So in a few weeks (September 16 to be exact) George Lucas and pals will drop another Star Wars sequel on the public. What, what, whaaat… you say. Wasn’t that animated “thing” the final theatrical gasp of Lucas’ film franchise? Haha, you fool. No. Lucas will never stop. He’s the merry-go-around operator and his merry-go-round runs on atomic energy and a daily bowl of Wheaties. It can’t be stopped. But don’t go looking in theaters for the next Star Wars chapter. Instead, try searching in any store that trades video games for money.
You read that right, a video game. “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” is not only the most anticipated video game of the fall, it’s arguably the most hyped film sequel arriving to a… um video game console near you (so if you’re even somewhat in the pop-culture know, my opening paragraph was pretty condescending… deal with it because your hack writer needed a lead). On one level, the game will feature state-of-the-art technology suited perfectly for the next generation game consoles (although, a version of the game seems to have been created for every platform short of the Sega Genesis). On another level, unlike most of Star Wars games in the past, “The Force Unleashed” tells a story-involving Darth Vader’s secret apprentice and occurring between Episodes III and IV–that will be included in the official Star Wars canon. And from all accounts, it appears the story actually divulges important details that dovetail into the original trilogy.
Yet, “The Force Unleashed” isn’t the only highly awaited movie-related video game scheduled for this fall. Almost all of the main cast of Ghostbusters (yes even, Bill Murray… but sadly no Rick Moranis) has returned for what looks like both a video-game adaptation of the first movie and a new story too (scripted by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis).
Movie tie-in video games are nothing new. They’ve been around since the Atari (and almost all of them have sucked). Sure, these games have always expanded somewhat on the film’s story for the obvious game-play reasons. And there are probably several games I’m ignorant of (don’t let me fool you, I’m not that big of a gamer) that have spun off from original movie properties. Although, I am aware of a pretty decent Evil Dead game from a few years back, in what Bruce Campbell called the closest fans would ever get to an Evil Dead 4. But it doesn’t seem like these spin-offs have ever gone to the degree that the “The Force Unleashed” and “Ghostbusters-The Video Game” have. These two games bring the creative input of the original filmmakers (Lucas had a guiding hand in “The Force Unleashed”) and a cast of name actors; the fact that a busy, still famous actor like Bill Murray returned for a video game sequel is a stupefying achievement, and probably involved a stupefying large pay check. For all intents and purposes, the game developers are marketing these games as film sequels and should be considered as such. Don’t believe me? Just watch this teaser trailer for “The Force Unleashed” below before I finish this diatribe…
I’m curious if that’s where the future of film sequels lies. Not saying video games would replace sequels (that’s just asinine). Yet, there have always been fan wish-list sequels that will never ever go into film production (such as Ghostbusters 3), so it appears video games are the natural medium to continue these properties when the actors are too fat and old to reprise their roles on celluloid (such as the original cast of Ghostbusters, with the exception of Ernie Hudson, who stopped aging in 1992). While video games are a financial gamble (no DVDs or television revenue to recover losses, if the game bombs, it’s done and dead) and are costly – $15 to 30 million, probably not including marketing – they do have the potential to rake in massive amounts of cash and provide filmmakers with a canvas for ideas that would run a film’s budget to half a billion dollars or to whatever astronomical figure I feel like pulling from my ass.
If “The Force Unleashed” and “Ghostbusters” succeed both as video games and entertaining installments of their respective film franchises, I think we can expect to see plenty of video-game film sequels dropping in our local Targets soon… and finally my dream of witnessing Ozone and Turbo back in action again in Breakin’ 3: Hydro-Krumping Boogaloo shall be realized!
You can visit the official site for “The Force Unleashed” right here and if you didn’t believe me about the number of consoles the game is available on just preorder your copy of the game by clicking on your console of choice: PlayStation 3 | XBOX 360 | Nintendo Wii | PlayStation2 | Sony PSP | Nintendo DS | What? No PC? Dicks!
