You might not have heard of the name Story Kitchen, but you’ve definitely heard of the movies and TV shows it’s been involved with. The production company specialises in adaptations of video games, and its list of projects includes the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and both the live-action and animated Tomb Raider TV series, as well as upcoming TV and film projects based on Vampire Survivors, Life is Strange, Grow a Garden, Streets of Rage, Just Cause, Sifu, Kingmakers, Shinobi, House of the Dead, Split Fiction, and many more.
The bidding war that erupted over the movie rights for Hazelight’s Split Fiction is emblematic of the current tsunami of Hollywood interest in video games. Story Kitchen co-founder Dmitri M. Johnson, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz after a talk at the Screen Play event at the London Games Festival in April, recalls breaking off from the after party for the BAFTA Film Awards last February to do final rehearsals for the Split Fiction pitch with star Sydney Sweeney and director Jon M. Chiu.
The production company then took the proposal around Hollywood soon afterwards, just ahead of the game’s launch on March 6. Split Fiction went on to sell two million copies in its first week, and the movie firms descended upon the property like a pack of hungry wolves. “It was an absolute bidding frenzy,” Johnson recalls. The rights eventually went to Amazon MGM Studios, which had already picked up the screen rights to Hazelight’s previous game, the 30-million-selling It Takes Two – another of Story Kitchen’s projects.
Much of the conversation in the games industry of late has been gloomy laments about endless redundancies and stagnating growth. Video game movies, by contrast, offer a rare ray of hope. The eyewateringly high box office receipts for the Sonic, Mario, and Minecraft movies in particular have proven beyond doubt that there’s a massive audience for video game movies, and a successful TV or movie tie-in can dramatically boost game sales – as proven by Fallout, which saw a huge spike in player numbers around the launch of the Amazon Prime TV show.
In short, everyone can win, and everyone wants in. In a talk at Screen Play, Helene Juguet, managing director of film and TV at Ubisoft, said that nearly 25% of all movies being made in the next few years are based on video games.
But how do you actually go about turning a video game into a film or TV show?
The art of the deal
Despite the many comparisons that have been made between films and games down the years, they remain two very separate worlds with very different ways of doing things. And it’s certainly the case that not all Hollywood executives play video games (although some do, says Johnson). When it comes to the ones who don’t, Story Kitchen has even bought them games machines in the past so they can play a just released or upcoming title that might be prime movie fodder.
Then again, the execs might just outsource the actual playing, adds Story Kitchen’s executive producer Dallas Dickinson, who was previously general manager at Crystal Dynamics. “It’s understandable … if they’re like, ‘I don’t play games, but my spouse does. Can you give me a code and I’ll just watch them?'”
The role of Story Kitchen is to essentially mediate between these two worlds of games and movies – and it’s in their best interests to ensure both parties get along. “We only get paid if a movie gets made,” explains Johnson. “We’re not agents. So we truly are there just to help both sides.”
The biggest clashes tend to be over the rights surrounding a movie deal. Who owns the merchandising rights? Who owns the soundtrack? What exactly does a soundtrack constitute? Leaving things like this unclear isn’t an option, says Dickinson. “Unfortunately what that means is there is no deal on that, and you have to go back to the lawyers.”
It’s a constant tug of war, with movie companies generally trying to secure as many rights as they can, while game companies try to retain the rights they already own to IP, music, and so on. But whereas Hollywood was able to throw its weight around a bit more back in the early days of video game movies, the playing field has changed dramatically since then.
“Most of our partners don’t need to do a film or TV show,” says Johnson. “They truly love film and TV, so they think it’s cool, but unless the conversation is approached with respect, we’re not going to get anywhere.”
Johnson says the film and TV industry’s respect for its gaming cousin was somewhat lacking before the current crop of game-inspired blockbusters. “There was that period in time, pre-Sonic, where it was, ‘You’re so lucky that Hollywood is even looking at you’.”
That situation has become a lot better now, he adds – helped by the fact that some of the gaming clients Story Kitchen works with “could buy your studio in cash.” He notes that his company’s books feature some of the biggest games on the planet, including Roblox hits like Steal a Brainrot and Grow a Garden, each with truly enormous audiences. “These kids have so much money. They don’t need to do this. … This isn’t bluffing to try to get a better deal. This is like, no, they really don’t need to. And that does help.”
“These kids have so much money. They don’t need to do this”
But Dickinson warns that it can easily go too far the other way, with games companies unwilling to give up control. “You can’t have all final approvals on casting, all final approvals on creative, all final approvals on this,” he says. “It just doesn’t work. It’s a bad business model and no one will do that.”
Deals require a little give and take, he continues, which means games companies need to acquiesce on some aspects. “These film and TV studios, they’re putting in a lot of money. And so in order to make the investment make sense to them, they need to be able to exploit those ancillary rights or some subset of the ancillary rights, especially when there are new elements.”
