Video Game Movies That Never Came To Fruition

Video games have evolved from their humble, pixelated beginnings into epic adventures with elaborate storylines and well-developed characters, but some video games have grown even beyond the confines of your console. While many movies based on video games have made it to the big screen, quite a few have never been able to hit the start button.

The Resident Evil franchise has been the inspiration for six movies, but the series didn't get the start that was once planned. When the rights were bought in 1997, Night of the Living Dead's George Romero was set to write and direct, which was a perfect choice as Romero's films had actually inspired the games. Unfortunately, Romero's work on the series was limited to a Japan-only commercial, and he was fired from the project for not sticking to the game's plot close enough, which is kinda like firing Colonel Sanders for making chicken too delicious.

1980s arcade classic Asteroids wasn't heavy on plot, but that didn't stop Hollywood from trying to adapt it into a movie. While the film was announced in 2009, it remains stuck in a development void, with an array of writers and directors taking unsuccessful shots at the script. All we know is that it's about two estranged brothers working out their differences in space, and that no Earths will be harmed in the making of this film.

Despite being a popular video game franchise, Doom films have been, well, doomed. When the 2005 film tanked, losing many millions of dollars and suffering the barbs of critics, Universal Pictures almost abandoned the series. However, there was discussion in 2011 about rebooting the series in 3D, after the studio saw profits for similar films. Not much news lately, but fans of the games don't really seem to mind.

Announced in 2006, Metal Gear Solid has respawned more times than fans can count, with the studio citing budget concerns, producer and director changes, and scrapped scripts. It was reported that Christian Bale had signed on to play the lead character, Solid Snake, but Bale later denied that claim. In March of 2015, the script was being written yet again, but few concrete details are to be found. Must be in stealth mode.

A movie based on a video game based on a poem based on The Bible sounds like a difficult recipe for a film, and the production's troubled history would agree. While an animated feature was produced in 2010, plans for a live-action film have been stuck in limbo. It was announced in 2013 that the director of Evil Dead was attached and a script was written, but nothing has materialized.

Another '80s classic without a plot, a Missile Command film was announced in 2010, purchased amid a flurry of nostalgic toy and game titles, from unfinished ideas He-Man and View-Master, to unfortunate mistakes like Battleship. Possibly just acquired in a fevered nostalgia land-grab, the film once had two writers penning something about the Cold War, but no one's heard anything since.

Bioshock is a game that has an elaborate an interesting world already established, but that hasn't eased its transition to film. Announced in 2009, Bioshock lost its director when the budget didn't meet expectations, and the film's script struggled to achieve a difficult R rating. However, Woody Harrelson has recently expressed interest in playing the lead role, and Sony also registered some movie-specific domain names.

Purchased by 20th Century Fox in 2007, The Sims was supposed to be about a guy who discovers that he's trapped in a video game controlled by millions of players. While the film could explore some heavy existential themes, it's doubtful that the producer of Norbit could live up to those lofty goals, and production has been silent since 2012.

Producers have been trying to realize a Halo film since 2004, at one point attaching an enthusiastic Peter Jackson to the project, until Universal cut his paycheck. Scripts floated around, but many lamented a protagonist whose face is never seen. Spielberg's name became attached, and in 2014, an "Untitled Halo Project" was announced with Ridley Scott... but that just turned out to be a between-game miniseries. Right now, there's nothing to report.

Depending on how you play, Rollercoaster Tycoon is either about running a successful theme park or creatively killing as many people as possible. A 2010 script treatment revealed that this never-filmed film was actually about a theme park coming to life after everyone leaves for the night. So, like Toy Story, but with tilt-a-whirls and funhouses. Fortunately for us, the film never made it past the very weird concept stage.