about the Elden Ring movie
Last week (if I remember correctly), news broke that previous rumors were indeed correct - an Elden Ring movie by A24 is in the works, to be directed by Alex Garland. This post is going to be a list of predictions, wishes, and thoughts regarding this upcoming movie. Below, I've put together some of my thoughts about this project at this moment.
Thoughts on the studio and director
I'm not a big movie buff, but I'm vaguely familiar with both A24 and Alex Garland. A few years ago I saw The Green Knight (a A24 production) in the cinema, which I really enjoyed. I think a style similar to or reminiscent of that movie would be a great fit for FROM Software content, with its slow pace and mysterious, often dreamlike visuals.
As far as Alex Garland is concerned, I've watched Annihilation and liked it well enough that I went on to read the original novel it was adapted from. Having both watched the movie and read the source material, I think I'm generally OK with this guy being the director. He seems like he could pick out the right things for an Elden Ring movie and arrange them in a way that makes it work.
Since it's going to be a few years until the movie comes out, I think I'm going to watch some more A24 and Alex Garland movies in the meantime.
Presuppositions
Before I'm going into my own personal wishes, here are two points that I think will impact the production of the movie.
01 Target audience
Despite being a surprise hit for FROM in terms of sales, Elden Ring is still very niche in the grand scheme of things. This means they are either going to hone in on the core, "hardcore" fanbase 100%, or try to hedge their bets by making it slightly more palatable to an audience who might not now the game that well (or at all). I think the latter is more likely. From a producer's pespective, the ideal outcome would be getting most of the core fanbase into theater seats plus people from adjacent audiences that have some general interest in medieval fantasy stuff (ex. fans of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones that haven't played Elden Ring).
02 Plot and characters
Point 01 is going to influence what kind of plot is created, and which characters will be featured. Based on the "core fanbase + X" assumption, I think any type of plot that mostly features fringe groups or side characters in Elden Ring (like the Nox, Crucible Knights, and most stuff from the DLC) is unlikely. They'll want to choose some "big names" that even people who are on the periphery of Elden Ring content might have heard about, like Ranni or Miquella. Since this is going to be a 2-3 hour movie and not a long-running TV series, the plot has to be compact enough to comfortably fit into that time window. It also needs to be simple enough on the surface and contain enough common fantasy movie tropes that the casual Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones fan can follow it without too much trouble. No plot that only people who have played through the game 3+ times or binge VaatiVidya's lore videos will get.
03 Budget constraints and scope
This movie will have a decently-sized budget, but no unlimited streams of money. Although some of them have been successful (ex. the Sonic movies), I think video game movies are still considered to be somewhat of a gamble in the "industry", and as I said, Elden Ring is relatively new and niche (in contrast to something like Sonic, which has a long history and comes with a huge nostalgia factor for many people). Because of this, I think the movie will try to limit its scope as much as possible in order to use the budget more efficiently and effectively. For me, this means no plot or script calling for tons upon tons of fantasy fight scenes (like the last movie in the Hobbit trilogy for example). So no monumental "Shattering War" movie.
Personal wishes
Keeping in mind the three points outlined above, now for my personal wishes.
Night of the Black Knives
This one almost seems like a no-brainer. In terms of the game's story, the Night of the Black Knives (and the stealing of the Rune of Death before it) is what kicks everything into motion. However, aside from a few short cuts in the trailer and some in-game item descriptions, we know relatively little about why or how it happened. For Elden Ring fans, it would be cool to see how Ranni plotted and maneuvered to get what she wanted.
It would be a prequel, and prequels tend to have the problem of lacking some tension because ultimately, the result of the character's actions are already known before you enter the cinema. But the how can be just as interesting as the what.
Choosing the Night of the Black Knives would allow for a cast of established, well-known characters (Ranni, Marika, Radagon, Miquella etc). It would also enable the fleshing-out of a major character - Godwyn the Golden. Pretty much the only things we know about him are that he fought against the dragons, established the Dragon Cult, and then got killed. There's a lot of room here for adding characterisation, story arcs, etc. He could even be the movie's protagonist.
The leadup to the Knight of the Black Knives feels like it could also be "broken down" into plot beats that are easy to follow for newcomers to Elden Ring. On the surface, things seem easy enough: You have the established religious regime (Marika & the Golden Order) and the small rebel faction going up against it (Ranni and her small circle of co-conspirators). As long as you keep the basic elements in simple to follow, you can add an arbitrary amount of complexity on the lower levels, like the interpersonal relations of Marika's children.
