Hunger Games studio to try its hand at so-called “video” games

Lionsgate has hired an executive to produce video games from some of the studio’s film and TV properties, which include The Hunger Games and Mad Men, among others. The new hire is former Nerdist CEO Peter Levin, and Lionsgate honchos have high expectations for Levin’s game-building efforts, mostly because he worked at a place with the word “nerd” in it.

Levin told The Hollywood Reporter that The Hunger Games and Divergent stood out as works that “could be brought to life in the video game space.” But the veteran dealmaker refused to restrict his efforts to just one set of stupendously vague buzzwords:

Levin says he will not limit himself to online content plays, adding that he plans to look “at a broad swath of opportunities, whether it’s social media, digital products or messaging applications.”

Classic strategy. Hook them with the online content, and then reel them in with the digital products.

Video game adaptations often disappoint because they’re produced under the premise that if you simply slather game-like substance on a popular thing, you’ll get a good game. And this Lionsgate setup doesn’t sound like it’s going to break that mold, with its talk of the “video game space.” So you can probably look forward to gems like these:

Mad Men: Return To Korea — Don Draper revisits the site of his original sin to finish the tour of duty he abandoned so many years ago. In this action-packed shooter, the ruthless ad man fights his way through waves of commie scum with an armory of period-appropriate firearms. Draper unleashes special attacks like the Glo-Coat Cocktail—two parts eye-searing floor cleaner, one part crippling nostalgia for an idealized childhood.

The Hunger Games Game: The Game — After a nuclear holocaust decimates post-apocalyptic society, Katniss must survive a post-post-apocalyptic society in which teenagers fight to the death and are also superpowered mutants. In this action-packed shooter, Katniss fights her way through hordes of Capitol scum with her bow, which has been upgraded into a gun-shaped bow that fires bullets. (A downloadable add-on, “Still Hungry,” depicts a post-post-post-apocalyptic society in which a virus has turned the mutants into zombies.)

Orange Is The New Black: Piper’s Colorful Day — A mixup at the prison has the normally segregated order of the cafeteria in disarray, and it’s up to Piper Chapman to sort things out! Playing as the plucky suburbanite drug runner, you rearrange your fellow prisoners one at a time to match them with nearby prisoners of the same color. If you can match five in a row, this puzzle game transforms into an action-packed shooter where Piper gets a gun somehow and uses it on people.