FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: Dorvid Barnas on January 30, 2008, 12:09:38 AM
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My dodgy cellphone prevented me from sharing with Tom my ideas for a Magnolia video game.
In one scene you are Phil Parma, male nurse. Using your Wii Controller you must untangle yourself from the phone cord while overcoming many obstacles. If you trip over a dog, you lose the call. If you don't light Earl a fake cigarette every two minutes, his pained moans will enrage the dogs and drown out the call. If the dogs eat too many pills, their corpses will scare off the spank-mag delivery man. All the while, you're racing against Earl's Die-With-Dignity-o-Meter, and forgiveness power-ups are at a premium. Can you handle it, Phil? Will this be "the scene in the movie" where you kick butt?!
Other possible scenes:
- A panicked production assistant dodging camera jibs and show-biz parents in a desperate race to fetch Luis a glass of milk.
- A dance-revolution-type mini-game where you must simulate Frank Mackey's opening dance moves - bonus points for maintaining the ponytail and erection.
- You are Quiz Kid Donnie Smith. You have so much love to give, and now you have exactly five minutes to find out where to put it. Watch out for the frogs!
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For once, I listened to the show live, but was unable to call in. A few ideas:
THE KING OF KONG - made to look like Donkey Kong, only you're running around in Billy Mitchell's hot sauce warehouse, avoiding hot sauces that Billy throws at you, and Billy's goons. There's a time limit, and if you don't make progress fast enough the old referee guy shows up and berates you (lose one life). You obviously play the other Guy, the challenger.
ROCKY BALBOA - for Wii; giving life to that awesome video game simulation that got people talking!
CONTROL - not as a stand-alone game but as a ROCK BAND expansion! Only Joy Division songs. On further levels, you get distracted by beautiful Belgian fanzine writers, boring housewives, and suicide.
FIGHT CLUB - split up as part round-based strategy game (for Project Mayhem), and fight game. Lots of multiplayer options, possibly a full-out MMORPG. (Might be an even better game once FIGHT CLUB: THE MUSICAL opens.)
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It's sick, but the most popular video game to come out of a movie would be Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT.
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A Two-Lane Blacktop road racing game would be great. Drag race to win money, then put it all on the line as you do a coast-to-coast run with your car's pink slip as the prize. Halfway through the game you gradually just wind up sitting around attempting awkward conversation using Mass Effect-style dialogue choices (CHOOSE ONE: 1- Make an observation on how your car's engine needs to be tuned better; 2- Stammer haltingly about the sex life of cicadas; 3- Stare into space), there's a license-plate-switching mini-game, and eventually you beat the game by giving up on any pretense of finishing your race to D.C. and finally gazing into the void of endless, futile momentum. The ending is your 360 breaking down and popping up an error message.
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In the Two-Lane Blacktop game, would you recharge your character's energy by eating hamburgers from a roadside diner?
Along a similar line, Vanishing Point would work as well.
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After my call ended, it dawned on me that the bonus round of my Monster in a Box game should be Castro speeches, and soccer games.
Apropos of nothing, as I was typing this short message, Elvis Costello stopped singing (The Sweetest Punch) and Joanna Newsome started (Emily.) Call me up on the phone and I will let you listen in.
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In the Two-Lane Blacktop game, would you recharge your character's energy by eating hamburgers from a roadside diner?
Or, if you're playing as Warren Oates' character, putting on a fresh cashmere sweater. Just don't fall asleep stealing license plates!
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I thought of a potential alternate Grizzly Man game: You're Werner Herzog and you have to stop that woman from listening to the tape of Treadwell's death. There's a countdown in the corner of the screen and Herzog has to run through the streets, dodging bullets, cops and Klaus Kinski. Whatever it takes, Jewel MUST NOT listen to that tape. It would be TOO HORRIBLE.
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I was thinking of a two-lane blacktop video game as well!
really can't believe Tom hasn't seen "Get Crazy." So terrible it's brilliant!
also, i was going to recommend a "Tango & Cash" videogame, which in actuality i'm surprised wasn't made into a videogame.
I mean, Hudson Hawk got the videogame treatment!
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In the Two-Lane Blacktop game, would you recharge your character's energy by eating hamburgers from a roadside diner?
