Films into Videogames: The Practice of Transmediality in Film-to-Game Adaptation

What practices are undertaken by film studios and game developers in adapting a feature film into a videogame? This paper investigates ways in which strategies of adaptation and dimensions of transmediality operate with respect to movie-licensed videogames.

A way to approach this question is to consider the interplay of industrial and aesthetic dimensions as addressed by such authors as Brookey (2010), Elkington (2010), King & Krzywinska (2002) and Long (2009). This study draws upon developer accounts in addition to textual critical analysis of a selection of
games based on well-known films or film franchises such as GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo, 1997), Blade Runner (Virgin, 1997), The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Vivendi, 2004), and TT Games’ LEGO adaptations (2005-2016).

Issues regarding medium specificity and intersection frame the understanding of this type of adaptation, highlighting key aesthetic and narrational concerns addressed in the case studies. This research discusses the function of key principles of adaptation and transmediality (Jenkins, 2009a, 2009b; Wolf 2012)
germane to movie-licensed videogames, namely, narrative form, worldbuilding, seriality, and interactivation. These factors are employed in various ways to illustrate what I consider to be the practice of four models of film-to-game adaptation: reflection, intersection, extension, and amalgamation.