We live in an age when anything could be a source of inspiration for a feature film. Comic books are perhaps the obvious choice for filmmakers, as they have both the visuals (that are often ignored completely) and the story they can adapt to the big screen.
Video games are also among the preferred sources of inspiration for movie makers, although video game movies were never that successful – just think of the big screen adventures of Max Payne, Lara Croft, Street Fighter, or the more recent Warcraft movie, loved by its fans but bashed by many of the critics.
Comics and video games are, in turn, not the only sources to which filmmakers reach out for inspiration. During the last two centuries, we’ve seen movies inspired by toys (Transformers, GI Joe) and board games (Battleships), too, not to mention the most horrible incursion of Hollywood in video game history, 2015’s Pixels.
If these sources could make it to the big screen, though, I wonder if other similar titles could have a similar fate.
Let’s take a look at an emerging genre of casual games – slot machines – for a change, to see which ones could make a great action movie (or even a decent one).
Jack Hammer
A classic you can try at Wintingo mobile casino, Jack Hammer is a game built in a style that loosely resembles that of the Dick Tracy comics. In it, players have the chance to join the fearless detective with a descriptive name in his fight against the villains of Grand City.
The game has everything needed for a film noir with a bit of a fantasy twist: the handsome hero, the damsel in distress, and the villains that are sometimes a bit out of this world – like Don Crabby, who has pincers instead of hands.
The adventures of Jack Hammer would make a perfect neo-noir adventure, and – in the hands of a talented director – possibly a movie with an atmosphere similar to Christopher Nolan’s take on The Dark Knight.
Girls with Guns
Girls with Guns, and its sequel Girls with Guns: Frozen Dawn are two of the most-played slot machines at the popular Wintingo Casino – and both of them have everything a decent (although a bit “B-ish”) action movie needs. At first sight, it looks like the Wintingo’s take on The Expandables, replacing old action heroes with young, attractive – and quite dangerous – girls.
The games see players to team up with a group of girls led by Katherine, consisting of Maria (artillery), Kira (the team’s sniper), Alex (the team’s demolition expert), Zoe (tactical), and Jess (infiltration). In the first game, their mission is to defeat a dangerous South American drug lord, driving him out of his amazing jungle villa. Quite a bit of a cliche, of course.
In the sequel, the mission becomes more dangerous: this time the girls (and their guns) have to take on Saskia, a villainous femme fatale with plans to take over the world. Casual as they might be, these two games provide enough source material for any director to create not only an action movie but a whole series based on their adventures.