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[torre_avenue]

Neato article here describing the process of making an app into a film.

Tripp Vinson started looking for undervalued I.P. to guide his next movie. He wanted something an audience would already be familiar with, something that was culturally ubiquitous but could be made new again. He started his search in the public domain. He had succeeded with his Jules Verne and Brothers Grimm adaptations, and besides, old material like that had the advantage of being free. Nothing caught his eye.

Vinson worked out a ‘‘shopping agreement’’ with Half­brick, a contract that gave him exclusive film rights to Fruit Ninja for a limited period so that he could recruit writers and then take a proposal to the studios. If the project sold, Half­brick would then negotiate a deal to sell the film rights to the studio, a deal that, based on the ubiquity of the game, could run up into the high six figures. Vinson then realized that he was faced with a formidable predicament. There are no protagonists or antagonists in Fruit Ninja. There’s no mythology. No moral. The game play involves staring at a wall as pineapples, watermelons, kiwis, apples and oranges fly up into view. The only thing you do is swipe at the fruit with your finger, cutting them in half. Sometimes there are bombs, and you’re not supposed to swipe at those. ‘‘There’s a fun game to play, but that’s it,’’ Vinson says. ‘‘The challenge was: What the [expletive] am I going to do with Fruit Ninja?’’

This environment has fostered, in some producers, a sense of desperation. When I asked Vinson if the changes his business has undergone over the past decade have inspired him to panic, he told me: ‘‘Absolutely. It’s forced me to look at everything as though it could be I.P.’’ Increasingly, that means non­narrative I.P.: stuff with big followings but no stories, or even characters, already cooked in.

The writers he hired for the movie have a sterling pedigree:

In March 2016, he was introduced by an agent to the writing duo of J. P. Lavin and Chad Damiani. They have been in Hollywood for 15 years and have worked as partners for that entire span. They have never once had a script make it to the big screen.

Some of their great ideas?

The two started thinking about reality-­show ideas. ‘‘ ‘Joe Millionaire’ had just come out. Only the worst ideas were selling,’’ Lavin says. ‘‘All I did was think about terrible reality-­show ideas.’’

The pair came up with a reality competition show called ‘‘Green Card.’’ The concept was simple: An ultra-­nerdy American guy is set up with beautiful contestants flown in from all over the globe, who compete for his affection. The winner receives a green card. (The State Department wouldn’t allow it.)

There were other near misses for the duo in the reality field — a competition called ‘‘Jocks vs. Nerds’’ that a producer told them MTV liked so much it had considered putting the show on TV five days a week. (The show never aired.)

They developed a hybrid scripted-­reality series called ‘‘Anchorwoman’’ (tag line: ‘‘Would you trust a bikini model to deliver the news?’’) that Fox canceled after its first night.

They also started writing spec scripts together. The first was titled ‘‘WASPloitation,’’ a comedy inspired by Martha Stewart’s prison sentence. Then they wrote ‘‘Terminally Phil,’’ in which a fraternity fools a pledge into thinking he is dying so they don’t get kicked off campus. A zombie-­coal-­mining movie called ‘‘Dead Canary’’ was followed shortly afterward by ‘‘Kamikaze Love,’’ an action comedy about a down-on-his-luck bartender who falls madly in love with a Japanese woman who has been trafficked into the United States to marry a Yakuza boss.

Their ideas for Fruit Ninja?

Lavin and Damiani spent hours discussing the essence of Fruit Ninja. ‘‘For me, it is the messiness, the immediate release of destroying fruit,’’ Damiani told me. For Lavin, the soul of the game is the feeling of ‘‘frenzy.’’ ‘‘There’s like a 60-­second version of it where you can see how fast you can kill fruit,’’ he says, which ‘‘puts your brain in this weird, bizarre focused place.’’ As he sees it: ‘‘This would be the movie to go see stoned. I can imagine going in and seeing it in 3-D — just imagine a 20-foot-high pineapple monster. That shot of yellow and orange. I’d go see this movie a dozen times.’’

Early on, Lavin and Damiani struggled to find a narrative entry point. They started with the premise that there was a magic book and an evil fruit overlord. Vinson rejected that idea. Their next concept involved scientific experiments on fruit gone wrong. Vinson didn’t like that either. Eventually, a working narrative emerged: Every couple of hundred years, a comet flies by Earth, leaving in its wake a parasite that descends on a farm and infects the fruit. The infected fruit then search for a human host. The only thing keeping humanity from certain doom is a secret society of ninjas who kill the fruit and rescue the hosts by administering the ‘‘anti-­fruit.’’ The produce-­slaying saviors are recruited from the population based on their skill with the Fruit Ninja game. With civilization in imminent danger, a cadre of unlikely heroes materializes — a little boy, a college-­age girl, two average guys. The action starts after each of the story’s heroes returns home after a horrible day and plays Fruit Ninja to relieve some stress. Damiani told me this aligns with the Fruit Ninja brand: ‘‘Anybody can play. Anybody can be a master.’’

