Earlier this week, acclaimed director John Carpenter expressed some interest in making a movie based off of the Dead Space game franchise. Funny, I thought he already made that movie. Back in 1982. But back then, it was called The Thing.
Not to dismiss Carpenter, the guy's made a hell of a contribution to the sc-fi, action, and horror genres throughout his career, which in turn provided contributions to video games. It's well known that the creators of Mortal Kombat were inspired to create Raiden based off of Lightning, one of the Three Storms characters from Carpenter's own Big Trouble in Little China.
Sci-fi buffs are already aware of this, but for the sake of the not so well versed, let's go over the history.
Carpenter's version of The Thing was a re-make of The Thing From Another World from the 50's. It was a basic monster movie, the alien invade that's out to destroy humanity. Carpenter's The Thing was an exercise in extreme paranoia, trading in the 50's alien for a shapeshifing organism, so neither the characters nor the audience never quite knew who was who. The movie's frigid and barren setting of the South Pole increased feelings of isolation, and forced characters indoors where they had no choice but to deal with each other. Ironic, as the setting of Dead Space 3, the icy Tau Volantis, worked in a very similar way.
1982 wasn't a hot bed of accusations and Mcarthyism, but the Cold War was still a big deal at the time. Reagan would label the Soviets as "the evil empire" just a year after The Thing was released. You could argue that the paranoia in Carpenter's The Thing was an analogy for the Cold War, in that the research team's not knowing who among them could be the thing was a reflection of who might be a communist. The paranoia in the Dead Space series is more overt, as you're never quite sure when a Necromorph might jump out from behind a corner, or come clawing through an air duct. The majority of the games are played individually, so the type of paranoia in The Thing isn't an option. Any secondary characters don't become a major factor until the third game, at which point you could argue its potential, as you're suspect of which of your crew could be a Unitologist.
The monster designs in Carpenter's The Thing were inspired, unlike any other creature seen in film at the time, and not a one was quite like the other. While Dead Space's necromorphs aren't exactly the same as the aliens in Carpenter's movie, you can't argue the similarities. Visceral was without a doubt inspired by the creatures in The Thing.
Despite the movie being "ready-made" as Carpenter claims, even he would have a hard time getting it off the ground. After declining interest in the franchise, proven by the third game's poor reception and low sales numbers, just getting the green light to make the movie would be a challenge in and of itself. And of course, there's still the hard to shake reputation that live action video game based movies have. Some of the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil movies are exceptions, but there's a list as long as your arm of game based movies that don't make that cut: Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat Annhilation, Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, House of the Dead, Double Dragon...dear God, Double Dragon...the list goes on and on.
On the off chance that Mr. Carpenter happens to be reading this, there's really no need for this particular franchise to become a movie. Less Isaac Clarke, and more R.J. Macready.
