hat-tip: BAD
EA Entertainment, one of the most-powerful (and most-despised) entities in the video-game world is getting into the movie business – setting up a feature film based around one of their popular game series.
“But Bob… EA mostly makes licensed sports titles at this point – how can they make a movie out of any of those!?”
Answer: “The Madden Curse.” No, really.
For those of you lucky enough not to be dialed-in to the annual spectacle of EA’s yearly raking-in of full-priced profit off what amounts to a roster update, every year a new NFL player is selected to grace the cover of “Madden NFL.” As one would expect from this unholy mashup of hardcore-gaming and hardcore-sports-fanaticism, a whole mythology has sprung up around what the cover appearance does to a player’s “luck” – specifically, people think Madden cover-spots are “cursed” and that career-diminishing disaster will strike those unlucky enough to be chosen.
According to The Wrap, that’s where the movie comes in: A “former Madden video-game champion” (so… a gamer as opposed to an actual player?) comes out of retirement because somehow HIS image has wound up somewhere on the box, and “the curse” is now coming for him. Apparently, it’s a comedy.
Joy.
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
And here I was thinking that Madden could never surprise me. Bob, as much as you would like to pan this one I expect a full analyis/tongue lashing if this joker gets released.
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I refuse to believe this is real. It will not happen, for i have forbade it to exist in my mind. My eyes shall not see it, and my ears shall not hear it, and that is the law i have made.
You hear that EA?
You will not take my soul.
in case you havent figured it out yet, im not especially fond of this idea.
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This looks like a movie to review….for the Game Anti-Thinker! In all seriousness, this is just plain-old capitalist greed.
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At least no one can say they saw it coming.
Kudos for a somehow crazily unique movie idea.
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Might wanna check where you get your info. EA hasn't been hated in the gaming industry for quite awhile. They've been in fact lauded for attempting to launch interesting new IPs. In fact ea has been responsible for taking some of the biggest risks among publishers.
The one that is hated is activision. And that's because they flood the market with overpriced dlc, yearly rereleases of the same damn game, shitty peripherals and have generally abandoned any kind of attempts to move the genre forward in lieu of massive profits.
EA is making less money not specifically because they DID NOT do this, and are generally regarded as a good publisher for supporting games like mirror's edge and dead space and brutal legend.
Seriously, how do you get this wrong?
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Hey, you know what, at least this is better than them trying to make a film from a genuinely good game series. This way we won't be subjected to even the slightest amount of hope and consequent dissapointment and the Madden series won't be tarnished by a cheap cash-in because that is the Madden series.
This is a film that can never be worse than it is right now because this is literally rock bottom.
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…I would punch EA in the NADS if I could! D:<
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Guess you were wrong Bob. You can't make a good movie out of any concept. There's no way this could be warped into something good.
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Well that's gonna make the inevitable tie-in/cash in game release of the movie incredibly confusing.
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Seriously? Madden?
We're talking baout the guys who own Mass Effect, Dragon Age, SSX, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Dead Space, Burnout, Merdenaries, Brutal Legend, on top of all the Maxis franchises… and the decided to make a Madden movie?
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Now, let's be fair towards EA. They may not be perfect, but nowadays they are about much more than lazy sports games and cheap, shoddy movie tie ins.
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Dave is right, Bob. EA has committed a TON more of their time and energy into having original IPs than in the past. Many of them are varying in quality, but he's right: EA is NOT the reviled sequel factory it used to be.
Sure they make their sports games, but someone has to and always will. Not my cup of tea, but that's just me.
Activision is the one putting out shitty, underutilized sequels year after years, resulting in the death of the music genre, a genre I love dearly. It hurts, sometimes.
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They're making a movie based on the Madden games? WHY?!
As if the “NFL license monopoly” wasn't bad enough. C'mon EA, let it go. We need another Tecmo Bowl already.
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I normally hate those who leave comments such as “What is this I don't even,” but… I think phrases like that really apply here.
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Wow, seems like from what you've told me (I haven't read the links yet) it sounds just like a movie they should've put out in the 1990's! If anything, this could end up being an almost-nostolgia trip for those who're interested in that genre of weird 90's comedy. BOOM!
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@TheAlmightyNarf: There's been talk of a SimCity movie off and on for ages too. That said, the game companies don't usually have a say in which titles of theirs the studios pick up the movie licensing for anyway, just whether they can have them.
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