Hobbit Director Talks Videogames
While working on the Hellboy: Science of Evil videogame with Konami that coincided closely with the movie release of Hellboy 2, The Edge Magazine actually got to sit down with director Guillermo del Toro to discuss his passion for videogames; however, before we get to the interview, if you haven't heard of Guillermo del Toro then you now have the homework of renting Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone on DVD; trust me you'll enjoy them both. Back on topic, unlike other movie directors, when del Toro says he has a long seated love for videogames, he's not just saying what gamers want to hear. He's got the facts to back it up:
What games did you play as a kid?I was around for the first Pong - that's how old I am. Then there was a lightgun game with a pistol that was very cheesy, and an Atari system. Every cliché you see in '80s movies, that was me.
Any favourites?
I loved games like Asteroids and Galaga. When the CD-ROM games arrived for Mac and PC, I found some masterpieces. There was a Japanese game called Gadget that was very influential on movies like Dark City and The Matrix. There was also a very scary one called Cosmology of Kyoto: every time you died you had to go through a different hell. And you could reincarnate as a dog!
That's right, this guy really is that old school. Guillermo goes on to talk about how he's loved playing Bioshock, is a fan of the Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Devil May Cry series, and that he considers Ico and Shadow of the Colossus to be masterpieces in videogames. He also discusses what happened with the game project 'Sundown' that he tried to pitch to game companies a few years back. One very interesting part in the interview is when he discusses what he sees to be an advantage of using the videogame medium:
They're an incredible storytelling tool, one that filmmakers should embrace instead of reject. In the next ten years, they'll yield a couple of narrative masterpieces. Already they allow you to tap in to a more immersive narrative experience than most movies. Not all, but most.
Overall, del Toro has a lot of positive things to say about the videogame industry, and a lot of light to shine upon the possibilities that movies can bring to the industry and that game industry can bring to the movies. I strongly recommend reading the full interview, and from the sound of what he's saying I'm sure we'll be seeing a Hobbit game or two tying in with the movie(s) he's directing right now.
Hellboy Director Talks Gaming [EDGE]
PixelPoet
Posted to Movies-DVDs, Video Games on 26 August 2008
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