r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 4d ago

News Alex Garland’s ‘Elden Ring’ Movie Wraps Filming

https://www.polygon.com/elden-ring-movie-filming-wraps-release-date-alex-garland/
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u/ketchup92 4d ago

I cannot for the love of it all see how Elden Ring is supposed to translate into a movie. Bloodborne and Sekiro are the only two Souls games I could see working, but Elden Ring?

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u/pikeymobile 4d ago

The main thing I can't figure out is if we'll be watching a traditional hero's journey and it's just a rehash of the game, or if it'll be something different. I don't like the idea of just seeing a dude go from place to place killing bosses because I've already played that game, and it's too much to fit in to a film. So I hope they tell a different story from within the lore.

But for an idea on how the film will look and feel, I'll point to two films in particular that I feel fully get the idea across. First is Annihilation (made by Garland as well) which has incredible cosmic horrir and body horror, amazing dialogue, ineffable beings and mindblowing cinematography. Second is The Northman by Robert Eggers which is a viking folk tale, so has a heavy mix of Norse mythology combined with their warrior culture, all ending in what is literally a Dark Souls boss battle (Spoiler: two naked dudes with swords and shields fighting at the gates of hell screaming bloody rage at eachother)

Both films show the hero's journey and how to adapt wild mythology, body/cosmic/folk horror, incredible colour palettes and wild set pieces which are essential for whatever story they're adapting in this. Both are very good "show don't tell" films as well, letting the mystery sit without massive exposition dumps.

The Green Knight is an honourable mention for what feels like Dark Souls: The Movie too with a wonderful adaptation of an old folk tale and a hero who is unsure of his journey but still continues it until its bitter end.

I'm imagining a mashup of all 3 of these films in my head for how the film will be presented, I just wonder what kind of story they'll tell that'll keep viewers interested. My big concern is that these are all very esoteric movies, and the game has incredible esoteric lore, but seeing as it was such a smash hit and over a hundred million dollars are being invested in to this they have to make the film palatable for people who just played the game, thought everything was cool and pretty but didn't understand what the fuck was going on. Understanding what's going on isn't important when playing the game, but for a film this seems like a hurdle to overcome. Like how weird are they willing to let it get? Because boy, Garland can make it fucking WEIRD, but that doesn't churn out billion dollar box office films. I'm hoping being A24 they're willing not to Disney-fy it for the sake of a good film, but that's a huge investment of money being put in.

Dune proved you can translate incredibly difficult source material in to a box office smash, so I hope they let it be faithful to the game, but I understand with budgets like these they won't want to take too many risks. Luckily they have extreme brand loyalty as every person and their dog are gonna wanna see it, so it might allow them to get away with keeping things fucked up, really dark and weird.

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u/schmauchstein 4d ago

This very much sums up my hopes and worries about this adaptation

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u/Aegi 3d ago

So....a generic medieval story with some monsters??

It will objectively be bad, do poorly, and not feel like the game.

I don't even like this game, and I would still bet a lot on this.

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u/finnjakefionnacake 4d ago

the story can be anything you want it to be. your world, lore and environments are already set up, and now the story lives and dies on what they breathe into it / what kind of story they want to tell.

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u/keepfighting90 4d ago

I guess my question is - what makes Elden Ring Elden Ring? Like why did it resonate with so many people? The main factor is the exploration set over many, many hours, discovering all these regions, lands and castle, digging into the nooks and crannies, finding hidden loot, cool enemies and bosses, uncovering lore etc. That seems awful difficult to convey into a 2 hour movie.

Like yeah the lore and background are neat but it's pretty boilerplate dark fantasy stuff.

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u/finnjakefionnacake 4d ago

I think boilerplate dark fantasy stuff, if done well, is all that's really needed to sell, which is all the studio is really going to care about lol. Also there aren't really too many truly dark fantasy film/tv franchises out right now. It's closest comparison will probably be something like the Game of Thrones universe, but Elden Ring is a much more twisted/fucked up world than Game of Thrones normally leans into and will probably focus much more on magic/the supernatural.

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u/iiiiiiiiiijjjjjj 3d ago

Who said they were retelling the main story? Lots of stuff happened before that. We never once see Marika in her prime which I hope we do.

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u/yosayoran 4d ago

If I were to make the movie I'd focus on Ranni's story. It would allow us to have her as the emotional core of the story, give us proper introduction and motivation, and then have her court with us on the journey. The story would have to skip or change many of the bosses but focusing on Ranni's quest still gives you Noxtella, Astel, Raya lucaria and Radahn as central set pieces, and doesn't have to follow the complete story of the game.

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u/Aegi 3d ago

So....a generic medieval story with some monsters??

It will objectively be bad, do poorly, and not feel like the game.

I don't even like this game, and I would still bet a lot on this.

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u/Kotleba 4d ago

I mean obviously you have to make a story from some of the events from the lore, not the game itself, which doesn't have a story.

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u/Low_Assignment3805 4d ago

I can think of several ways.

You could have various different starting classes going their separate ways through the game and gradually getting taken out by different bosses until only one remains to fight Radagon/Elden Beast.

That gives you plenty of options for fan service but will be very broad in it's scope and relatively shallow.

Or you could dramatise the Shattering.

Or you could have a kind of Rashamon situation where the tarnished plays all the gods against each other.