Joy?
We Happy Few is the title of an upcoming dystopian drug-addled video game, but it’s also a phrase that could describe the audiences of video game movies. Films based on gaming properties have a well-deserved reputation for sucking, the exceptions being far too rare to undo that perception.
Maybe though, just maybe, We Happy Few can do something to chisel away at that mindset. According to a report from Variety, Gold Circle Films and dj2 Entertainment have partnered to produce the film adaption. No names have yet been attached to the project.
What We Happy Few has going for it is an honest-to-goodness lack of expectations. Video game movies often fall flat because they can’t measure up to the memories players hold dear from when they first experienced Doom or Assassin’s Creed or World of Warcraft or Street Fighter or [insert literally any game that’s good but movie that’s bad here].
We Happy Few has none of that going for it because it’s not even a complete dang game yet. It’s still in beta on PC and in the preview program on Xbox One. Instead, it’s the ideas and themes that the producers will try to transfer to film, a direction that affords itself a hell of a lot more creative license. We still don’t know how We Happy Few will turn out as a video game, and for that reason it probably stands a better chance at being a decent movie.
“We Happy Few” Videogame Getting Movie Adaption (Exclusive) [Variety]