Top 3 franchises that will be difficult to go live action (Shiro)

Some franchises, for some reason, will be very difficult to go live action. Welcome back to VGBM , and today were going to look at a few franchises in different medias , may it be gaming , books or anime in which for some reason or the other it will be difficult to make the live action transition. Back in august my friend paskr18 did a post on the different reasons why the transition will be hard so I’m going to present some franchise in my opinion that we will most likely not see in the movies anytime soon.

1. Duke Nukem series (game)

Duke Nukem 3D

Back in the 1990’s one of the most influential gaming franchises was the Duke Nukem series. It was an action game in which the plot consisted of killing invading aliens. One of the first great FPS with full 3D environment with Duke Nukem 3D back in 1996. Now why would a fairly simple plot not work, well honestly although the game was fun, but the main character for lack of a better word is a douche. Duke is a confident, aggressive, and frequently politically incorrect muscle man, who, although not superhuman, nonetheless manages to achieve incredible physical feats of violence and conquest through sheer machismo and expertise with automatic firearms. Seriously who say things like :” it’s time to kick-ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubblegum” or “I'll rip your head off and shit down your neck” which he actually does . But although all his faults, Duke Nukem is just a mixture of the typical hero stereotypes from the 80’s and the 90’s which is not so acceptable in this day and age. Unless they revise the main protagonist personality I find the transition to live action very difficult.

2. Wanted (Comic books)

Wesley and Fox

Although a movie based on this comic as already been made, anyone who actually read the book will tell you that story wise the movie has really dropped the ball in this case. The story focused on main protagonist Wesley who discovered that his father who abandoned him as a child was a super-villain called The Killer after who’s death inherited his ability, his wealth and his position in the guild of super-villains called the Fraternity that eradicated all of the world’s superhero’s, imagine that most of the heroes dead in the flashback sequence of the comic. What does really seem disturbing is how Wesley goes from a cubicle push-over that was abused by nearly everybody to a complete killer that enjoys random acts of violence. Not to mention the many plots and sub-plots of the story but having a main protagonist going on a shooting rampage for the fun of it would be a little off which they tried to ignore when they made the movie but I admit it was that transformation that made the book so enjoyable.

From push-over to stone cold killer

Crazy killer

3. Hellsing (Anime)

Alucard

Finally we have the anime of this list. With a huge cult following which includes myself by Kouta Hirano. For those not familiar the franchise , it consist of the fight of an organization called Hellsing that protects Great Britain from any supernatural treat and their main weapon is a reformed vampire Alucard. I have to note how dark this story is for which I feel the transition to live action will be difficult although there is a presence of mild humor , but what is unsettling is how close to being evil that main protagonists Alucard and Sir Integra really are. They even portray represent and of the Vatican as monsters. Some may say that the first version of the story was acceptable in terms of good guys being good but we have to agree that it mostly concentrated on one of the 3 main characters and even then there were signs of Alucard going blood crazy. In the end, I admit that this is one of my favorite anime of all time I just see it nearly impossible going live action.

Alexander Anderson, representative of Vatican

Sir Integra and Victoria, main secondary protagonists

Hope you have a great reading. See you soon.

Codex Alera

Codex Alera, of all the book series out there, is one of my top five favorites. It is a very basic romance novel at the outset. For those unversed in literature, no, a romance novel is not about love stories necessarily. There is the genre fiction called Romance based on stories of love and lust and there is the literary fiction Romance which is a long prose narrative with a certain story structure and language. A classic example is The Lord of the Rings. Nowadays, it is easier to just say novel, less confusion for the layman.

As such, Codex Alera is a story about an unlikely and reluctant hero, his journey to accept who he is, his rise to power and the stories related to the realization of his destiny. Most such novels can be so resumed, even Tolkien s novels. There are many complexities within and how the author handles and delivers to us the main protagonist's story is important. But structurally they are undeniably very much the same.

The funny thing I learned along the years is that such a good series was born from a bet! In an interview, author Jim Butcher admitted that he was challenged by another person to try if he could and dared make a good story out of two bad ideas : The Ninth Roman Legion also known as the Lost Legion and......... Pokémon!!! (Suvudu, 2012).

I’m keeping this as spoiler-free as I can. The Pokémon idea is generally there, there isn’t really much “catching” actually. The way the world functions is closer to what was introduced in the Final Fantasy series, each person can basically “summon” one or more spirits to aid them in their tasks. For many it’s much more a cooperation, since there isn’t really a summoning, some spirits are just there with them all the time. This system is based on elements, lightning, earth, air, fire and so on, it determines a person’s proficiencies, powers and place in society. For example, anyone with affinity for metal will most probably be a soldier, affinity to earth may be a builder or farmer.

Needless to say, it is a society having evolved around the power conferred by the communion with these elemental beings. High officials have high power, and quite surely, in the beginning of the Legion’s journey in this new world it was encouraged that strong people mated to increase a family or faction’s political and military power.

The story mainly follows the character Tavi, a completely powerless youngster in world where everyone actually else has one. It gives this main character a particular perspective on life. Having had to always rely on his wits and simple humanity, we find him very adept at getting out of certain situations in ways very logical to us but seeming so amazing to his peers. The fact is that the world we live in has become a myth to the people of Alera. The great knowledge of engineering that the Roman had acquired at the time of the disappearance of the Legion is lost, believed useless for those that have been found and everyone relies on the spirits even for something as simple (relatively) as building a fence!

The series contains six books, following Tavi and the others important characters in chronological order. Some of these characters are pivotal to the story, yet they are introduced late in the chronology, or sometimes they are barely mentioned in one early book, to be fully fleshed out and truly part of the narrative many books later.

Book series covers

This is as far as I’ll go to avoid spoiling the story for those who may be interested in reading the books. I strongly encourage any fantasy aficionado to have a look. I’ve personally read them quite a few times and it never got stale. I do recommend at least two readings, there are some plot points and some early character references that only make sense once you’ve been through the entire journey in Alera….and beyond!

Cheers!