Post-Pub PlayStation...
By 1995 things were changing. As Sony’s PlayStation launched, a new breed of director arrived in Hollywood. “I was definitely the first generation of filmmakers who grew up with a vivid appreciation of videogames,” says Paul WS Anderson.
“I remember Space Invaders in the arcades in Scarborough, it was like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey suddenly appearing with all these kids clustered around it. It really had a magnetic pull.
“In the early ’90s, I used to play Mortal Kombat in the arcades in Soho between movie meetings.” So when Mortal Kombat was optioned for a movie adaptation, who better to helm it?
Anderson’s Mortal Kombat was the first videogame movie smash hit, taking $122m at the international box office. “There was this belief that videogame movies just didn’t work and my feeling was the opposite,” he says.
"I thought they were a justifiable intellectual property to adapt. It was just that no one knew how to make a movie that reflected the game and was enjoyable on its own terms.”
Next: Generation Xbox...
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