Hollywood plays catch up to the mythical worlds of video games

From Assassin's Creed to Warcraft and Angry Birds to Tetris, no game is safe from Hollywood adaptation. But why are production companies looking to video games for their movies?

For an answer to what's behind the recent rise of video games on the big screen, Shad talks to q technology correspondent Clive Thompson. While Thompson believes these films are being made partly due to nostalgia, he says there's something deeper behind the trend.

"Video games have been more successful at being an interesting cultural centre of creativity than Hollywood has," Thompson tells Shad, "and Hollywood is trying to capture some of that magic."

But it doesn't seem like Hollywood's been too successful in capturing that magic, says Thompson. The interactive, goal-oriented and challenging parts of these games are what make them hits, but such qualities don't translate well to film.

"That's not really the reason why we go to see a movie. We go to see a movie to be swept up in a story and immersed and pulled along, without any control of the situation — they feel like two very different things."

WEB EXTRA | The Angry Birds Movie topped the box office on its opening weekend and is poised to become the biggest video game movie of all time.