game and their ideas.

Grey NinjaJune 29, 2003

Well, you might have a point there, but I still think it would work better if the tv show was a parallel story line, rather than a direct continuation. Alex's chapter was wrapped up pretty good at the end of Eternal Darkness. It's time to change to a new main character. Alex might appear as a reference in a later chapter or something, so it's entirely possible that the show could be linked to the game, but I think it's a REALLY bad idea to have Alex as a main character, as I am right positive that they would screw it up.

ThePermJune 29, 2003

i never did like alex as the main character in the first place..of all the characters paul luther was the best...and mx roivas..i neversee a fat guy with so much energy. Now heres a quesiton..anyone with writing skills? Wanna write a script and submit it?

Grey NinjaJune 30, 2003

Heh. I have often considered making a fan fiction for GBA, but I never wanted to risk it, as I am positive that the level of quality would be far below what Silicon Knights came up with. I just don't want to disgrace either my own name, or Eternal Darkness' name. face-icon-small-wink.gif

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