I must say right from the start that the film adaptation of Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time is not the pile of garbage most gamers thought it would be. In fact, it ain’t half bad. Unfortunately, it is one-third bad, give or take a few stupid moments and under-written characters. But that leaves two-thirds of goodness, so all is not lost for gamers hoping for the first decent adaptation of a video game. Friends, we finally have one.

Before I go into what worked for me, I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way. First up is Ben Kingsley’s so-called performance as the film’s villain, Nizam. I say “so-called” because he doesn’t really do anything. Kingsley seems to be sleepwalking through the film, standing on his marks when required, speaking his lines, then exiting stage left at the appropriate time. I guess that’s better than the ridiculous over-acting he’s given the film world over the last decade or so, but I can’t help hoping for more from the man who once won an Oscar for masterfully playing Gandhi. (more…)

Via Bioware’s website, Mass Effect will soon become a major motion picture. Here’s a quote from their site, “I am very pleased this morning to announce that there will be a Mass Effect movie made by the fine folks at Legenday Pictures! I know there has been a lot of speculation amongst our fans ever since Mass Effect 1 came out as to whether or not there would be a movie, who should star in it, who would direct, would there be a Wrex sized bucket of popcorn, etc and I can now reveal that, yes, there will be a movie (popcorn deal is still unconfirmed.

Legendary Pictures, the studio behind great films such as The Dark Knight, Watchmen, The Hangover and 300 have picked up the rights to make Mass Effect. Legendary Pictures will produce with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni along with Avi Arad (who has been behind great films like Iron Man, X-Men and Spider-Man). From BioWare Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck and Casey Hudson will serve as executive producers.

“At BioWare, we’ve always thought of Mass Effect as having the depth, emotion and plot twists perfectly suited for an adaptation to a motion picture,” said Casey Hudson, executive producer of the Mass Effect series. “With Avi Arad and Legendary attached, we believe that the Mass Effect movie will be an extraordinary entertainment event that realizes our vision for the franchise and thrills fans.”

I am super psyched for this and look forward to seeing the Mass Effect movie take shape”.

Who would you choose to play Commander Shepherd?

Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC—the largest publisher of science fiction in the world—and Visceral Games™, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc, today announced Dead Space™: Martyr (A Tor Trade Paperback; $14.99; July 2010), the first novel based on the award-winning Dead Space videogame franchise. Dead Space: Martyr delves into the back story of the fiction including the history of the Church of Unitology, the discovery of the enigmatic “Black Marker” and the mysteries behind an alien artefact of unknown power. Dead Space: Martyr will be available in July 2010 at select retailers worldwide.

When geophysicist Michael Altman learns of a mysterious signal emitting from deep within the Chicxulub crater, he cannot resist the lure of an undiscovered artefact. He soon learns that being in close proximity to the artefact causes strange occurrences – visions of the dead, vivid dreams, and violent murders. Altman’s experience with the alien artefact leads to this crucial first chapter in the Dead Space saga.

“One of the most compelling storytelling aspects of Dead Space has been the Church of Unitology: its origins, power, and role in Dead Space,” says Tor editor, Eric Raab. “Writer B.K. Evenson gets into the terrifying aspects of mob mentality like no other writer today. This isn’t only a great story within the Dead Space universe; it’s a great novel on its own.”

“The Dead Space world is incredibly vast and rich — expanding its fiction into a novel lets us share parts of the story that just can’t fit into videogames,” said Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of Dead Space 2.  “We hope Dead Space: Martyr will be the first of many books to let fans dive deeply into Dead Space’s secrets and immersive lore.”

B. K. Evenson is the award-winning author of Last Days, voted best horror novel of 2009 by the American Library Association and The Open Curtain, a 2006 Edgar Award finalist and Time Out New York best book of the year.

Originally launched in 2008, Dead Space quickly became one of EA’s top rated wholly-owned intellectual properties. With close to 100 industry awards and an average critic score of 89*, Dead Space became a hit with horror and videogame fans worldwide. In 2009, EA launched Dead Space Extraction, a prequel to the original game and will continue to expand the fiction with its stunning sequel, Dead Space 2

Adrian Askarieh, producer of the somewhat successful Hitman movie (adapted from the video game franchise, if you couldn’t figure that out), spoke with GameDaily recently about an upcoming sequel, as well as an independently-produced Just Cause adaptation. Maybe that excites you; maybe not. But what intrigued moi was the bomb Askarieh dropped concerning a Kane and Lynch movie—specifically the role of Kane.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration: Bruce Willis.

Yes, that Bruce Willis. Askarieh says Willis read the script and though it was “one of the best action scripts he’s ever read” and that he’s excited to get to work. Willis did work on three of the greatest action flicks ever made—Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and Die Hard With a Vengeance (the fourth one was…yeah, not gonna talk about that)—so he kind of knows what he’s talking about.

Then again, the Kane and Lynch game wasn’t exactly a blockbuster success. Critics  pretty much hated it (one may have lost his job because he hated it so much), and gamers all but dismissed it. So why a movie? Is this really what gamers want out of an adaptation? Is this even the game we wanted adapted?

Wait, why am I trying to understand the actions of a Hollywood producer? I could be here all day trying to decipher this dude’s mind. Considering the source material is kind of crap, these guys have nowhere to go but up. You folks remember that when the Kane and Lynch movie comes out and is somehow worse than the game.