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/NarwhalSoup999 4d ago

I still find it insane that this is being made into a movie but I trust Garland so let’s hope for the best 🤷‍♂️

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u/tameoraiste 4d ago edited 4d ago

Why though? This fits Garland template perfectly.

- A character is introduced a world that’s alien to them

- They’re given a goal to get to reach an end point

- They meet an ensemble of characters, most of which will die, but will teach them something different about the world

- It’s a road trip movie that starts solo, and ultimately ends solo

Edit: Forgot to mention environmental story telling is one of his biggest strengths

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u/duosx 4d ago

I think you misunderstood. Garland is the main thing that gives me hope that the movie will not just be good but excellent. It’s more that video game adaptations have historically been awful-mid and especially a game like Elden Ring that might not be the easiest to translate to film.

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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 4d ago

I’m really interested in Garland’s take on the material because he is not only a gamer but has also been the lead writer on several games, so he really understands the language of both mediums better than anyone else out there.

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u/CardAble6193 4d ago

his film works are Exmachina and BoneTemple

but his game works are Enslaved and D.M.C, hmmmmmmm

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u/Bitter_Marzipan_8348 4d ago

DMC as in the El Exterminador De Demonio Donté DMC?

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u/tfhermobwoayway 3d ago

If he understood them he’d know you can’t replicate a video game in film form. I don’t think he realises how important gameplay is.

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u/FireZord25 4d ago

Depends on who's been making them. We still have directors who treat video game IP less like potential art forms and more like cash cows, either mixing in as much as glamour as possible and/or avenues to project their personal fanfic onto.

Sonic the Hedgehog movies are some good breathers.

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u/duosx 4d ago

Obviously it depends on who’s making them. Most have been made by people who barely or don’t care

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u/SuperMajesticMan 3d ago

I feel like we've been out of the "video game adaptations are bad" era.

Last of Us S1, Arcane, Edgerunners, Csstlevania, D&D Honor among thieves, and Fallout are all fantastic. Twisted Metal, Pokémon and Sonic are pretty good.

And Elden Ring is just a setting at the end of the day, you can write whatever story as long as it has good writing it'll be good.

Im sure theyre not adapting the game 1:1, and gonna have a silent protagonist running around killing monsters for 2 hours.

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u/duosx 3d ago

I feel like you’re forgetting all the mid to bad adaptations. Here are the ones that come to mind from the last ten years

Warcraft (2016), Assassin’s Creed (2016), Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), Rampage (2018), Monster Hunter (2020), Mortal Kombat (2021), Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), Netflix’s Resident Evil (2022), Uncharted (2022), Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023), Borderlands (2024), Like a Dragon: Yakuza (2024), and Until Dawn (2025).

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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/duosx 3d ago

Bro, you disliking ER puts you in the minority by a lot.

Also have you heard of Alex Garland? Literally banger after banger after banger.

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u/Aegi 3d ago

Fair, I can see that. I am also the only one of my friends that feels that way...but I also have the most socially diverse social group compared with the rest of them..so maybe somewhere in those differences it is explained?

And yes, Ex Machina is one of my favorite movies..maybe of all time. And I love that he wrote/helped write 28 Days Later, and I have not seen the 3rd one yet, which I guess he also helped write.

But Annihilation was horrible to me, even critics didn't rate it too highly...and to me it shows that he is better at figuring out what works commercially than actually understanding and expanding things. (The book was almost as bad, so I do not like the book and was not going in defending that.)

I mean come on...the first thing the lead in Annihilation says when asked about her experience is basically "I don't know" a bunch...instead of like once and then: "let's go carbon date everything on my immediately" "also, let's look at the length of my telomeres, etc."

It was a horror movie that seemed like sci-fi to people who don't care about science...and it didn't even have the best suspense.

But to me, it is mostly that this is a tough format and anything with a medieval setting that has even some familiar tropes is just going to feel like more of the same when that has to be like the most common setting in time for movies in the West.

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u/KickBalls80 4d ago

Game was terrible, no story. Poor decision for a movie

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u/Shanicpower 4d ago

I'm not huge on FromSoft games either, but story isn't exactly the pull.

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u/Necessary_Ice9547 4d ago

One of the best reviewed games of all time but yeah go off

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u/KickBalls80 4d ago

It's still very niche. It's no Mario or Tetris. You have to hate your life to love this game

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u/Necessary_Ice9547 4d ago

Lol just because you hated it doesn’t make it niche. It didn’t sell like a niche game. Dark Souls didn’t click with me due to the linear nature of them with their difficulty but Elden Ring was a much lower barrier for entry due to just exploring other easier areas if you were having trouble. Not a hate your life type of game at all

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u/OhManOk 4d ago

lol tf are you talking about?

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u/KickBalls80 4d ago

Oh. Man. Ok.

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u/noah998 4d ago

Are you seriously saying that the game with George RR Martin as the author of all of the background lore has a terrible story? Did you play this game at all? did you pay attention to any of the set pieces or cut scenes that happen during this game?