Or, if you're playing as Warren Oates' character, putting on a fresh cashmere sweater. Just don't fall asleep stealing license plates!
Power-ups come from the mini-wetbar in the trunk of his GTO.
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I thought of a potential alternate Grizzly Man game: You're Werner Herzog and you have to stop that woman from listening to the tape of Treadwell's death. There's a countdown in the corner of the screen and Herzog has to run through the streets, dodging bullets, cops and Klaus Kinski. Whatever it takes, Jewel MUST NOT listen to that tape. It would be TOO HORRIBLE.
Oh, I like it. While I admire the movie, Herzog was a bit of a grandstander showman in that moment.
A friend told me about a GRIZZLY MAN parody he saw on youtube. In that scene, "Herzog" warns her that she must never listen to the tape, and then he hands her a copy of Da Vinci Code and tells her never to read it. "Why, is it too violent?" "No. It's crap." He then hands her a twinkie and warns her to never eat one of those.
Regarding the Rocky Balboa "that simulation really got people talking" line -- I watched the movie recently and didn't notice it. Is it something Rocky himself says, or an announcer, maybe?
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A Two-Lane Blacktop road racing game would be great. Drag race to win money, then put it all on the line as you do a coast-to-coast run with your car's pink slip as the prize. Halfway through the game you gradually just wind up sitting around attempting awkward conversation using Mass Effect-style dialogue choices (CHOOSE ONE: 1- Make an observation on how your car's engine needs to be tuned better; 2- Stammer haltingly about the sex life of cicadas; 3- Stare into space), there's a license-plate-switching mini-game, and eventually you beat the game by giving up on any pretense of finishing your race to D.C. and finally gazing into the void of endless, futile momentum. The ending is your 360 breaking down and popping up an error message.
One of the distractions is that of a teen girl who you can never figure out as a bonus. But you just know she'll end up running off with a biker.
If you play The GTO character you need to constantly make up a never ending story not using any grain of truth. With every new passenger you pick up you need to make up a new one. But watch out for the dirty hippie who don't like your jive.
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I thought of a potential alternate Grizzly Man game: You're Werner Herzog and you have to stop that woman from listening to the tape of Treadwell's death. There's a countdown in the corner of the screen and Herzog has to run through the streets, dodging bullets, cops and Klaus Kinski. Whatever it takes, Jewel MUST NOT listen to that tape. It would be TOO HORRIBLE.
Hwoah man, I wanted to hear that tape so badly!!
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I tried calling in with this idea a few times only to get a busy signal every time.
"Adaptation" The Video Game.
In this RPG you play a video game designer trying to figure out how to turn "Adaptation" into a video game. The game itself is affected by the decisions you make with many branching story arcs based on your own desperate imagination. This happens until a deus ex machina intervenes at the beginning of the final third of the game at which point the game turns into a profanity-laced, ultra-violent action/first person shooter. Imagine "Grand Theft Auto" meets "Ninja Gaiden" with a sci-fi/fantasy twist. In this last third your goal is to fight through the swamps of Florida battling giant insects, dark samurai and psychotic assassin droids in order to find the rare Ghost Orchid which will grant you godlike powers. You will then use these powers to rescue Susan Orlean (who here resembles a scantily-clad, manga-like, nubile young lady) from John Laroche, the evil serpent king of the everglades.
I think it's got potential.
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I thought of a potential alternate Grizzly Man game: You're Werner Herzog and you have to stop that woman from listening to the tape of Treadwell's death. There's a countdown in the corner of the screen and Herzog has to run through the streets, dodging bullets, cops and Klaus Kinski. Whatever it takes, Jewel MUST NOT listen to that tape. It would be TOO HORRIBLE.
Am I the only one who watched Grizzly Man and found it very touching and tragic?
Everyone seems so quick to make fun of it like it's some big fucking joke he was killed. Has anyone actually ever watched it or are you all just those people who think "it's a credit to the gene pool when stupid people die" or some bullshit like that.
I dunno, maybe I'm taking shit to seriously again but I don't really see humor in it.
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I thought of a potential alternate Grizzly Man game: You're Werner Herzog and you have to stop that woman from listening to the tape of Treadwell's death. There's a countdown in the corner of the screen and Herzog has to run through the streets, dodging bullets, cops and Klaus Kinski. Whatever it takes, Jewel MUST NOT listen to that tape. It would be TOO HORRIBLE.
