‘God of War’ Movie: What Can We Expect From the Adaptation?
'God of War,' Sony's Greek epic game for the Playstation, is one of the more ambitious video games attempting to transition from the console to the big screen. Aiding that transition will be screenwriters Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who have toiled away in the horror genre for many years in the service of films like 'Saw' (they penned parts IV through VII) and 'Piranha' (they gifted us with 'Piranha 3DD'). Naturally, they won't be taking their duties with 'God of War' lightly, and the duo recently gave IGN a few morsels of information regarding their work on the project.
Refreshingly, Dunstan and Melton are focused on character, as Dunstan makes a connection between the story's lead, Kratos, and Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman universe, saying that the character will be "grounded," a mere mortal when we first meet him. Additionally, they give some insight into their adaptation's structure:
"In the game... there's that attack from the barbarians and Kratos has to call upon Ares to help him. Really, that's going to be our first act break. Before then, he's going to be mortal, and he's going to have his family. We're going to learn about him and understand how he operates. So it's potentially 30 minutes -- give or take -- of building up this character so that, when he does turn and becomes the Ghost of Sparta, we understand him as a human and we understand the journey that he's going to take. We're emotionally invested, so that it could go beyond just this one movie.
The writers also explain that the villain of the piece, the god of war Ares, will be built up into a "true villain," and not just the immortal force of carnage that he is in the game.
Dunstan and Melton aren't daunted by the prospect of going from low-budget gorefests to a $150 million potential blockbuster, saying there's "an element of relief." (Indeed, their transition has already begun, having worked on Guillermo del Toro's monster epic 'Pacific Rim'.) To read more, head over to IGN.