‘Castle Wolfenstein’ Movie: ‘Pulp Fiction’ Co-Writer Roger Avary To Write, Direct


Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary is set to pen and direct the cinematic adaptation of the video game Castle Wolfenstein, according to Deadline.

The upcoming motion picture will reportedly be produced by Panorama Media, which also handled director Bennett Miller’s Channing Tatum drama Foxcatcher. The film has been described in the same breath as Captain America and Inglorious Basterds.

Avary seems to have a genuine appreciation for the Castle Wolfenstein games. As he explained to Deadline, the writer has spent quite a bit of time hunting down pixelated Nazi soldiers.

“I’ve been playing the ‘Wolfenstein’ games since I was a kid, and feel that their outlandish sensibility has deeply influenced my own writing and directing throughout my career,” Avary explained. “I have always thought ‘Wolfenstein,’ transformed and opened for the screen to wider audiences not familiar with the games, would be a major cinematic experience.”

Eurogamer reports that producer Samuel Hadida is anticipating lots of action powered by strong characters and a solid story.

“With Roger at the helm, we expect everyone will join us for a wild and fun cinematic ride that will grab contemporary film audiences with the same irreverent, hip, over the top approach that Roger brought to Pulp Fiction and the other films he has either written or directed,” he explained.

The Examiner describes the plot as follows:

“Wolfenstein will follow a young US Army Captain and a British Special Agent on a top secret mission to Castle Wolfenstein, where Hitler will be for the unveiling of a new secret weapon. Once arriving, our heroes will go up against Himmel’s SS Paranormal Division, and be forced to fight for their lives to complete this deadly mission, which will turn the course of World War II.”

“The film involves a classic assault on the bad guys, who are nominally Nazis, more evocative of ‘Inglorious Basterds’ than the actual World War 2. It is a vaguely futuristic retro world as fun as ‘Captain America,’ which has recently been reintroduced to the world audience with great success,” Hadida added.

Published by Apogee Software, Wolfenstein 3D introduced players to the 3D adventures of William “B.J.” Blazkowicz in May of 1992. The game was originally released as shareware, which gave gamers one full episode to play through for absolutely free. In order to spread the word about the property, players were encouraged to share the episode with their friends.

Although the commercial release of the game originally contained only three episodes, an expanded version was later offered to those who couldn’t stop wandering the corridors of this creepy Nazi-infested castle. The Nocturnal Missions presented addicted players with three more blood-soaked missions to complete. Although it was originally developed for DOS machines, it wouldn’t take long for the game to find its way onto consoles and other computer systems.

Developers id Software based the game on a series of titles produced by Muse Software during the 80s. Since the company had let the trademarks for both Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein expire, the development team was able to swoop in an snag them for their own. While the premise may have been similar, the execution would be drastically different.

Unfortunately for fans, the series would disappear for quite some time after the release of the 1992 prequel Spear of Destiny. In fact, players wouldn’t have a chance to return to the castle until Activision unleashed Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001.

Although Roger Avary is moving forward with this adaptation of Castle Wolfenstein, this isn’t the first time the franchise has attempted to make the jump to the big screen. In 2005, IGN published an interview with id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead, who declared that a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie was in the works. At the time, Alex Cross director Rob Cohen had been tapped to tackle the project. Of course, this film never came to fruition.

It was first announced that Roger Avary would re-team with Silent Hill producers for the upcoming Castle Wolfenstein movie in 2007. However, Avary’s arrest for DUI and manslaughter in 2008 ultimately put the project on hold.

Producers are currently shopping distribution rights around the American Film Market in San Diego, California. It’s presently unknown when production will start or who will star in the Castle Wolfenstein adaptation. Are you a fan of the video game franchise?

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