[This broadcast originally aired February 26, 2013]
When you were a kid, the games you played at recess seemed pretty epic. The stakes were high, being "It" was a genuine threat, and the playground was, in your mind, a battlefield!
Which is great, if you're a kid, and you're using your imagination.
But would those nail-biting recess games translate into good movies?!
Hollywood seems to think so. A producer has purchased the rights to a true story about a group of friends who have been playing a lifelong game of tag.
From Slashfilm:
"For 23 years, a group of friends from Washington state have been playing a game of tag. It started in high school, and went through college. Rules eventually developed that turned it into a no-holds-barred, nationwide game that goes on every year throughout the month of February. Who ever is “it” will travel all over the country to tag one of their competitors, sometimes creating elaborate schemes to do so. Whoever is “it” at the end of the month is “it” for the whole year."
Okay, okay, so that actually sounds kind of cool. But would it work as a movie?
And Tag isn't the only kid's game that showbiz has decided would be a good plot for a film.Battleship came out last year, there's a television game show based on Musical Chairs, called Oh Sit! (formerly called Extreme Musical Chairs because there's nothing more extreme than sitting), even well-respected director Ridley Scott is trying to get a Monopoly movie made. Although... there's no way it's going to be as good as this:
As we've learned from so many books-turned-movies (I'm looking at you, Cat in the Hat)... sometimes simplicity is key, and your imagination is better than what a great big studio can come up with.
So... do you think this will work? And what games do you think SHOULD be turned into movies?
And, since this is CBC Radio 3 - what songs should be on those soundtracks?!
YOU'RE IT!