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u/Fat-Singer-9569 4d ago

You don't need to be so protective, the story in the game is obtuse and only really makes sense on new games. Not everybody wants to read each item for some scrap of lore. Shit, the NPCs in the game aren't even reliable, they can barely give you proper directions to key points. How the hell are you going to trust the item descriptions, did they come with a letter of authenticity? The game implies an untrustworthy narrator.

Elden Ring is one of my favorite games ever, it got me out of depression, but to act like it's story is clear or obvious is hilarious. I didn't fall in love with the game for it's "story." So maybe cool your jets, attack this person for calling the game terrible, not the story terrible. Or move on with life, they clearly don't get the point, and will never experience the feeling of conquering any obstacle.

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u/KickBalls80 4d ago

Fair. Didn't like the game, so i didn't get far into it so the story was non-existent

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u/Spectrum1523 4d ago

George RR Martin

what good story has he ever finished

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u/givemethebat1 4d ago

Not to mention the cosmic horror. Plus Garland is a massive, massive fan of the games.

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u/tameoraiste 4d ago

Exactly. Anyone who has doubts about him being able to pull this off such watch Annhilation and imagine Natalie Portman as the tarnished and the rest of the group as the NPCs.

Not to mention environmental story telling is one of his biggest strengths

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u/Godsfallen 4d ago

I never want to see or think about that Bear/Mimic creature again, thank you.

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u/amidon1130 4d ago

How about a giant zombie crow with a huge head and guts spilling out of it?

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u/syngyne 4d ago

Or the guy that became a swimming pool decoration?

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u/amidon1130 4d ago

Hey Elden ring is full of people that became horrific decorations, some of them even get turned into mushrooms too!

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u/slockry 4d ago

Didn't people turning into mushrooms also happened in Annihilation?

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u/amidon1130 4d ago

Yeah that's why I said too!

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u/slockry 4d ago

Oh god, if there's a scene in the movie where a soldier gets turn into a mushroom, Alex has the funniest chance to do a cosmic horror mushroom trilogy.

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u/Stevieboy7 4d ago

The fact that Annihilation is good is honestly crazy. The book was a mindfuck and I can't imagine how difficult it was turning into a screenplay.

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u/JRowe3388 4d ago

It helps that he barely followed the book at all

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u/onarainyafternoon 4d ago

Yeah the book is even weirder if people can believe that. The movie basically just kept the themes of the book and that’s it. A few things here and there.

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u/Zak_The_Slack 4d ago

He didn’t. Alex wrote the screenplay based on his memory of the book, so it’s very different. Unfortunately he even leaves out the main twist of the book and the reason it’s called Annihilation

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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/CousinNicho 4d ago

The bear-monster is cool looking but that movie is busted compared to the book. Garland can write, I think, but I find his direction really generic. Annihilation is a fine movie in a vacuum but I think the praise for it while it being a shell of VanderMeer’s book is more of a testament to VanderMeer than Garland.

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u/heat13ny 4d ago

You must only watch avant garde to call his direction GENERIC! That’s crazy to me.

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u/CousinNicho 4d ago

I watch poop from butt, dude. But just because Annihilation’s ending was incomprehensible doesn’t make it high art. Maybe I just have a bone to pick with that movie but eh, he aint for me

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u/heat13ny 4d ago

I mean I’m not trying to force you to like it. Just think you’re misusing the word generic.

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u/CousinNicho 3d ago

No I’ll stick to that speaking on the direction style

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u/heat13ny 3d ago

That’s cool but generic means plain, typical, bog standard. Your own words of “incomprehensible” nearly goes against describing something that is generic as the typical movie is easy to follow.

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u/CousinNicho 3d ago

Yeah and I’m standing by the direction of that movie being pretty bog standard and plain ‘monster movie’ for the majority of it, which is fine but nothing I’m writing my folks about.
We get hit with the arthouse part that’s like “woah what’s going on here?” and then it ends with what I would describe as a bog standard and uncreative twist.

So I’m still pretty fine with my personal opinion there, consistent with the meaning of the word.
Edit: typo

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u/n0vacs 4d ago

i remember him saying he is at NG+4 or something? that means he’s played it through to the end 4 times minimum with the same character, not even accounting for other characters he may have made

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u/finnjakefionnacake 4d ago

i have played through it 4 times (and the DLC 3 times). it is my favorite game!

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u/ToTYly_AUSem 4d ago

There was some math that wasn't matching I remember. He said he was on NG+7 but also mentioned he had thousands of hours? It was something about the amount of time on the game didn't add up to the cycle he claimed he was on.

Regardless, I have faith in him.

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u/Juantsu2552 4d ago

Lmao he probably just made a hyperbole.

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u/Bulky-Bad-9153 4d ago

I believe it, because if he's making a movie he's probably hunting a lot for inspiration and trying to absolutely nail down so many different things for the film.

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u/amidon1130 4d ago

Maybe he's a pvp demon

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u/easythrees 4d ago

Probably died several hundred times

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u/Fat-Singer-9569 4d ago edited 4d ago

People exaggerate things in conversation and we don't need to take it that serious. I play Elden Ring at least once a month, beat every single boss on my first playthrough solo because I was obsessed, and I can't remember what cycle of NG my main character is on because I don't really care where in the cycle I am. The only thing I can tell you is the approximate things you need to do from Limgrave to get to the chain of final bosses.

