Perhaps you've already heard of Indie Game: The Movie, but I'll just go ahead and assume you haven't been following the independent documentary on its journey from Kickstarter-based conception to its most recent stint at the Sundance Film Festival. Therefore, a recap: Indie Game: The Movie is a documentary about indie game makers, and their struggles to bring deeply personal projects from their bedroom computers to the rest of the world. It features the likes of Fez creator Phil Fish, Team Meat's Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, as well as Braid creator and occasional industry feather rankler, Jonathan Blow.
The film has been receiving extremely positive reviews during its stint at Sundance, and not just from the usual game industry cheerleaders you'd pretty much expect to love this kind of movie, either. It's gotten such great buzz, in fact, that rights to the film have reportedly been picked up by Hollywood mega-producer Scott Rudin, the man behind such big time blockbusters as the recent adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, last year's heavily award nominated The Social Network, and Oscar Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men.
Aha, but there is a catch. In fact, Rudin picked up the remake rights to Indie Game: The Movie, and plans to put them to use on HBO as a weekly, half-hour television series--one that is scripted, to boot.
So, wait, what do these two things actually have to do with one another?
Ostensibly, nothing, save for the licensing connection between the film's creators, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky. While some freaked out when the original deal became known, bandying about that this would have some impact on the film's eventual theatrical distribution (apparently it won't) and that Rudin planned to turn this into some kind of half-hour comedy series in the vein of Grandma's Boy (he doesn't). According to the film's makers (via the movie's Facebook page), the new series will not be a comedy. That makes some sense, given that Rudin's other projects with HBO are of a dramatic bent as well. Those include Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's cable news-oriented series Newsroom, and a series based on Jonathan Franzen's critically acclaimed novel The Corrections, which he's co-developed with director Noah Baumbach. Not exactly a comedy lineup.
Though the exact design of this weekly series is still very much up in the air, the filmmakers are adamant that, despite the half-hour run time, the goal is to make something as sincere and heartfelt as the film it's based on. Whether that proves true--or, really, whether this series ever actually makes it to air--we won't know for some time. But at the very least, Indie Game: The Movie is getting some great exposure out of this whole endeavor, and that hardly seems like a bad thing at all.
For the previously unawares, you can check out the trailer for Indie Game: The Movie below.
HBO = Human Body Odor. Ha! Kids jokes.
very cool that the guys behind this got so much attention recently!
I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the DVD set so I can finally get my special edition :)
I'm very much looking forward to the movie, and beyond the initial confusion over the HBO series, it looks like it has the potential to become something pretty cool as well.
Did I read right that Ryan (Davis) makes an appearance in this?
I can't wait for Indie Game: The Game.
hey i videogames
@Mongoose said:
Where'd you see that?
Man, now that's some perfectly stereotypical nerd hair.
That frivolous comment aside: It looks interesting.
Very Excited to see this film. Not so interested in HBO.
@BigStupidFace said:
A re-tweet on his Twitter. Apparently he has a small cameo. I doubt that he actually addressed the camera.
@fr0y0 said:
Brad too. I'm pretty sure it's just the scene where Edmund watches the Lemon Lens where Brad's playing meat boy with everyone around him. It's in the trailer, he cracks up laughing at it.
Please don't turn into a Big Bang Theory.
Jonathan Blow looks bad-ass in the trailer! :D
Apparently hipster glasses are very popular these days! That is what I learned from that trailer.
Still, looks neat. Real shame about that promo picture.
I was able to snag tickets to the first showing at Sundance. I really enjoyed the movie and can confirm that theres a quick shot of a video review with Ryan and the Super Meat Boy Lemon Lens thing with Brad. It was very exciting
I don't understand the SNES controller imagery. What does that have to do with indie games?
How did I not know until today that the directors were from the same city as me? Yay Winnipeg...I guess?
I really like the visual style and tone of the film from what I've seen so far.
@ckeats said:
I saw the film this weekend, and tweeted at Ryan that he had a cameo in it. I think it's a quick look, and it's only for about a second, with no audio. Then there is Brad playing SMB with
Will SmithVinny saying "don't hit the spikes" and Will Smith saying something about Brad feeling remorse after he finishes the level. The audience at the screening laughed at the first comment :)I also got to briefly meet James Swirsky and he seemed pretty down to earth. Someone asked what his favorite game was, and he said some adventure game from the 90s (either a Lucas Arts or Sierra, can't quite remember). Lisa Pajot admitted se was not into video games at all, but was now "interested" after making the film. All in all, the film is REALLY good, and allows the devs to portray themselves in a very open and honest way. Swirsky and Pajot may not be legit when it comes to video games, but they've made something wonderful with the documentary that appeals to humanity, not just people who are really into games.
cool. hadn't heard about this film before.