Elder Scrolls movie could happen, but only if this director made it
Bethesda gets approached "all the time" to make movies, but has turned down every offer; here's what it would take to change that.
Would Bethesda ever give the greenlight to an Elder Scrolls movie? Marketing executive Pete Hines says in a new interview that Bethesda has no interest in turning its franchises into movies -- unless "Lord of the Rings"director Peter Jackson wanted to be involved.
Hines told Finder.com.au that Bethesda gets approached "all the time" with movie offers but has turned them down over fears that producers might not do the franchise justice.
Bethesda might change its mind if Jackson came knocking, however.
"I think if Peter Jackson turned up at [Bethesda game director Todd Howard]'s office and said, 'I want to do Elder Scrolls,' well that would be a pretty serious conversation you would have to listen to. But I think Peter is probably pretty busy [laughs]. So I don't see us anytime soon looking at movies."
That said, Hines said Bethesda is well-positioned to make a movie, if it ever wants to. "Pirates of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer sits on Bethesda parent company ZeniMax's board of directors, as do former MGM CEO Harry Sloan and Hollywood legal expert Ernest Dell. Leslie Moonves, the CEO of GameSpot parent company CBS, is also on ZeniMax's board of directors.
"So it's not like we don't know where to go if we want to get a film or TV show made," Hines said. "It's more about, 'Is this something we really want to do? What are we getting out of it? What kind of distraction is it going to create?'"
Hines also said he's not sold on the promise that a studio would give Bethesda "total control" over the direction of a potential Fallout or Elder Scrolls movie.
"I don't know anybody who actually has total control over the film adaptation of their video game," he said. "If you did, why would you not just make it yourself? Of course the film studio and the scriptwriter and the director are going to have a ton of say. They will have their own vision. So we get asked all the time, but we see it as a distraction. We're a video games company; let's do what we know."
In a previous interview, Hines said an example of a video game movie done wrong would be 2005's "Doom," which starred Karl Urban and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Bethesda had no part in the production of this movie, however, having acquired Doom developer id Software in 2009.
Video game giant Ubisoft has created an internal division, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, to handle the production of feature films based on its franchises. Ubisoft works with outside partners ("Assassin's Creed" is being made by New Regency), but the publisher claims it has creative control.
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