Am I the only one who watched Grizzly Man and found it very touching and tragic?
Everyone seems so quick to make fun of it like it's some big fucking joke he was killed. Has anyone actually ever watched it or are you all just those people who think "it's a credit to the gene pool when stupid people die" or some bullshit like that.
I dunno, maybe I'm taking shit to seriously again but I don't really see humor in it.
I'm with you, Colin. I hate that whole "Darwin Awards" attitude. Someone dies in a strange/stupid way and it's a laugh-riot to these ghouls.
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I hear you guys on the ghouls front. To laugh about the fact of the man's death is surely ghoulish.
However there's still room to find humor in Grizzly Man, I think. . . When an animated man aims a camera at himself and waxes poetic about a fresh pile of animal manure, it's bound to invite some snickering. Or when he chases and scolds a fox who's stolen his favorite cap. . . Or salutes his untamed animal friends with a buoyant "Hey, Mr. Chocolate!" I imagine Treadwell himself would not deny the viewer some smiles at his antics. And the scene where Herzog steps out from behind the camera to listen to that tape did strike me as over-the-top grandstanding on the part of the director, and perhaps serves as a clue to why Herzog related to his subject. And as far as over-the-top goes, let's not forget the strange (and ghoulish) medical examiner who seems all too eager to assume a larger-than-life movie role.
All that said, the movie also provokes some deeper feelings; humor and poignancy are by no means mutually exclusive, but rather interestingly intertwined. My reactions to Grizzly Man were similar to those I got from watching another favorite documentary, American Movie. That film's subject, the amateur horror movie maker Mark Borchardt, at times seems misguided in his attempts to chase his dream, which give rise to some absurdly comical situations . . . and yet at other times his sense of overwhelming purpose and determination in the face of obstacles, naysayers, and even conventional common sense, arouses admiration and even inspiration.
In short, I have no new suggestion for this thread.
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Slightly off-topic: Does anybody know the song and/or artist that plays at the very end of Grizzly Man? I've been curious for a while.
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I don't think what I wrote was particularly ghoulish. If anything I was poking fun at Herzog, not Treadwell. And I think Grizzly Man is incredibley rich and complex. To not see any humor in it seems to miss the point as much as those boors who can't understand why someone would watch a movie about a guy dumb enough to live with bears.
The scene w/ the medical examiner, like the ones with the helicoptor pilot and any number of others in Herzog's documentaries, was as staged and manipulated as any fiction. You can even see the guy glance at the director at the end of his bizarre spiel as if to say "how was that?"
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Agreed, Chris L. I don't think anyone's saying that Grizzly Man ISN'T touching and tragic, or funny for that matter. It was incredibly sad and frightening watching that guy throughout the film knowing what would happen to him at the end. You've got to admit, though, that very moment Herzog says "You must destroy this tape" is one of the biggest letdowns ever. Who can honestly say that they wouldn't want to hear that tape? Call me a ghoul as much as you want, but I still wanted to hear the tape; because I'm like any other voyeuristic, want-to-see-or-hear-violence-on-my-TV kind of gal. I never thought it would be funny at all, but shock value is so very hard to resist.
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Yeah, but the actual contents of the tape, horrific though they may be, would have been comparitively banal. You may forget the sound of Treadwell's girlfriend's screams or whatever over time, but you won't forget a filmmaker pulling back like that.
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yeah, call me a spoil sport but I honestly don't want to hear anyone's death on tape.
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Road House. Bouncing goons, tearing out throats, monster trucking car dealerships, so many awesome gameplay possibilities.
PS I definately see the humor in Grizzly Man (even moreso in the Grizzly Project, check it out!) but I didn't mean anyone here is a ghoul, I was just thinking of those Faces of Death watching cretins that get their jollies laughing at Darwin Awards or Ogre.com or whatever. I hate that shit and it's all over the internet. >:(
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You've got to admit, though, that very moment Herzog says "You must destroy this tape" is one of the biggest letdowns ever. Who can honestly say that they wouldn't want to hear that tape?
Me.
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I don't want to hear it, either. I have a ghoulish streak, but not that wide.
