So, 300 is doing all right, financially-speaking. This is good news for a man who goes by the name of Zack Snyder, because it greases the wheels for future projects. The one is turning my hair white with anticipation is Watchmen, the adaptation of Alan Moore’s landmark mini-series which Snyder took over after Paul Greengrass and Paramount left the picture.
What does this have to do with videogames, apart from 300: March to Glory on the PSP being a disappointment? Snyder has gone on record with his admiration for the medium of videogames, saying to GamesDaily.biz that he "look[s] forward to making a video game and a movie experience that are organically linked in the future." The article is a good one, with some meat to chew on regarding the tired interplay between Hollywood and game adaptations, and the wasted opportunities for creating compelling games.
Snyder would like to make a videogame based on a movie that expands on the cinematic world; a game-and-movie combination where each medium informs the other, but neither rely on the other. Because I go ga-ga over ambition, I think this is a great idea; what’s more, I think Watchmen is the perfect property to experiment with.
Think about it, then think about it more: the Watchmen comic endures partly because of its brilliant meta-commentary on superhero comic tropes and conventions. Snyder has stated here at CHUD that there are conventions of superhero movies that, thanks to the recent popularity of the genre, can now be subverted with a Watchmen film. Think about what a talented game designer could do if given the opportunity to make a Watchmen videogame that understands and comments intelligently on the action genre, for example, while itself being an action game. Could discussion of videogame violence be appropriate? As a cultural touchstone, maybe so. Social relevence would be an important factor, I think.
None of this is solid news; Snyder hasn’t announced anything other than interest in a Watchmen videogame. It’s a tall order, and one hard to fill without the presence of pretentious, but I’m excited for the possibilities.