In the latest of video game to film adaptation news, it is being reported that the play station 3 exclusive ‘Heavy Rain’ is gathering momentum with David Milch being announced to script the film, his previous works centre mostly around various TV series including ‘Deadwood’ and ‘NYPD Blue’.
The video game developed by ‘Quantic Dream’ tells the story of the hunt for the serial killer known as the origami killer. The player takes the role of four different characters involved with investigating the crimes.
The game itself is a cinematic achievement in video games, involving an immersive story with developed characters that the player becomes emotionally invested in as the story progresses.
In this sense the game is perfect for a film conversion, however the nature of the game is that the story is open ended, and the actions of the player influence events in the story as well as the ultimate fate of the characters. This is part of the charm of the game which will quite obviously not be possible in any film. Further to that the game is largely a unique experience as a video game, this stems from the level of emotional investment the player puts into the game due to the quality story telling, the performances of the computer generated characters themselves as well as the voice acting. However serial killer based films are not uncommon, it will be a challenge for ‘Heavy Rain’ to maintain some of its unique appeal in a medium where there is more competition in its genre.
That said, Heavy Rain does have a compelling story to tell…I highly recommend the video game experience, if the right creative decisions are made in terms of what path the story should take in a film, this will be one worth keeping an eye on.
