IP We Need to See as Movie Franchises
Paramount+
Movie franchises have successfully spawned from many different avenues. Whether it be from books, comics, folklore stories, or a multitude of other places doesn’t matter. What does matter? Is adapting the source material in a way that can fit the big screen while still maintaining the feel of the original. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings series’ have all managed to do this exceptionally well.
Marvel movies, (when at their best), feel like a comic book movie on the big screen. One of the clearest examples of this feeling is in Spiderman: No Way Home where we actually got to see three sets of Spideys all in action at the same time. But what else do we want to see adapted to the big screen that hasn’t been done before? Or at the very least done well. What other IP’s from other mediums can we see come to life as beautifully as those mentioned above?
Call of Duty and Halo
Activision
Okay I cheated here a bit. I took two properties, but they are similarly popular FPS video games. I also feel like I cheated because we just got a (bad) Halo tv series. But both of these would be fantastic opportunities for movie franchises if the stories remain faithful to the source material.
Let’s start with Halo, the television series we got was a mockery of the game. We saw very little action that even remotely represented the games that it stemmed from. We also saw almost none of the storylines of the main campaign games which was incredibly disappointing for a series with such outstanding lore. What we got was a cheap trick to gain viewers to a story separate from Halo by slapping the IP name in the title.
Halo fans didn’t want to see the mess Paramount gave us. We want to see energy swords, needlers, and destroying waves of aliens to get to the main goal of the mission. It’s dumbfounding to me to buy an IP such as Halo, who literally lay out the ground work of movies and television in each game they make, and not follow it. Give us what we want to see, it should be so simple
Call of Duty is another easy franchise to make. Slap the Call of Duty label on some war films (they bounce around so pick your favorite) interweave them with some relative plot lines and keep characters the same in similar timeframes and BOOM watch the money roll in. You could even do what the video games do and make one a year. Bounce around timeframes to avoid overworking actors and voila you have an instant hit. I honestly cannot comprehend why no major studio has figured out to do this with an instantly recognizable video game series with oodles of fans to service.
Warrior Cats
Harper Collins Publishers
That’s right, give us the movie of the books we all read at least one of in middle school. I mean why not? They’re interesting, the lore is deep, it spans generations, and there is tons of action. But even better is the fact that there is an overwhelming amount of source material for them to follow. This series obviously wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it has a large fan base and depending on how close to the source material it ties, you’d have a fanbase that would follow for nostalgic purposes as well.
Avatar the Last Airbender
Okay I’m cheating here again but c’mon, that abomination does not count. We want an Avatar movie that follows the series. The Avatar series is a somewhat lighthearted fun romp that has a lot of self discovery, self betterment, and adventure. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t catch any of those. It really isn’t hard and I’ll continue to scream it; FOLLOW THE SOURCE MATERIAL. If you do that people will watch and you will succeed. If you don’t, well, just look at the first Avatar the Last Airbender movie, it will not work.
Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto
Okay hand up, I can’t even comprehend how a movie based on GTA would even work. It would have to be a plot set in the world and following similar story elements, but the story would need to be better adapted to work in a movie. But, that’s not my job. I’m here to lay out options, writers and directors are the ones who need to make it work. But seriously, how would this not make money? The movie could absolutely suck and fans would still come in droves to see GTA brought to the big screen. It’s possibly the biggest gaming franchise worldwide it needs adapted. If they could do it with Minecraft, then it shouldn’t be a problem for Grand Theft Auto.