Dreaming of an Elder Scrolls Movie? It Might Be a While…
Bethesda is home to many great franchises that are ripe for the picking when it comes to possible feature film treatments. From a fan-made Fallout series to Dishonored comic books there are plenty of ways to see their games outside of the games themselves but movies really aren’t one of them. In a recent interview with Finder.com.au, Bethesda’s Marketing Director Pete Hines didn’t mince words when exclaiming that the studio really isn’t all that interested in makin movies. Unless of course, a certain director happens to come calling.
Loved by fantasy fans the world over, Peter Jackson is the New Zealand director best known for directing the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy. Sure he threw King Kong in there in 2005, but he also did THE LORD OF THE RINGS! Maybe, just maybe if the Kiwi director found some spare time on his hands could we see an Elder Scrolls movie see the light of day.
When speaking on concerns of Bethesda’s own IPs being mistreated in the hands of others, Hines stated that they wouldn’t want to roll the dice on what kind of outcome they could see.
“Are we going to let some other person do their own interpretation of what Fallout is, or Elder Scrolls is, or Dishonored is? Or are we going to hold onto it and let the developers be the only ones that are able to say, ‘This is what Fallout is, or Elder Scrolls, or Wolfenstein, or whatever?’ So we want our developers to decide what our franchises are about and not a movie director, or producer, or studio.”
Of course, Hines is no stranger to the work of Mr. Jackson and joked that perhaps only he could change Bethesda’s tune.
“I think if Peter Jackson turned up at [Bethesda game director Todd Howard]’s office and said, ‘I want to do Elder Scrolls,’ well that would be a pretty serious conversation you would have to listen to. But I think Peter is probably pretty busy (laughs). So I don’t see us anytime soon looking at movies.”
Perhaps one of the biggest concerns would be retaining control over the actual adaptation should it happen. Hines was quick to point out that rarely does a studio ever have that kind of control once they license out the IP for Hollywood.
“I don’t know anybody who actually has total control over the film adaptation of their video game. If you did, why would you not just make it yourself? Of course, the film studio and the scriptwriter and the director are going to have a ton of say. They will have their own vision. So we get asked all the time, but we see it as a distraction. We’re a video games company; let’s do what we know.”
For now, we have to remain content with dreaming but maybe, just maybe (say with an onslaught of emails), we could work at getting Peter Jackson on board to make our dreams come true. Go to it, internet!