Could 2012 be the year that the videogame adaptation took over Hollywood once again? While the genre has been oft ridiculed for producing results that range from less than stellar to plain terrible, the past few weeks we’ve had information about Hollywood developing games like ‘Assassin’s Creed’, ‘Need for Speed’, ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’ and ‘God of War’. It’s always a challenge for a filmmaker and studio to take something that so interactive and make it into a linear two hour movie and the result is usually lackluster. While there are a few favorites that I myself find enjoyable to watch (Hitman, Silent Hill), most of them have failed to capture what made these games so iconic in the first place.

But that’s why this article exists – a list of six videogame-based movie adaptations that are perfect for the big screen and cinematic in every sense of the word. But we’re going to look at them closely and provide our wishlist of a cast and a perfect director that we think would be perfect for the material. Keep in mind that some cast members/directors from these projects have already been announced so we’ve kept them intact, but others are stuck in development hell but we have some great ideas for them.

So let’s begin.

Assassin’s Creed

Cast: Michael Fassbender (Altair), Kristen Bell (Lucy), Eduardo Noriega (Ezio)

We already know that Ubisoft Motion Pictures have made the best casting decision a studio has ever made in terms of casting a videogame-based movie lead, and now we have Michael Fassbender starring in the film potentially playing Altair and Desmond. He’s not only an excellent actor that stands out in every movie that he’s in, he’s someone that brings more to his character than the script demands and there’s no doubt he’ll do the same here. Racial incorrectness aside, he actually does look the part as well.

When it comes to the female lead Lucy, there’s no one better to play her than the actress who actually gave her the motion capture in the game – Kristen Bell. As for Ezio, things become a little more complicated. But after a lot of thought, our choice of the actor goes to Eduardo Noriega who not only has the looks and personality for the part but also has the ethnic feel to him that will at least make you glad Hollywood doesn’t just take Channing Tatum and have him play the Italian assassin.

Director: Ridley Scott

Though this might be truly wishful thinking, it makes total sense and is actually kind of plausible as well. Ridley Scott is a director who always takes risks and dabbles into different genres, so him trying his hand at a videogame adaptation as cinematic as this one isn’t much of a stretch. He not only has experience with the medieval setting with ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Robin Hood’, he has great command over this particular time period of the game as well since he had a great vision of Jerusalem in the highly underrated ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. Michael Fassbender is also friends with Scott right now after working with him on ‘Prometheus’, so I don’t think this is as far-fetched as we think. And it would be a dream come true and almost guarantee a must-see movie.

God Of War

Cast: Jason Momoa (Kratos) – Mickey Rourke (Ares)

The writers of ‘Saw’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ have already started writing a screenplay for an eventual ‘God of War’ movie, but it will definitely be a very hard property to faithfully bring to life. But the hardest would be casting the role of Kratos, and we think we have the perfect guy to play him – Jason Momoa. Think about it – the guy has played Khal Drogo on the excellent ‘Game of Thrones’ which was literally another version of Kratos only speaking in a foreign language. He was also the brutal Conan in the ultimately failed remake of that film, but that doesn’t change the fact that he looks the part, has the physique and height as well as the intense voice to pull this off.

As for the villain of the first film Ares, our pick is Mickey Rourke not only because he embodies the characteristics of Ares but also that he’s been under-utilised as a villain. He was excellent in ‘Iron Man 2’ until they completely shortchanged his role for needless subplots, and wasn’t allowed to shine in ‘Immortals’ with a bland character. With the right script, he has the intensity to pull off a threatening villain to face off against Momoa.

Director: Zack Synder

Ever since I first played the game, I knew that the only director who was born to direct a ‘God of War’ movie was Zack Synder. The material is right up his alley, and his signature visuals and slow motion style doesn’t feel forced here since even the cutscenes and environments of the game are highly stylized and lend themselves to the kind of visuals that we showed in ‘300’ very well. Though the director might not want to be typecast with directing Greek-mythology based action movies anymore, this is one gig we all want him to take.