Is Hollywood Finally Learning to Respect Its Source Material?

For years, fans of beloved franchises have watched Hollywood adaptations with a mixture of hope and dread. Hope, because the source material they love holds enormous cinematic potential. Dread, because studios have developed a habit of running roughshod over cherished IP.

Now, in a move that would have seemed unlikely even five years ago, a Bloodborne movie has been given the green light. And word is, it’s a faithful, R-rated adaptation. Interestingly, renowned YouTuber JackSepticEye, whose playthrough of the game has garnered over 5 million views, is slated to produce.

More interesting still, the production involves creators who may actually understand the game.

That detail suggests a quiet but significant change in how movie studios are approaching adaptations of other media.

For decades, Hollywood has assumed that intellectual property can be stripped for parts. Just throw a few recognizable names, familiar images, and touchstone moments into some hack writer’s script, and fans will lap it up, regardless of how the rest is rewritten to fit current agendas.

That approach produced a long string of product whose trailers looked like more or less the source material but pulled the run out from under audiences. Skinsuit characters and stories replaced with propaganda have become memes for good reason.

It was inevitable that audience enthusiasm would decline. Now, the gravy train is running out as ex-film industry professionals are driving Ubers, and big shots like Steven Spielberg are putting studios on notice.

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