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While it may be human nature to have some degree of morbid curiosity about the tape, I didn't walk away wishing I could have heard it, either. I actually agree with Herzog that as much as Treadwell made his activities public, that tape is best left as a private thing, and never heard. But the way Herzog inserted himself into the movie came off as stagey and melodramatic (thus, kind of funny) nonetheless.
To get back on topic --
I'd like to play a videogame based on John Carpenter's THEY LIVE.
You can be Roddy Piper or Keith David -- but either way, you are going to get waylaid into a 20 minute street alley fistfight with the other character. If you make the mistake of walking down that alley again, same deal. Exploring the city, you eventually discover the underground movement and wear the glasses that allow you to see things as they really are. Our national obsession with money ("your god") and status has never been so exposed! Plus you make the amazing discovery that Meg Foster is actually Kirstie Alley. In a bonus round, John Carpenter appears and you have to figure out which button to push on his Casio keyboard to play the soundtrack.
I enjoy this movie and THE THING, which already has a videogame. There is apparently no demand for a PRINCE OF DARKNESS game, in which you are Jameson Parker ("Simon and Simon") trying desperately to grow a thick mustache in time for first call.
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This isn't clever or funny, but I think it would make for a fun video game: Midnight Run.
You're a bounty hunter who needs to capture The Duke and take him across country on buses, trains and by car (no planes). Along the way you have shootouts with mobsters, need to fend off other bounty hunters, duck the Feds, trick locals out of money so you can eat, catch up with old family members and develop an unlikely friendship with The Duke. If you win you get a feast that includes Lyonnaise potatoes and chorizo and eggs. Then you open your own coffee shop, and the game becomes a sim where you run a restaurant.
(I tried to call a bunch of times but didn't get through during the show.)
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Hey, your game has stolen sunglasses in it, too. :)
The game of Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA would have you as the Woman With No Name, which is sort of like Clint's Man With No Name, only without the self-assurance, gristle and gunfire. Your aim is to progress through the game by building self-esteem as represented as a bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar can dwindle early in the game, when you are reprimanded by your blowhard employer... but much more severely later on in the wonderful world of Manderlay, when cornered by the steely stare of the wandering Mrs. Danvers, who shows up over your shoulder without warning. You can also be injured by the hot and cold running tempers of your great love, Max de Winter; and the machinations of George Sanders are also in play. If your self-worth erodes to zero, you take a leap into the frothy cliffside waters or otherwise do yourself in. But if you unravel the mystery of Rebecca, stand by your man, and stand up for yourself, you become a strong woman. And get to choose a name for yourself on the High Score list.
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This isn't clever or funny, but I think it would make for a fun video game: Midnight Run.
You're a bounty hunter who needs to capture The Duke and take him across country on buses, trains and by car (no planes). Along the way you have shootouts with mobsters, need to fend off other bounty hunters, duck the Feds, trick locals out of money so you can eat, catch up with old family members and develop an unlikely friendship with The Duke. If you win you get a feast that includes Lyonnaise potatoes and chorizo and eggs. Then you open your own coffee shop, and the game becomes a sim where you run a restaurant.
(I tried to call a bunch of times but didn't get through during the show.)
I would play this game.
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail (which WAS made into a computer game, but listen)
It would be like "Rock Band", where 5 nerds would stand in the living room, with microphones. The goal is to recite scenes from the movie the best they can. In the game, they'd play a few other, different nerds, who are in their high school cafeteria, and the goal is to not get thumped by bullies. If you perform it well enough, they just ignore you.
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I was thinking about how awesome it is when they make pinball machines out of a movie.
Its funny because they have to make pinball things like hitting a target or dropping the ball into a hole and somehow connect that with things from the movie.
The movie that I was thinking about was "Awakenings" pinball.
You have to shoot the ball into a bunch of little beds and awake people from comas. Multiball happens when you awake them all. The multiball is the hospital dance.
Hows about that?
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I like it . . . !
Yeah I used to love playing the movie-based pinball.
Addams Family, Lethal Weapon 2, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, which comprised all three movies ("Juniah? It ish you, juniah!")
It was probably Lethal Weapon 3, actually. Joe Pesci was in the mix doing his stammering "okey okey okey," but I don't remember anyone shouting "DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!"
