Hollywood hasn’t had a lot of success with video game movies, but if at first you don’t succeed, keep trying until you wear audiences down through sheer bombardment.
Hence, Roger Avary is going to Castle Wolfenstein.
Avary is probably best known for writing some of Pulp Fiction and for gamers as the writer behind Silent Hill. Castle Wolfenstein will also mark the first time he’ll direct in more than a decade after The Rules of Attraction.
According to the breathless press release, it’s going to be essentially Inglorious Basterds. Actually, this passage of the press release will give you a good idea of the tone:
It is a vaguely futuristic retro world as fun as ‘Captain America’, which has recently been reintroduced to the world audience with great success.
In other words, yes, a guy in power armor with Gatling arms will be appearing with a roar of “GUTEN TAG!” Our heroes will be a British guy and an American guy hoping to destroy the secret weapon being built at the castle, of course.
I’m of two minds about this. A ridiculous, pulpy action movie about insane Nazi superscience actually sounds like a lot of fun, but it’s not like the series was particularly unique in what it did with the idea and it’s the kind of thing that can turn into an accidental episode of The Venture Bros. way too easily. Still, if they can nail a pulp vibe without being excessively camp about it, that’ll be a movie worth watching.
And if not, hey, Avary can always go back to adapting comics for Canadian television.