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As risk-averse studios turn to video games to mine for adaptations, this guy is answering the call
An employee wearing a face mask stands next to a screen displaying a character of Nintendo game Super Mario at a store for Japanese games giant Nintendo in Tokyo on Feb. 3, 2022.
(
Behrouz Mehri
/
AFP
)
Topline:
The man behind some of the biggest gaming franchises of all time has started a new company that seeks to upend the IP paradigm — at a time when Hollywood is desperate for fresh intellectual property that it can adapt for the screen.
Why it matters: Hollywood is arguably as risk averse as it’s ever been, which means original ideas are being shunted aside for ones with a pre-sold audience. Studios have taken to seeking to revive or reboot long-forgotten properties from their vaults.
Video game IP boom: After years of video game-based movies and TV shows that flopped hard, The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Fallout, among other titles, have given the industry hope that more video game adaptations could be hits. The rich, multi-decade history of video games and their growing storytelling sophistication offers ripe possibility.
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Enter Dan Houser: One man privy to those initial flops is Dan Houser, who co-founded Rockstar Games, where he produced some of the biggest video-game successes of all time in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Hauser left Rockstar Games to start a new company called Absurd Ventures, which seeks to upend the traditional intellectual property paradigm used by Hollywood. Absurd operates as a hybrid of a production company, a game developer and a research and development studio for IP.
An absurd venture: The process toward IP generation starts with Absurd Ventures launching nuanced worlds in cheaper formats (audiobooks, comics, graphic novels, and so forth). Then, if popular, Houser and his company can convert the world into more expensive projects like an animated show, feature film, or limited series, and eventually, a video game. First up is a 12-part audio fiction project called A Better Paradise that debuted June 10.
For more . . . read the full story on The Ankler.
This story is published in partnership with The Ankler, a paid subscription publication about the entertainment industry.
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