Since the Knight of the Black Knives and what came before it are ultimately a "court intrigue" plot, it would also be easy to keep the scope limited. Throw in a few sweeping "money shots" of Leyndell and / or Liurnia, and then film most scenes in close quarters or general natural environments. Even the climax wouldn't require too much trouble since it's a secret assassination only featuring a handful of characters.
Miquella, Malenia and the Haligtree
The Haligtree has always been one of my favourite in-game locations in Elden Ring. First off, a tree growing out of the ocean with cathedral-like architecture around it is just a really cool fantasy setting. Second, with all the suffering, war and death going on, I think it's neat that there's a safe haven of sorts (that also might have somewhat of a subtly sinister side). And last but not least, the story of Miquella, Malenia and the Haligtree has the potential to be turned into a nice tragedy plot. The twins spend all this time growing the tree, fighting for their cause, only for the whole thing to turn into the rotten mess you see in the game.
Choosing Miquella as the protagonist would create a through line between base game, DLC and the movie, pulling all elements closer together. It would also enable an even more nuanced look at Miquella, who already got fleshed out a bit in Shadow of the Erdtree. Unlike the Knight of the Black Knives movie, which I imagine to be on the plot-heavy and "technical" side ("how was this planned and carried out?"), this movie would be more character-focused, diving deeper into the inner lives and motivations of the demigods and their struggles.
The climax, of course, would be Miquella's kidnapping by Mogh. As far as this plot point is concerned, the movie could shed some more light on what exactly happened here (most importantly: did Miquella truly not expect it, or did he "go along with it" because he was already planning to go to the Shadow Lands?).
Generally speaking, I think a more plot-focused movie (like the "Night of the Black Knives" idea) is the easier choice because there are a lot more superficially interesting elements. In contrast, a character-focused plot is a bit more risky. People might not like the character, or what the movie does with them ... there's a lot more room for individual perspectives to influence how the movie is perceived. But for a Green Knight-esque film, I think Miquella could be a good fit. It would be interesting if he was portrayed as more of a flawed person with legitimately good intentions, because apparently the DLC has made many people think of Miquella as this monstrous, evil mastermind.
What I'm excited about
I'll end this post by talking about some general things I'm excited about that are not connected to the plot and that I'm looking forward regardless of the movie's quality (because let's be honest, there is a decent chance that it's going to be a trainwreck).
The Lands Between as a world with (more) realistic proportions
Elden Ring is a video game, a medium that comes with many constraints. One of those constraints is the game map. Everyone likes a big, expansive open world, but no one actually wants to ride three days on horseback to get from Castle Stormveil to the Academy in Liurnia. Thus, the ingame world is shrunk down, and what should be a multiple-day journey turns into a maximum of 10 minutes of travel between waypoints.
It's going to be interesting to see how the movie re-imagines the scale of the Lands Between. On the game map, the Altus Plateau with Leyndell and Liurnia are next to each other, but how far apart are they really? Is the distance similar to "Paris to Berlin" or "Berlin to Hamburg"? What kind of stuff is all the "leftover space" filled with? What modes of transport are used, how do people get from point A to B? How big is Leyndell, really (in game, even considering all the verticality, it's basically the size of a real-world when it's supposed to be the capital of the whole continent)?
I get that movies often like to fudge with travel logistics and scale too for convenience's sake, and there will be some of that in this movie, too. And most of the stuff I'm talking here will probably only be shown indirectly. But even just getting a hint of what a more realistically-scaled world would look like is going to be interesting.
More than just post-apocalyptic landscape
Most FROM games are set in a de-facto post-apocalyptic setting, and Elden Ring is no exception. Almost every location the player traverses is in ruins, with no real civilization left to speak of. Most of the dialogue is also very barebones. This is a result of both deliberate creative decisions and game development concerns (since a bustling, lived-in world would shift the focus of the gameplay and also require a lot more extra NPC programming, for example). But a movie doesn't have to deal with these restrictions, and (in some way) has to get rid of them. Unlike the goal is to make a very experimental arthouse kind of film, the population of the world needs to be bigger, there needs to be more "friendly interaction" between characters, and more dialogue.
While I enjoy the atmosphere and the general "vibe" of FROM games, it will be interesting to see how the world looks when its filled with characters who do more than A) rush at each other and get locked in combat at first sight or B) spout a few sentences of cryptic dialogue and then stand around silently, repeating the same lines if you talk to them again. Maybe not all of the characters will be well-written, maybe some of the dialogue will be bad ... but even getting to see this different interpretation of the world will be nice.