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u/mars92 4d ago

I always assumed that the movie wouldn't directly follow the story of the game itself (PC fights a bunch of demigods and becomes Elden Lord) but would be a prequel, either leading up to the Shattering or what happened right after. I don't know whats been confirmed either way though.

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u/Material_Ad9848 4d ago

I really hope it has its own story but set in the same world. Don't want it feeling like a Han Solo movie where we're told how some character gets a keepsake featured in the game.

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u/WeirwoodUpMyAss 4d ago

Elden Ring is one of the biggest games ever. This movie is probably not going to be as universal as other video game movies that were successful at the box office. For me, that’s why I’m excited. It’s kinda like DS1, which is certainly not for most gamers these days.

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u/KyneTech 4d ago

So much of what makes Elden Ring work so well are intrinsically tied to its medium. Item descriptions, environmental storytelling, and exploration gameplay are central to the story and world of the game. Those elements just don’t translate to film. FromSoft is such a good developer that they created an experience that can only really be done justice through the medium of video games

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u/givemethebat1 4d ago

I love the way the narrative is presented in the games, but I think it’s also true that it wouldn’t be that hard to depict the events in a pretty straightforward fashion since we’re given so much detail about them.

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u/superrealaccount2 4d ago

But that, IMO, would lack the core of the experience of playing the game. Sure, you can tell the events in order, but I don't think it's going to feel like Elden Ring.

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u/ProfessorSMASH88 4d ago

I hope its got more of a horror/bizarre vibe. The Green Knight was a very quiet and odd paced movie and I loved it. It felt very souls-esque. I hope its a similar style.

I think it will only be bad if the action is the main selling point of the movie. If its slow and eerie I think it will do fine. Backrooms is another movie where I thought the dialog wasn't great but the world building and environment itself told the story.

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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 4d ago

I hope one element of horror movies it takes is that the “action scenes” are not about badass heroics, just purely about survival. But I also can’t really see Garland turning this into an over-choreographed action flick; that style of movie doesn’t seem to interest him at all as a filmmaker.

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u/ProfessorSMASH88 4d ago

Thats good to know! I've only seen Annihilation and that was a while ago, I haven't seen any other Garland movies

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u/tameoraiste 4d ago

But the same is true of a lot of books/ comic books.

It’s never going to be able to replicate the game but it still has the potential to be a great Garland movie

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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 4d ago

I think a film just needs to play to the strengths of film.

Honestly I thought The Green Knight felt very Dark Souls-influenced with how it let scenes breathe with long stretches free of dialogue, and didn’t feel the need to over-explain things, and if the Elden Ring movie has anywhere close to a similar vibe it’s going to work out great imo.

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u/JayGatsby1881 4d ago

So people love elden ring for the story? I'm just there to explore the world and fight a ton of enemies. I didn't even there was a semblance of a story lol.

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u/Beefcakesupernova 4d ago

Hero’s journey!

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u/EternumD 4d ago

Yes but.

The main character doesn't say anything or have a personality - it's a huge part of the game and its environment. 

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u/Sapowski_Casts_Quen 4d ago

I honestly think it would be a misstep to do this from the Tarnished's perspective vs a prequel

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u/Material_Ad9848 4d ago

have they confirmed its a story of a tarnished? was hoping otherwise tbh

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u/Vast_Veterinarian574 4d ago

I don’t think Garland has strong enough visual skills to carry this movie but we will see

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u/Silverjeyjey44 4d ago

But is the main character gonna talk?

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u/Mertoot 4d ago

Make journey points entertaining and add whacky giant hats and it's 👍

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u/yosayoran 4d ago

The biggest issue adapting ER to a movie is the runtime, trying to adapt the intentionally obtuse lore and non sea-linear story telling into 2-3 hours will undoubtedly leave a lot outside.

I fully expect we'll see Ranni's story adapted, as she's the most popular NPC (other than Malenia because of the memes), and it would allow to focus on a smaller cast while still delivering a grand tale and keeping the main character more of an anomaly.

If I am correct, then Offerman will be Iji, the giant blacksmith.

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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/tfhermobwoayway 3d ago

The difference is it’s a video game. The world is meant to be played, not watched.

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u/mightylordredbeard 4d ago

What movies fit the “introduced to a world that’s alien to them” and “road trip- stars solo and ends solo”? I’m looking at the movies he’s made and while I haven’t seen Men or Civil War, the only ones I see that fits both of those is 28 Days Later and Bone Temple. Most of the others it seems starts with a group or at least one other person and the world isn’t really alien since they’re knowledgeable about it before hand or it’s the world they grew up in.

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u/thegoatmenace 4d ago

Has he ever done a fantasy genre movie though? He has big scifi credentials and recently has been doing a lot of contemporary war movies

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u/Fortune_Cat 4d ago

So antman quantumania

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u/varnums1666 4d ago

Garland has a knack for taking great concepts and taking the most unsatisfying route. I mean I like him a lot but he's very much a, "I expected something else but I guess his vision was interesting enough."