Bonus funny claim by the head of Hasbro's film division:

Goldner dismissed all that when we spoke. ‘‘I have people all the time on airplanes tell me that ‘Battleship’ is one of their more favorite action movies,’’

Overall, it's quite interesting.

 

[Fury451]

Fucking why

 

[Amagon]

If you want to talk about making movies out of there asses, Golan & Globus would like a word.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Goldner dismissed all that when we spoke. ‘‘I have people all the time on airplanes tell me that ‘Battleship’ is one of their more favorite action movies,’’

If I was stuck on a plane for hours with one of the people responsible for Battleship, I'd certainly fucking tell them whatever they wanted to hear too.

 

[5taquitos]

It's good to see that at least they recognize their target audience of discriminating stoners.

 

[……forgetit]

If I was stuck on a plane for hours with one of the people responsible for Battleship, I'd certainly fucking tell them whatever they wanted to hear too.

How do the people next to him on the plane even know he made battleship? Does he lead with that? Does he bug them for their opinions on battleship? Why the fuck would he say this?

 

[retroman]

There's also a Tetris movie trilogy coming, right?

Fuck this planet.

 

[Glass Rebel]

I'll write you a script for half. I have the same pedigree.

 

[Fury451]

How do the people next to him on the plane even know he made battleship? Does he lead with that? Does he bug them for their opinions on battleship? Why the fuck would he say this?

It's a fascinating insight into the minds of people that think half assing it is an acceptable way of life. Then again considering a lot of that shit makes a ton of money, maybe they're not wrong.

There's also a Tetris movie trilogy coming, right?

Fuck this planet.

Lmao no. No way it would ever get that far.

 

[Toxi]

Design of the movie's villain, Fruit Samurai

 

[BitStyle]

There's also a Tetris movie trilogy coming, right?

Fuck this planet.

Wait, what?!

 

[VeryGooster]

Been meeting with EviLore and Sony about the GAF Gold movie

 

[retroman]

Lmao no. No way it would ever get that far.

In a sane world, it wouldn't and shouldn't. But in this world though, you can never be too sure...

Wait, what?!

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/28/tetris-films-trilogy

 

[Cosmonaut X]

How do the people next to him on the plane even know he made battleship? Does he lead with that? Does he bug them for their opinions on battleship? Why the fuck would he say this?

It's not what I'd consider a friendly conversation opener, ranking alongside:

"Hey, I'm press secretary for the Trump administration..."

"Have you ever eaten your own faeces? The health benefits are remarkable..."

...or:

"D'you know, I used to be a mod on NeoGAF? Screen name was Ami---"

 

[Makonero]

Been meeting with EviLore and Sony about the GAF Gold movie

it starts with a magic book and evil mod overlords...

 

[Jezan]

The producer thought that there was nothing you could do with LEGO, but then he produces Fruit Ninja?

WTF.

 

[jph139]

Man, I would absolutely love to read the email that the State Department got about the Green Card show. That's the sort of awful idea you'd see in an episode of 30 Rock or something.

 

[Kthulhu]

Wait, what?!

Yup, it's supposed to be a sci-fi epic. Fuck Hollywood.

 

[Pachimari]

Still sad Candy Crush ain't getting a movie and has been relegated to its tv show.

The of the possibilities.

 

[paragonpro]

Eh make it cg, have demi lovatonor selina gomez or who ever do one of the voices, anad have a catchy pop song play over the trailer with one burp joke, then your guaranteed money

 

[Nightbird]

We had a movie about emojis.

I'll take Fruit Ninja over that.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

The two started thinking about reality-­show ideas. ‘‘ ‘Joe Millionaire’ had just come out. Only the worst ideas were selling,’’ Lavin says. ‘‘All I did was think about terrible reality-­show ideas.’’

The pair came up with a reality competition show called ‘‘Green Card.’’ The concept was simple: An ultra-­nerdy American guy is set up with beautiful contestants flown in from all over the globe, who compete for his affection. The winner receives a green card. (The State Department wouldn’t allow it.)

There were other near misses for the duo in the reality field — a competition called ‘‘Jocks vs. Nerds’’ that a producer told them MTV liked so much it had considered putting the show on TV five days a week. (The show never aired.)

