Facebook’s ‘Mafia Wars’ Movie On The Way
Jun 28, 2010 by Mike EisenbergThe latest crazy movie idea is to make a movie out of the infamous Facebook game Mafia Wars. What’s next, a Farmville movie?
It would appear Hollywood executives are spending too much free time on Facebook. A film adaptation of the interactive Facebook game Mafia Wars is now in development. To be honest, I’m surprised it beat Farmville to the big screen.
If you have yet to “hide” the Mafia Wars game on your Facebook news feed, this should come as no surprise. The onslaught of ridiculous movie ideas has hit rock bottom at least 10 times in the last year alone, but this is another new low.
Of course, there is a built in fan base of 25.9 million Mafia Wars subscribers. An optimistic executive likely pitched the idea along with a “guaranteed” $259 million box office. But this is how the film industry thinks in 2010. It’s all about the money in this new age of cinema.
Pajiba reported the news with a certain level of disappointment that we share. The studio in charge of the project should be enough proof that this could be an epic failure: Radar Pictures, the same studio behind Swing Vote, The Invention of Lying, All About Steve, Everybody’s Fine, and The Box. Writers are currently being sought for the project.
However, the core concept of the game does come from a cinematic origin. Even the title font has a strong resemblance to The Godfather. Surely the development team behind the game had this intention from the beginning. What doesn’t make sense is how random games like Mafia Wars can get a production deal, but Halo cannot.
Why!? Why, why, why!?
Unfortunately, this brings the question of what is next? Will Farmville actually get a film treatment? Not even our own gypsy, Paul Young, could predict such an absurd idea as a Mafia Wars movie when he pitched a handful of ridiculous but possible video game movies.
Facebook itself is already getting big-screen time in the near future with The Social Network, which hits theaters on October 1st, 2010. The cinematic future is bright for the website, if these adaptations are any sign of things to come.
What do you think of a Mafia Wars movie? What is next? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Source: Pajiba
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My thoughts?
Hollywood is run by corporate idiots that only look at what could only be assumed as “fan-base” or “user-base” numbers.
end of thought
start of thought:
this is stupid.
middle of thought
this is very stupid
end of thought
I fail to see how this could work unless the title is taken literally and the movie universe is one rife with mafia families all at war with one another. It could end up being quite bloody.
Hey, there’s a thought…Corleones vs. Sopranos for a one-time winner-takes-all throwdown!
Hey! Let’s make it MORE interesting….a space virus from an old Ed Wood movie gets out and revives all the dead mobsters from BOTH sides! We can get Abe Vigoda to reprise the role of Sal Tessio, James Caan to re-animate the corpse of Santino ‘Sonny’ Corleone…Vincent Pastore can return as a desiccated Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, Joe Pantoliano can be there for Ralph Cifaretto to sell out Tony to the reanimated Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone (of course, done with CGI)
NO! Bad Hollywood! BAD!
My thought is that this is Sad Stupid and Disgusting Congratulations Hollywood this is a new low for you.
They could have picked a better game than that! I know Mafia Wars has a strong user base, but for crying out loud!
This is a joke right? Seriously?
Noooooo! Just when I thought it may get better. Hollywood is full of corporate idiots!
This is the worse idea….ever!
Poor investors. Theyre going to loose all their money.
No sooner did I type a response to “You’re Smarter Than Hollywood Thinks” then I read this………
“Hollywood is dumber then we think they are” should be the title of this…
However lets do the math as a business using made up numbers…..
Mafia Wars has 100 fans.
Mafia Wars the Movie costs. $100 to make.
%50 of the fan base sees the movie at $3 a ticket.
Business is successful.
Hollywood is a BUSINESS. Nothing more. If there is a market for dog poop on a stick you damn sure better bet someone will market it.
@David
Don’t worry, Hollywood will find a way to go even lower after this.
Please, stop with the facebook crap! I mean, they must know in the corporate offices that this is absolute trash. Don’t they know they’re rapidly destroying Hollywood’s credibility to dish out good movies? The only really good one this year has been Toy Story 3! That’s it! That is it!
I also read that this is a rumor! I sure hope it is!
actually at first thought it does sound a bit ridiculous, however there hasn’t been a decent “mafia” film done since Goodfellas or Casino-which pretty much killed it til The Departed and The SOpranos came out..though I feel the last two were more like “Cops and Robbers” then just plain Mafioso..I think the main idea is kinda cool-also beit hypothetical, “what if the Mafia still ran things now??” how would that work?? If it was reality based, and had its own world-ala “Miller’s Crossing”,or even in similar style to the original Godfather series or straight out of “The Untouchables”-it could definitely work…it still relies on script and hopefully those in charge have played it online…now a “Farmville” movie??oh no-I think the ghosts of the Super Mario Bros and Garbage pail Kids films will haunt that…
Mafia wars is in fact an ingenious idea. You are all looking at this from such a dry cut and boring point of view. The truth is so many of Hollywoods epic films are based off of generic ideas. Take Public Enemies for example, if you heard of this in preproduction you may have thought “wow, another bank robbing movie, how stupid”. However, Public Enemies turned out to be fantastic. I know it may sound dumb basing a movie off of a facebook app., but the movie promises to be so much more, it is just that Mafia Wars is a patented idea, therefore they had to work with facebook to get the deal. Please consider this, it would be a shame to blacken the name of a soon to be awesome movie.
Okay…The mafia Wars movie will not happen.
So is a false alarm…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Ok all of you non-believers that this can’t happen. I’ve been working on a book/story inspired by Mafia Wars, Farmville and Treasure Isle. Since I owned a video store for 10 years, I’m very familiar with the way a movie/story should be. I assure you that this will not suck….actually if I say so myself, I’m a fricken Genius. I’ll just say this, Everyone looks at the Mafia as a Bad thing. Imagine if you would, what if: There was a Good Mafia helping the victims of a Bad Mafia. If you play Mafia Wars look at the New York missions….what if some of those were being done for good against someone else instead of for bad. That’s all I’m saying….except for….Farmville and Treasure Isle factor into it as well…in a certain point of view. My story is pretty dang good!! Mr. Steven Spielberg needs to contact me so that he will have “Another E.T.” on his hands.