Steven Spielberg has dabbled with a wide range of genres in his huge and long-standing career. He is either making someone cry with his emotional features or taking them on an exhilarating ride with movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the many years he has been in the industry, Spielberg has touched and worked through several genres, but has failed to touch video game adaptations.
Yet, surprisingly, the reason for him not being able to make a video game movie is himself, for he once infamously ruined his chance with his wild pitch about a game built by his best friend George Lucas’ LucasArts.
Steven Spielberg Ruined His Chances of Making a Video Game Adaptation
Steven Spielberg is one of the best filmmakers in the movie business and has worked in almost all genres of the entertainment industry. While not all of his movies have been a wide success or critically well-received, Spielberg is nonetheless a visionary when it comes to filmmaking. And it would have certainly been a delight to see him influence or be attached to a video game adaptation if he only hadn’t ruined the chance with his own hands.
Developed by George Lucas‘ LucasArts, Monkey Island is a series of adventure video games. Way back in the early 2000s, LucasFilm and Industrial Light & Magic tried to develop a movie, based on the third game of the franchise, The Curse of Monkey Island, as covered by Polygon.
After numerous script changes, ILM finally contacted Spielberg and was asked to fund a Monkey Island movie via his Amblin Entertainment. However, things soon turned into a disaster when Spielberg pitched that the main characters be the monkeys instead of the many interesting characters of the game, a wild request that led to the movie never being made.
Steven Spielberg Wanted Monkey Island Movie to Focus on Monkeys!
Davin Carson, a virtual artist at ILM and later writer, originally developed the script for the said Monkey Island movie, along with a variety of writers. The script underwent various changes and finally settled on one version that felt not only honest to the source but one that fans would be interested in.
Finally having somewhat of a resonating story, as reported by Polygon, Carson revealed things went downhill when he pitched the story to Spielberg,
We gathered in Steven’s office, and the first thing he said was that we shouldn’t have the main characters be human. Instead, he suggested we should make the movie be about the monkeys on Monkey Island. Everyone just nodded, but my heart stopped. What the heck? We had worked for several weeks on a story that was based on the charm and humor of the games, and Steven wanted to throw all that out and make some new story about monkeys? I was completely confused.
While they did try to come up with a story according to Spielberg’s vision, things did not work out. With no chance of securing funding and more issues, the project was finally discarded and dismantled. And so, it is a shame that such a talented filmmaker missed out on the chance to create a video game adaptation, especially considering the potential of the Monkey Island franchise.