They developed a hybrid scripted-­reality series called ‘‘Anchorwoman’’ (tag line: ‘‘Would you trust a bikini model to deliver the news?’’) that Fox canceled after its first night.
They also started writing spec scripts together. The first was titled ‘‘WASPloitation,’’ a comedy inspired by Martha Stewart’s prison sentence. Then they wrote ‘‘Terminally Phil,’’ in which a fraternity fools a pledge into thinking he is dying so they don’t get kicked off campus. A zombie-­coal-­mining movie called ‘‘Dead Canary’’ was followed shortly afterward by ‘‘Kamikaze Love,’’ an action comedy about a down-on-his-luck bartender who falls madly in love with a Japanese woman who has been trafficked into the United States to marry a Yakuza boss.

man fuck tv writers

 

[Stinkles]

‘‘Kamikaze Love,’’ an action comedy about a down-on-his-luck bartender who falls madly in love with a Japanese woman who has been trafficked into the United States to marry a Yakuza boss.

Make him an Otaku and I'm in.

 

[PhantomKnight]

The Simpsons predicted something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2MzAMemGN8

 

[Machina]

Oh fuck off

 

[SomedayTheFire]

That's hilarious. Happy for Halfbrick if they get the cash money.

 

[Mario]

I spent a couple of hours socially with the CEO of Halfbrick last week, and we talked a bunch of business and he never mentioned a movie.

Also, the article seems weirdly out of date (or these guys are incredibly uninformed). Fruit Ninja the game has had characters for years now.

And further, Halfbrick already made shorts and a full cartoon series based on the franchise e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZdcPE0n58E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v86aQj0rvE&list=PLuNyw_z6mVdVILUI0rFICTikDfTVL5dX2

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

"I’d go see this movie a dozen times.’’

You better. Not many other people are going to be buying tickets for this piece of shit.

 

[llehuty]

Ermmm, what? They could do a 10 min short film at best with that concept.

On the meantime, games with perfect narration waiting to be adapted into film. Which has me thinking, nobody has tried to make a Call Of Duty movie? Seems like a no brainer and with crazy mass appeal.

 

[LakeEarth]

Their next concept involved scientific experiments on fruit gone wrong.

So... Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, but with some ninjas... actually that could work.

 

[WarRock]

The pair came up with a reality competition show called ‘‘Green Card.’’ The concept was simple: An ultra-­nerdy American guy is set up with beautiful contestants flown in from all over the globe, who compete for his affection. The winner receives a green card.

I have no fucking words.

 

[itwasTuesday]

How about a YO-YO movie.

 

[PSqueak]

I mean, in the very least Fruit Ninja has something to build on to make some sort of story, there is ninjas and there is fruit, it could be a bout ninjas with fruit themed clans or ninjas that fight fruit monsters, whatever.

Nothing sinks lower than emoji movie.

 

[Fury451]

I have no fucking words.

Thankfully the State Department did.

 

[T.v]

This actually makes me angry.

 

[Strax]

hen they wrote ‘‘Terminally Phil,’’ in which a fraternity fools a pledge into thinking he is dying so they don’t get kicked off campus

I like this premise

 

[Mesoian]

Lavin and Damiani spent hours discussing the essence of Fruit Ninja. ‘‘For me, it is the messiness, the immediate release of destroying fruit,’’ Damiani told me. For Lavin, the soul of the game is the feeling of ‘‘frenzy.’’ ‘‘There’s like a 60-­second version of it where you can see how fast you can kill fruit,’’ he says, which ‘‘puts your brain in this weird, bizarre focused place.’’ As he sees it: ‘‘This would be the movie to go see stoned. I can imagine going in and seeing it in 3-D — just imagine a 20-foot-high pineapple monster. That shot of yellow and orange. I’d go see this movie a dozen times.’’

These people are going to get 60 million dollars.

FML.

 

[HazySaiyan]

Can Hollywood sink any lower? Just you watch!

 

[norm9]

Zero interest in fruit ninja, but Battleship was a fun movie.

 

[torre_avenue]

Zero interest in fruit ninja, but Battleship was a fun movie.

Did you happen to say this out loud on an airplane once?

 

[norm9]

Did you happen to say this out loud on an airplane once?

Lol. I wish. Then he could write a movie about me and my seatmate.

 

[Calm Mind]

This moment was brought to you by cocaine.

 

[zeemumu]

I had a theory for a Twisted Metal movie adaptation where you make 3 films prior:

A Sweet Tooth slasher movie

A Dollface Neon Demon/Starry Eyes-like movie

And a Mr. Grim suspense thriller

All functioning as their own films with the only link being a cameo or two by Preacher.

Then you make the Twisted Metal movie.