Deus Ex: Human Revolution Interview

Eidos Montreal’s executive producer David Anfossi has chatted with Rock, Paper, Shotgun on a variety of subjects all tangentially related to Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its movie adaptation, stating his desire to develop “universes” through different media but hasn’t really seen many successful examples of that yet, his thoughts on the state of the videogame industry and storytelling in it, and more. Here’s a snippet:

With such a range of influences on Human Revolution (he also name-checks films like Solty Rei, Akira and Ghost In The Shell) I ask Anfossi if, retrospectively, he sees his work on the game as paralleling that required of the film’s creative team, with his own game itself a sort of adaptation. (What do you think we have made with DXHR? We have developed an experience in an existing universe and that is exactly the same challenge. Even before we started designing the game, we spent two months replaying the first two games in the franchise. This allowed us to extract what we call the DNA, the pillars of the franchise. We also determined which references which films and books for example best represented the themes of the game and the messages we wanted to pass on to the players.

We also had the chance to come into contact with members of the original team (eg to check the consistency of the DXHR story versus the established universe). This is a very important step in my opinion. These are important factors that began the design of the game itself. Without this information, the team would have gone completely (off) the DX universe. It should be the same for the teams in charge of adapting a game to the big screen and nothing less. The success of an adaptation/remake/sequel is directly linked to the homework you did before starting the conception of the specific elements of the film. We did our homework and we were able to identify the good and less good aspects of the first two games. Then we could frame our design and concentrate our energy on the right places. It’s all about preparation.)

As a producer with a clear vision for how a game adaptation should function and develop, I ask Anfossi if he is happy with the direction things are currently moving in with the Deus Ex film. (Before CBS Films were confirmed, I had many misconceptions about this type of partnership. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the approach of CBS; They came to visit us very quickly to be briefed on the DXHR universe. Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh were among the visitors and we have kept in touch ever since.)