This is the idea that if any new elements are created specifically for the film, like a new character, then those new elements would be owned by the movie studio rather than the games firm. “That’s definitely one of the top three ‘trickies’,” says Johnson.
Years-long partnerships
Story Kitchen is always on the lookout for video game properties that have the potential to be adapted for the screen. Johnson says that typically they’ll be a fan of the game, then they’ll reach out to its creator. If the game maker is keen to see their title on the big screen, it’s the start of a lasting relationship with Story Kitchen that persists up to the premiere and beyond.
Dickinson says the process for a game adaptation is not too dissimilar to how production companies have been making films out of books since the dawn of cinema. It’s just a case of finding the right angle and convincing the movie moguls that there’s a story there.
Right at the start, Story Kitchen asks the game’s creator to provide everything and anything related to the game. “We typically say just give us a dump of materials,” says Johnson. “Let us just consume it all.” Once they’ve had a chance to digest that, he says, they’ll decide whether it’s suited to film, TV, or both, and start thinking about what the plot might be – at which point they’ll put feelers out for potential writers.
“What’s incredible about this moment in time is we are coming across writers, directors, actors, studio execs who play games,” says Johnson. “So for certain games that already are out there, you may come across a fan of that game, and not even know that they were a fan.”
Bigger properties require bigger pitches. Story Kitchen was aware, for example, that the sci-fi/fantasy mash-up Split Fiction would be an expensive, effects-heavy proposition. “We knew that to actually have a chance to get that made and get a studio to write that cheque, we would need more than the average number of elements.”
Hence why they convinced Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – the writers of Deadpool – to come on board, along with Wicked director Jon M. Chiu and The White Lotus actor Sydney Sweeney. “We knew she was a gamer,” says Johnson. “Turned out she and her brother who was in the Air Force played games together. And when we got her an early game code, they were able to play together.”
“The showrunner will say, ‘Would that be in the game? Would that character do that?’ And you’re there to answer that”
Getting all those elements together up front – big name writers and a big name director and star – eliminated the potential financial risk, explains Johnson, hence the bidding frenzy. But for other projects, often only a writer is needed at the pitch stage.
Once a pitch is picked up, Story Kitchen’s role is essentially to put out fires, says Johnson. “Ideally, you have so many pros around you that there aren’t going to be a ton of fires. But sometimes we’re on a location scout and the showrunner will say, ‘Would that be in the game? Would that character do that?’ And you’re there to answer that.”
What’s particularly helpful in that regard is having an “IP bible” or “DNA bible” listing all the things that can and can’t be done with the IP, as well as getting to the core of what it’s about. Dickinson says it’s becoming more common to have these on video game adaptations – and it’s a concept game makers will probably already be familiar with. “You have an art bible for your game, or you should. You have a narrative bible for your game, or you should. And so you take those, and then you adapt them for this process.”
“I personally love when a game team has a bible,” adds Johnson, “because for me, it’s a way that I can understand (a), the way they’re thinking, and (b), what potential roadblocks and pitfalls we might have.”
In at the beginning
Story Kitchen likes to get involved as early as possible – Johnson recounts a recent visit to a publisher where they were shown three upcoming games to explore whether they might be potential TV or movie material. “We were there for one game we were already aware of, and they showed us two more,” says Dickinson.
“By the way, the one game that I thought we were there for, we’ve been tracking for almost three years,” adds Johnson.
In fact, these days, it tends to be more about games companies coming to Story Kitchen rather than the production firm actively scouting potential candidates for adaptation. That kind of stuff still goes on, however. As a BAFTA voter, Johnson receives codes for the games that are in the running each year, which is how he stumbled across the point and click adventure game The Drifter. He was so taken with the game’s story that he tracked down the game’s Australian creator, Dave Lloyd, and now he says a major studio has made an offer.
But not all games have to have a solid-gold story to be eligible for the movie treatment. Dickinson emphasises the need for flexibility when it comes to film and TV adaptations, saying that it’s not always the case that it should be a one to one translation of the game’s story. In fact, projects like that tend to be the exception.
“The themes that your game is about, the world that your game is about, that’s more important than necessarily the specific narrative,” he says, echoing Exit 8 director Genki Kawamura’s take that following a game’s rules is more important than translating the story.
“You have to have someone who is open to that,” Dickinson continues. “Now, sometimes, and this is the place where creators are creators, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’ll think of that entirely myself.’ Maybe they will, but it would be great to talk with someone who’s done it a dozen times, [who’ll] say, ‘This is what we’re getting from your story, this is what we’re getting from your world and your IP … Let’s work together to come up with what they could be’.”
