PACIFIC RIM UPRISING Director Steven DeKnight Has Met With Sony about a R-Rated GOD OF WAR Movie
It looks like Sony may getting ready to move forward with their big screen adaptation of the hit video game God of War as they've been talking to at least one director. And apparently, there's a chance it will be rated R!
Pacific Rim Uprising director and Daredevil showrunner Steven S. DeKnight wants to direct the film and he wants to do right. He's the one that has talked to Sony about it. During a recent interview with CB, the filmmaker talked about what he would want to do with the film adaptation if he got to direct it and who he would cast in the role of Kratos:
"I would love to see it. Somebody had asked me about video games and I've always been a fan of God of War. I think the latest game was just so beautiful and phenomenal. I would love to tackle God of War movie or I would love to see somebody put that up on the big screen. Somebody asked me, 'Well, who would you have to have Kratos?' And immediately for me: Dave Batista would be the man. I think he can do anything. You can do drama, real emotion, humor, action. What would I like to see from a movie like that? A bit of a tricky question because there hasn't really been 100% success of translating a video game to a movie. It's a very, very tricky process."
It's not hard to imagine Dave Bautista as Kratos. In fact, that's perfect casting! DeKnight goes on to talk about his conversations with Sony, his pitch, and how he would make the movie work:
"I had some early conversations with the good people at Sony PlayStation about it and my biggest thing is, look, you gotta approach it like a book. Approach it like adapting Jaws. For people who've read Jaws, the movie is very different but they're both fantastic. So you have to be able to take the source material and make it work as a movie. And I think that's part of the reason oftentimes video game movies don't work is because you can't translate the video game experience into a movie. You gotta take the characters and the situations and the emotions and make it work for a movie. Which means a lot of times you've got to change things, which is very dicey obviously because you don't want alienate video game fans, but you have to make a film that works within the context of a movie by itself. Very difficult. I would love to tackle it, I have no idea if that's going to happen. I'm not in any kind of conversations right now, but hopefully somebody will make a movie out of that franchise. I think it's a phenomenal franchise."
He goes on to talk about how the movie would have to be rated R and that when he met with Sony they were on the same page about that. I don't see how you could properly make this film and have it not be rated R.
"It's funny because when I sat down with the Sony PlayStation people, one of the first things we both said is R-rated because I always use the original Conan the Barbarian as my touchstone, that it needs to be R-rated. I don't think there's a way to tell that story and make it PG, nor should it be. And thankfully because of Deadpool, people are much more willing to try that R-rated there with genre work now, again. So, yeah, without a doubt R-rated. I mean not on as far as Spartacus, that was more NC-17, but definitely R-rated."
With the success of the Deadpool franchise and Logan, I don't think studios are scared of that R-rating anymore. They realize that people will come to the movies as long as they give the fans what they want.
I wouldn't mind seeing Steven DeKnight direct God of War. It'd be great if he got the gig because I think he would do some incredibly cool things with it and make an awesome movie. Only time will tell if Sony will give him the chance.
Would you want to see DeKnight direct God of War? What would you think about Dave Bautista playing Kratos?