Taxi Driver: the game?

[sadistikdreams]

From Gamespot:

Majesco adapting Taxi Driver

[UPDATE] Martin Scorsese's nihilistic 1970s film will be basis for 2006 third-person shooter; Papaya Studios developing. First details inside.

For April Fools' Day, GameSpot sent up the classic-movie-game craze with a fake story about one of the most depressing movies of the 1970s, The Deer Hunter, being turned into a game. Today, Majesco announced it was adapting an equally grim film from that decade for real.




The slice of celluloid in question is none other than director Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, the 1976 drama-thriller profiling Travis Bickle, a lonely New York City cabbie (Robert De Niro). Already unbalanced by his nightly drive through Manhattan's then-seedy underbelly, Bickle's mental state further deteriorates after he meets a presidential campaign worker (Cybil Sheperd) and a child prostitute (Jodie Foster). He proceeds to attempt the killing of the former's candidate and the latter's pimp (Harvey Keitel), bringing the film to a spectacularly bloody conclusion.

Though the hookers, pushers, and assorted low-lifes of Taxi Driver's sprawling urban milieu seem prime fodder for a(nother) Grand Theft Auto clone, its societal angst and mentally unbalanced melancholy might seem less well suited to games. And since the film was cited as an inspiration by John Hinckley after he tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan in 1981, it will almost assuredly court controversy.

What is unclear is whether or not any of the Taxi Driver cast will lend their likenesses or voices to the game. However, De Niro's character will once again be the protagonist, according to Ken Gold, vice president of marketing for Majesco. "Nominated for four Academy Awards, Taxi Driver remains one of the most iconoclastic films of our time," he said. "Compelling and powerful, the movie ensnares viewers in the seedy urban world of New York cabbie Travis Bickle, and we hope to do likewise with our game."

Slightly less acclaimed was Whirl Tour, the sole game from California-based Papaya Studios, which will develop Taxi Driver. However, the developer was happy to share details of Taxi Driver with GameSpot. "The game picks up where the movie left off," said the developer in a statement. "As Travis reminisces about his bloody rescue of the young prostitute Iris, it seems the violent catharsis and recovery that ended the film has turned his life around. However, a terrible sequence of events finds him unable to stop the murder of someone very special to him. His ensuing quest for revenge finds Travis Bickle once again on an inexorable path towards violence. Players will fight their way through the mean streets of New York City in Travis's bid for vengeance, to bring the ruthless rain that will clean the scum off the streets once and for all."

Papaya also said Taxi Driver will be a "third-person action game comprised of both story-driven, on-foot missions and driving-style missions in a vast, sandbox city environment." It is being written by the team behind Dead to Rights and will be released next year to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film's release. And although all three next-generation consoles are expected to be on the market in 2006, neither Majesco nor Papaya announced any specific platforms for the game.

So I had actually just seen this movie last night, and like I always do, I went online to check out the Wikipedia entry to expand my knowledge. On the bottom of the page, it mentioned the game.

WHAT THE FUCK? Great fucking movie, but NO WAY they should make it a game. Plus, there's the whole part about how the movie inspired John Hinckly Jr. I really hope they don't make the game. It'll just cheapen the movie.

[ratbastid]

I just hope there's a mugging-in-the-mirror-with-a-pistol scene in the game.

Press "B" to aim the pistol at your reflection. Press "A" to say, "You talking to me?". Press "X" to say, "I don't see anyone else here!". Press Y to give youself a mohawk.

[Spartak]

Oh god please no

[CSflim]

That is quite simply the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard in my life. I mean....huh?

This HAS to be a joke. PLEASE somebody make it go away.

[Coppertop]

Just wait until the ESRB hears about the underage prostitutes...

Can you say AO? I knew you could.

[Lasereth]

This sounds about as intriguing as the DOOM movie and the Scarface game. It's all about the $$$.

-Lasereth

[cockmonger]

What are you guys talking about? Who ISN'T excited about a game where 3/4ths of the movie it's based off is silioques set against the back drop of a rainy night in new york all sort of cool dark reds and yellows and blacks...it's going to be fun and interactive, at least for the 5 minutes you get to kill pimps in an abandoned hotel, then back in the car, GTA style, without the GT or the excitement. Speaking of Scorcese movies they should turn into video games, how about raging bull, yeah the fight Sugar Ray Robinson would be fun all 8 times, but how about the over eating aspect, and having sex with underaged girls leading you to prison and punching walls screaming, I'M NOT AN ANIMAL...Oh yeah!...the chills of great cinema and horrible video game lisences. sorry if i spoiled anything for those who havn't seen the best movie of the 80s. muh bad.

[BigBen]

Some things are better left where they are.

Hey, did you guys hear that they are finally going to fix that crack in the Liberty Bell? Generations have endured its ugliness, but in 2006 Blizzard Entertainment will finally fix it.

Why not a Viet Nam game off of Platoon? "You see that fucking head come apart, man?"

I want to see a historically acurate First Person MMORPG about the Civil War or the War of Independence. Loading your musket would be a complex manouvre involving 12 button presses in the right sequence in the right time. It would miss half the time resulting in cool hand-to-hand bayonet fighting.

[Slyboots]

So first they the godfather, then the warriors, now this? Can't they think of a good game that doesn't have to come from an old movie? Sure they are classic but I can't really see the Taxi driver as a game.

[MexicanOnABike]

Originally Posted by BigBen

Some things are better left where they are.
Why not a Viet Nam game off of Platoon? "You see that fucking head come apart, man?"

been done man.

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpage....asp?q=platoon