Tim Schafer Doesn’t Want Psychonauts or Any Other Double Fine Game Turned Into a Movie

Despite previously working on a Costume Quest cartoon, Double Fine and legendary game designer Tim Schafer has shared that he doesn’t really see a future where any of his games are turned into TV or movies.

Speaking to IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey after winning the New York Videogame Critics Circle’s Andrew Yoon Legend Award, Schafer discussed that while he is often approached by Hollywood about turning one of his games into a film or series, it usually ends up being “just a distraction.”

“We often get approached by people saying, ‘Hey, can we turn this into a movie?’ but, you know It’s usually just a distraction,” Schafer said. “I think games are what I really care about and what I like to make and what I think are interesting. It comes up every once and a while, but it’s never turned into anything. I’ve had a lot of free lunches out of Hollywood.”

When Psychonauts was brought up as an IP that would seem like a great candidate for a life outside of games, Schafer said that, while he agrees you could “do tons of stuff with Pscyhonauts,” he thinks that “games are cooler than movies and tv, so it’s already peaked.”

Full Throttle is another game that Schafer has been approached about, and Warcraft movie director Duncan Jones even wrote a full script to show him how it could be done. Schafer read the script and thought it was good and that, “you could tell he really played the game and knows what it’s all about.” However, even this intriguing Full Throttle experience doesn’t give Schafer much hope.

“That was exciting,” Schafer said. “It would be fun to work with Duncan but, you know, L.A. and Hollywood, they are just a big whirlpool of lunches.”

For more, check out why Schafer wants Double Fine’s next game to be an original property, read our review of Psychonauts 2, and learn more about the studio that has confirmed it is already working on multiple projects.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.