E3 2008: Lost Planet — The Movie

Tue, Jul 15, 2008

When Capcom CEO Haruhiro Tsujimoto spoke in late May of doing "with games what Marvel did with comics" and producing loads of commercially successful film adaptations, we had no idea he meant to do so quite so literally. Today at Capcom's E3 2008 press conference, attendees were greeted not with the latest games, but instead with the announcement that Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad is behind a live-action adaptation of Lost Planet.

With a script penned by David "Solid Snake" Hayter, the full blessing of Capcom and the backing of Warner Brothers, Lost Planet: The Movie will compete for your box office dollars in 2011.

Capcom E3 2008 Lost Planet Movie Panel

Though the brief, 30-minute conference mostly consisted of executives praising the Lost Planet concept (and praising one another) the clear theme buried just beneath the surface of their mutual admiration was the reiteration that there will be more Capcom movies. Lots more.

From Avi Arad, the man who produced Iron Man, X-Men, and... just about every other decent comic-to-movie adaptation you've ever seen: "...we are all realizing that this amazing content being brought to the world by game designers is uniquely suited to be exploited further and build the kind of brands that games like that and stories like that deserve."

From Kenji Inafune, producer of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (official translation): "When we first set out to create Lost Planet, the main thing we wanted to do with the game was, to create a game that would become a Hollywood movie."

And from Capcom President Haruhiro Tsujimoto, this translated trifecta:

"Now, we're turning towards making other properties of ours into movies, and using that as part of our worldwide strategy for creating games.

"We aim not only to successfully turn this franchise into a movie, but work hand in hand, developing games with this strategy in mind."

"We also hope to work with Avi and his team to turn other properties of Capcom's into movies in the future."

I can't imagine Lost Planet becoming the next Iron Man, but you can bet your vital suit I'll be buying a ticket regardless.