I feel the need, the need for a Need for Speed movie…

They say life imitates art, but nowadays art has not just mirrored life, but a sub-cultural part of it, that for many, has become a way of life. Movies inspired by video games is nothing new, we’ve seen it happen over the past couple decades from Super Mario Bros, Doom, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and Wreck-It-Ralph for example. Though some have been box office hits, others have been major flops! With the video game industry more popular than it’s ever been, the increase of multi-media expansion from the console to the cinema is growing in leaps and bounds. And while we still wait patiently for a HALO movie, there are some great adaptations hitting the silver screen this year based on some classic and current video games that look like a lot of fun. Read ahead for the one’s we’re anticipating most…

You have to hand LEGO. The company that makes little plastic interlocking blocks has been around since 1932 and is still able to spar with high-tech toys of today. It’s also been a hit in the video game industry, with almost 50 games featuring the various LEGO sets since 1997. Now LEGO is hitting the big screen.

Adapting to Extend Life

The toy-turned-video game is now coming out as a movie, aptly named “The Lego Movie,” this February. It is part of a growing trend of video games gaining more life (pun intended) with consumers beyond the game console. To Hollywood, it’s a cash cow, although What Culture reports that the highest critic rating from Rotten Tomatoes a video game-turned-movie has received was a weak 35 percent, which was “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.”

Still, Hollywood is being persistent. And that’s good news for gamers. The strategy of game-to-movie worked for toy manufacturers, including “Transformers,” which grossed $710 million worldwide for its first movie. Mega toy company Hasbro is hoping “The Lego Movie” will do the same for its toy products.

The small screen may provide some clues to what the next year or so will offer. Lego has already proven successful as a small-screen series on Cartoon Network. Gamers who downloaded Battlefield 4 in record numbers on Playstation 4 in December 2013 will hope Fox’s efforts to create a spinoff finally come to fruition.

Photo by tarciltarcil via Flickr

Games like these have been making Hollywood producers salivate as a spike in sales the video game could equal success in the movie industry. Looking into 2014 and beyond, there are a number of video games in the works to be made into movies:

On the Horizon

One huge fan of “Assassin’s Creed” is Michael Fassbender from “Inglorious Basterds” and “Prometheus,” who is interested in turning the popular game into a hit movie. The plot for this movie could be very interesting and very sci-fi, as the main character, Desmond Miles, travels back in time to hunt down and eliminate targets to save the world. This may be the one video game-inspired movie that could rival “Prince of Persia” in the box office. It just going to depend on who they cast and how violent they get. Will Fassbender follow the Assassin’s code and stay true to its bloody character?

Photo of Michael Fassbender via Flickr

“Resident Evil” has been adapted for movie after movie. There are plans for a sixth film to be released by 2015. Milla Jovovich, who plays the movie series’ main character, Alice, is expected to be a part of No. 6.

Photo by perry_marco via Flickr

One video game that could surprise everyone and turn a good profit is “Angry Birds.” These bubble-bodied birdies could be bouncing their way to a theater near you, in animation, of course. Some say it may even be in 3-D. Would this movie compel adults to go see it at the same rate people play the phone app at work? Not likely, but it could be a box office hit with the kids. And it may be entertaining enough for adults if an outfit like Pixar puts enough effort into it.

Production of another “Fast and Furious” movie may never happen with the untimely and tragic death of star actor Paul Walker. The movie series proved that movie-goers like the fast action of slick cars and fast-paced plots. “Need for Speed” could supplant it as the next great car movie. DreamWorks is set to release the movie in early 2014 with Aaron Paul from the T.V. hit series “Breaking Bad” as one of the stars.

Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx have been working on a movie script for the third-person shooter game “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men,” although there have been several rewrites. One positive sign that this movie could be good is the fact that F. Gary Gray, who directed “Be Cool” and the remake of “The Italian Job,” is said to be handling this movie. That has to count for something, right?

BTM Guest Author: Reece Douglas / Reece is, admittedly, addicted to playing his Xbox. Except when he is PC gaming, or blogging about gaming, or procrastinating on college homework.