‘Free Guy’ Production Designer Explains Why Most Video Game Movies Don’t ‘Get’ Gaming

Why do movies never seem to “get” video games? While movies based on video games is a whole other story, most films about video games are stuck in the ’80s as though every game still asks players to rack up points or collect gold coins as they hunt for an extra life or evade pew-pew laser sound effects. The team behind Ryan Reynolds’ “Free Guy” wanted to change that.Ethan Tobman, the production designer on “Free Guy,” was specifically tasked with capturing the look of the in-game “levels” and design of the film’s video game world. And Tobman says he and the “Free Guy” team were well aware of the “long history of poorly made movies about video games.”“The reason so many in my opinion have failed is they’re trying to turn video games into movies by imposing movie rules onto the video game,” Tobman told TheWrap....