Producer Samuel Hadida announced at the American Film Market that he and Panorama Media have put a plan together to finally bring us a movie version of all those classic Wolfenstein video games. A few years ago Pulp Fiction writer Roger Avary was attached to this project, which was then titled Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but some personal issues derailed the film before it could get off the ground. Well, fret not, because Avary has been brought back to write and direct, and the film, now just titled Castle Wolfenstein, is once again ready to go.
News that Hadida and Avary are working together on Wolfenstein should make both video game and film fans view this one optimistically, for two reasons. The first is that the duo already teamed up to make the original Silent Hill, which is one of the only video game movies that anyone has anything nice to say about. The second is that the Wolfenstein games, while being little more than senseless shoot ‘em ups, have always had a really cool concept at their core: the mixing of Nazis and the paranormal. Given the recent success of movies like Inglorious Basterds and Captain America, which also mixed the Nazis into genre stories you don’t usually see them pop up in, the time to strike on material like this is probably now.
When asked about his interest in the property, Avary said, “I’ve been playing the Wolfenstein games since I was a kid, and feel that their outlandish sensibility has deeply influenced my own writing and directing throughout my career. I have always thought Wolfenstein, transformed and opened for the screen to wider audiences not familiar with the games, would be a major cinematic experience, which is why I introduced it to Samuel. He bought the rights, and I could not be happier that we are now embarking on this adventure.”
The official synopsis of the film says that it will be about a US Army Captain and a British Special Agent going on a secret mission to Castle Wolfenstein—where Hitler is rumored to be personally unveiling a new secret weapon—and finding themselves going up against the might of Himmler’s SS Paranormal Division. That sounds just awesome. I can picture myself blowing away German Shepherds with a German Luger already. Mein leben!
Source: IGN
Art courtesy of DeviantArt