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I was going to call in with Blue Velvet, but then Tom changed the topic. A pretty straightforward adventure game where you find the ear on the ground, get mystery clues from Isabella Rossellini, have to run away from a huffing Dennis Hopper, etc. In the intervening few days, I've thought of:
A Fred Wiseman video game where you have to find disturbing things going on in the virtual world of the game, film then, and secure their release, overcoming various legal hurdles.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, where you have a guild like in World of Warcraft, but you're all these petit bourgeoisie types and you have to find a place to eat dinner.
Did someone already suggest There Will Be Blood as a Sim City-type game where you need to assemble an oil empire?
A Matthew Barney game where you have to con all of these granting organizations and the art world generally into giving you millions of dollars to make boring, unwatchable movies.
An El Topo game would be awesome.
A version of Rock Band but you're a scrappy underdog visionary rock group trying to overcome the evil corporate music structure, like that Wilco movie.
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, where you have a guild like in World of Warcraft, but you're all these petit bourgeoisie types and you have to find a place to eat dinner.
How would the dreams fit in? Lots of possibilities there, it seems to me.
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, where you have a guild like in World of Warcraft, but you're all these petit bourgeoisie types and you have to find a place to eat dinner.
How would the dreams fit in? Lots of possibilities there, it seems to me.
True. Maybe the dinner game is just one level and you also have to murder some hippies or something.
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Not a movie but a television show --> videogame: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Scary, fun, and tasty!
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My friend told me about the topic before I heard the podcast, and my first thought was a stylus-based DS game based on David Cronenberg's "The Fly."
You could do math or genetics problems, synch the rhythm of flashing teleporter lights, chase a fly with a swatter, or even use the stylus to scrape the mammal flesh off Jeff Goldblum's limbs.
My favorite topic of recent memory.
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Man, the Magnolia game in the OP is brilliant.
I would've called in with a No Country For Old Men first person shooter.
You are Anton Chigurh, your arsenal includes Oxygen Tank, silenced shotgun, and automatic pistol.
Your max turn speed? 3.
Multiplayer includes three exciting hotel levels.
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I want a Tekken or Street Fighter style fighting game based on Barton Fink. You can choose different characters and have them fight to the finish. Imagine Buscemi's Chet or John Goodman fist fighting John Mahoney's W.P. Mayhew (I'm assuming he would employ some sort of drunken-boxing style).
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I want a Tekken or Street Fighter style fighting game based on Barton Fink. You can choose different characters and have them fight to the finish. Imagine Buscemi's Chet or John Goodman fist fighting John Mahoney's W.P. Mayhew (I'm assuming he would employ some sort of drunken-boxing style).
I love it. Mayhew should also fling flasks of "social lubricant" at his combatants.
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I want a Tekken or Street Fighter style fighting game based on Barton Fink. You can choose different characters and have them fight to the finish. Imagine Buscemi's Chet or John Goodman fist fighting John Mahoney's W.P. Mayhew (I'm assuming he would employ some sort of drunken-boxing style).
I love it. Mayhew should also fling flasks of "social lubricant" at his combatants.
And, if Mayhew defeats every other character in the game, he gets his honey.
I think maybe, given the plot of the film, Barton Fink would be better as a wrestling game, with writing exercises between fights. That way, the game's instruction booklet could be called "Wrasslin' Scenarios, And Other Things Lit'rary".
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I'd like to see a Death Proof video game. Dig it ...
You're Eli Roth, trying to stay awake and talk one of the girls into sneaking away with you during that interminable bar scene. You've got to properly balance your intake of alcohol, cafeine, and water to make sure you A) stay awake, and B) are alert enough to keep "running game." If you succeed in staying awake AND getting her to ditch her friends, you win ... Sort of ... You sneak her away to a movie theater where you have to try to stay awake while WATCHING the diner scene in the second half of Death Proof.
But here's the cheat, if you just let yourself fall asleep in the movie theater, it's like finding a Warp Zone in the old Mario games. Fall asleep while watching the diner scene, and then you instantly wake up just in time to catch the final car-chase. And you've earned an extra 1,000,000 points. Then, on your way out of the theater, you get to meet Kurt Russell!!! But if you can't lie to him and convince him you loved the movie, he throws a knife into your forehead, Big Trouble in Little China style! As you fall to the floor, dying, the last words you hear are "It's all in the reflexes." Game Over.