Bethesda Boss Says ‘The Elder Scrolls,’ ‘Fallout’ Movies Not Likely Unless Peter Jackson Gets Involved
A Bethesda Softworks executive recently spoke of the possibility of the studio's intellectual properties getting film adaptations, saying that the possibility is not likely unless a certain director signs on to helm the project.
Pete Hines, the Vice President of Bethesda Softworks, had an interview with Finder during the recently held QuakeCon, a yearly convention held by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media.
There has recently been a surge of news and reports about video games either set to head to the big screen, or publishers being in talks to have their projects do so. The surge in the return to the possibility of video game film adaptations becoming popular is likely thanks to the financial success of Legendary Picture's adaptation of Blizzard's juggernaut "WarCraft" series. The next major film adaptation of a video game is December's "Assassin's Creed," starring Michale Fassbender and set to adapt Ubisoft's famous action adventure historical fiction of the same name.
When asked if the people behind classic action and role playing game titles like "Dishonored" and the "Fallout" and "The Elder Scrolls" series were interested in getting on the adaptation train, Hines said that they while "get asked to all the time" they are, first and foremost, video game developers.
According to Hines, talks of film adaptations always inevitably end up on deciding who had the power over the adaptation. One of the most common complaints with previous attempts at adaptations is the subject of the work's loyalty to the source material. Paul W.S. Anderson's "Resident Evil" film series and Uwe Boll's work are among the major examples of video game film adaptations that took great liberties with the original titles, with fans of the originals criticizing them for being adaptations in-name only.
Because of the above, Hines said that they would rather hold on to their titles and let the developers' visions decide on the direction the franchises might take. According to Hines, the nuances of other people getting in on how adaptations might turn out are distracting so they would rather stick to doing what they know.
Unless, of course, a certain award-winning director named Peter Jackson were to come to ZeniMax' or Bethesda's offices and expressed his interest in an adaptation. "Well that would be a pretty serious conversation you would have to listen to," said Hines. Hines then admitted that Jackson might be too busy with his other projects for anything to happen in the near future.
For those itching for their favorite Dragonborn or Sole Survivor or Victorian assassin to get onto the silver screen though, Hines assured that, were they to eventually seriously consider the prospect of a foray into filmmaking, they have a lot to work with considering they have the like of Jerry Bruckheimer, Leslie Moonves, and Harry Sloan on their board of directors.