Need for Speed: 3 Other Driving Games That Deserve a Film

The new Need for Speed film is headed our way in March featuring heavyweights Aaron Paul and Michael Keaton, and it got me thinking: what other driving games am I dying to see on the big screen?

There’s a definitely a desire for car movies in Hollywood due to the success of The Fast and the Furious series. I doubt Need for Speed: The Motion Picture would’ve even been made if it weren’t for Fast’s box office numbers.

I wonder what might’ve happened if Need for Speed had been adapted before anyone had even heard of Vin Diesel…The game features the same law-breaking driving action that has provided some of the best police pursuits in gaming (perhaps only rivaled by Grand Theft Auto and it’s ridiculous military tanks in the middle of Los Angeles).

Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998) was the first game in the series to really highlight car chases, undoubtedly influencing the Fast’s first installment back in 2001. And it’s no secret that EA used the Fast card when they rebooted the Need for Speed series with Underground, which featured pimped out Honda Civics a la drag race.

Interestingly enough, The Fast and the Furious got its own video game adaptation, which flopped miserably among all the competition (and ruined the possibility of there ever being a Kurt Russell-voiced Death Proof game). Could it be that car games and car movies are not meant to cross over?

That’s left to be seen when Aaron Paul’s Need for Speed hits theaters.

For now, here are 3 other driving game I wouldn’t mind seeing on the big screen:

Burnout

This one’s a no-brainer because it would be way too much fun to watch. Sure, there hasn’t been a new game in the series since 2008, and Criterion isn’t very interested in making racing games anymore, but what better way to revive the series than in a film six years later? Okay, so maybe not a major blockbuster like Fast or Need for Speed, but surely a film full of campy goodness!

How many car movies have you seen where the point is to drive terribly and cause the biggest accident possible? Not many, right?

Oh, and obviously it would have to be dark. A secret ring of bored millionaires hold a competition for stunt drivers. The rules are simple: cause the biggest accident possible. The prize money will be the amount in overall damages to the city. If the driver makes it out alive, he gets the money. And Aaron Paul is in it, wearing an Evil Knievel jumpsuit.

Loads of twisted, fashionably-questionable fun!

Driver

It doesn’t make sense that this action-adventure racing game hasn’t been turned into a film franchise to rival Transporter. In fact, Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil) thought so, too, when he decided to adapt the series. Unfortunately, the film is in development hell after Rogue Pictures bought the rights from Anderson, and we haven’t heard anything since.

Which is a shame because racecar driver turned undercover detective John Tanner already sounds like a B-movie idol. We know the undercover detective racing thing works in movies, and this would be a prime opportunity to exploit that.

I wonder if they could make a movie that takes place during one day in Tanner’s life. One driving mission that sees him barely leaving his trademark muscle car, taking down the bad guys with just his wheels. You know, like when they made a film called Drive and there was barely any driving in it? Let’s make up for that, Hollywood.

Mario Kart

But seriously, why the f*** not? Think of ONE racing game that you’ve had more fun playing than Mario Kart. None. Okay, that’s settled.

I guess we can’t really put Aaron Paul in this one. Maybe an animated film? He can voice Mario.

Here we go, BITCH!

What other driving games do you want to see on the big screen? Sound off in the comments!

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