On June 6, 1984, Alexey Pajitnov made his mark on the world. To most of us, his name is unfamiliar; perhaps he is more recognizable by this:

No, Alexey didn’t invent the QR, he invented TETЯIS. 28 years have passed since this addictive game hit the market. Since then, hundreds of millions of people have spent their time matching tiles that come out from thin air before they stack above other cubes, and became frustrated when the long tile didn’t appear right when you needed it to salvage everything.

To honor this anniversary, we dedicate a special post to classic games; from board games made into movies, through films where characters traverse into a game dimension, up to original ideas of timeless games that should be made into movies. Of course we are always open to your suggestions on our Facebook page and the best based-on-game movie ideas would be pitched to the first big studio executive that comes our way (patience, eventually one of them will stumble through our door), and don’t worry, we’ll split the profits.

Battleship

A classic board game that can be played anytime anywhere, as long as you have two squared pages. The objective is to sink the opponents vessels, from aircraft carriers (easy to hit) to patrol boats (hardest to detect), thus the eponym catch-phrase “you sank my battleship.” The movie went a little further than that, adding aliens and space crafts to the mix, but hey, you didn’t expect to see Admiral Liam Neeson standing on the ship’s bridge and shouting “B-7.”

Clue

A great riddles-&-clues board game where you enter various rooms in a mansion and make educated guesses about who is the murderer, where did it happen and with which household weapon (from a revolver to a candlestick). I’ve always suspected it was Professor Plum in the dining room with a wrench.

The movie brings to life characters like Colonel Mustard (yellow piece) and Mrs. Peacock (blue piece), who are gathered in a mansion and try to solve mysterious murders that occurred with all the infamous tools. This comic take of the game offers the viewers three endings, each one with a different culprit.

Jumanji & Zathura

Two adaptations to Chris Van Allsburg’s illustrated books, about kids’ (and adults’) adventures when a board-game intertwines with reality. Every throw of the dice summons another strange occurrence that haunts our young heroes, and their goal becomes not only to finish the game (so that everything would be restored to normality), but also to survive it in one piece. Two beautifully crafted movies, with a lot of imagination and creativity.

Tron & Tron: Legacy

A video-game creator gets sucked into his invention and is transported into the computerized world of Tron. Once there, he needs to fight off enemies and dangers in order to regain control inside and outside the game.

Jeff Bridges plunges into the game world in this groundbreaking film from 1982 (first use of computer-animated effects in movies). The stylized sequel can be described as “Tron: The next generation”, when the creator’s son enters the game and searches for his dad (Bridges) who got stuck in Tron world.

Code Monkeys

A series about two video-game designers, with a twist; the whole show is in video-game animation. Dave and Jerry work in a grotesque Sillicon Valley game company, where they spend their days amusing themselves with irreverent and cynical humor. The show is animated as an 8-bit video game, including a health meter, points for actions and achievements and a pause option (for commercials).

Now, for the fun part – which classic, timeless games would we like to see turned into movies?

Space Invaders

Space invasions are nothing new to Hollywood and aliens are the ultimate obvious villains: we usually do not know their background story, the hardships on their home planet that deteriorated them to a life of crime and invasions, nor do we know each alien’s personal story and motives for what he’s doing. For us, they’re just packs of ugly mean bastards, ready to exterminate our peace-loving humanity.

So Space Invaders would fit perfectly into that pattern. It could be a combination of Star Wars (the Death Star scene) with Starship Troopers. As the commander of the human ship who fights the evil aliens single-handedly, I would cast Cuba Gooding Jr., as he is already accustomed to flying aircrafts and saving the day.

But alas, Scrubs has thought of it before us, making a funny (and earthly) tribute to this old-school game:

Jenga

Imagine Tower Inferno, but without the fire. People are trapped inside a skyscraper, when giant parts of each floor slide off the side of the building every few minutes. In the meantime, construction workers on top of the building are working against the clock to build the upper floors, before a bomb explodes and takes down the whole building. The catch – a giant crane has to transport the fallen rooms onto the top of the building.

As for the cast, Nick Cage would return to his glory days in action thrillers as the veteran construction supervisor who takes control of the situation and shouts frantically, “we’re running out of time!”

Mine Sweeper

Many questions come to mind when planning a Mine Sweeper movie: why do we have to dig out mines? Who put them there? Why can’t we just call the UN? However, just like in a good mystery thriller, these questions remain obscure and are linked to a mysterious character (in our case, the smiley face) who arranged this battlefield beforehand. The guys at College Humor hatched a perfect fictional trailer, and all that’s left is to hope that it will develop one day into a full-length movie:

Twister

Twister can be interpreted towards two directions: a silly battle-of-the-sexes comedy, in the style of National Lampoon movies; or a psychological thriller, following the footsteps of Saw, where confined people follow commands from an unknown captor in order to survive (a mysterious voice - Morgan Freeman? - through an intercom: “put your left hand on the red dot”). Actually, both of the options sound humorous; only one of them does it self-consciously

Tetris

This could be a perfect disaster movie. One ordinary day, people wake up to discover that giant odd-shaped cubes fall from the sky onto earth. Of course, not all of them fit into the gaps between the urban buildings, thus creating havoc and chaos. Sounds too far-fetched? Check out this fictional trailer from Warialasky and decide for yourselves:

Do you have any other games that you would like to see transformed into a major Hollywood movie? Share your comments and thoughts with us on our Facebook page. Just don’t be amazed if after Battleship, the next big summer flick would be “Jenga: The Movie.”

Technorati Tags: Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris, Battleship, Liam Neeson, Clue, Jumanji, Zathura, Chris Van Allsburg, Tron, Tron: Legacy, Jeff Bridges, CGI, animated, TV series, Tron: Uprising, Code Monkeys, Space Invaders, Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Cuba Gooding Jr., Scrubs, Jenga, Nick Cage, Mine Sweeper, College Humor, Twister, Plonter, National Lampoon movies, psychological thriller, Saw, Morgan Freeman

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