Skip to main content

David Jaffe talks about Hollywood convergence and his upcoming Twisted Metal title

David Jaffe
Image used with permission by copyright holder

David Jaffe, the co-director and lead designer of Twisted Metal, was in Los Angeles to reveal new multiplayer mayhem for the October 4 reboot on PlayStation 3. The press event featured a full-scale Sweet Tooth ice cream truck and props from the gruesome live action cinematics that will tell the backstory of each of the game’s characters for the campaign mode.

Gamers may also be learning more about these characters from Sony’s oldest game franchise (it launched way back in 1995 on PlayStation) in a big screen movie from Arad Productions, which is in development. Producer Avi Arad was behind some of the biggest Marvel comic book movies of all time, including X-Men, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. But what Jaffe really would like to see is a low-budget snuff movie featuring the face of the franchise, Sweet Tooth. The head of development studio Eat Sleep Play talks about going Hollywood in this exclusive interview.

Digital Trends (DT): What have the advances in technology since 1994 opened up for you creatively with this new game?

Certainly, technological advances have opened things up creatively, but what they’ve really let us do in this game is fully realize the original game designed that Scott Campbell, Allan Becker, Mike Giam and I had back in 1994. We had these amazing visions of this Michael Bay or Michael Mann action movie going down the 405 freeway in LA, with car combat out of Mad Max and a potpourri of explosions. And you just couldn’t do that on a PS One. It got better every time Sony released successive hardware. But with this game, we have helicopters, which was always part of the original fantasy. We have semi-trucks and we’ve expanded beyond the one-on-one battles to allow up to 16 players to battle it out at the same time.

Twisted Metal
Image used with permission by copyright holder


DT: Speaking of making a Michael Bay movie-like game, what are your thoughts on Arad Productions optioning Twisted Metal for a big screen adventure?

Look, the minute I sat down with Ari and Avi Arad, I was like, “Oh my God, you’re f***ing Avi Arad. I’m a huge, huge movie fan, probably only eclipsed by how big of a Marvel fan I am. So the fact that I’m sitting in room with these guys is pretty sweet. I hope they make (the Twisted Metal movie). I like those guys. I hear great things about Ghost Rider 2, I love Spider-Man. We sat down in a meeting and showed them the new game and they said they think they can make a movie out of it. But you know how it goes in Hollywood. I’m not holding my breath for the Twisted Metal movie or the God of War movie. I want them to happen, but you know, I haven’t heard anything other than they are pro and high on Twisted. I think it would be a great movie.

DT: What’s your vision of what a Twisted Metal movie should be?

I think it would be a great B movie. I keep telling Sony, “Guys, give us $1.5 million. Let’s just got make a PSN exclusive movie just about Sweet Tooth as a slasher. Let’s have him take his place next to Freddy and Jason and Michael Meyers and Candy Man and all these great cinematic slashers in the movies.” I would just f***ing do that. I don’t even need a f***ing car. Do that later. We’ll do a prequel with just Sweet Tooth as a killer. I think it would be so much fun. I love that we can get into these characters’ worlds with these properties. That’s a lot of fun.

Twisted Metal
Image used with permission by copyright holder


DT: There’s a digital precedent now for a PSN movie with Warner Bros. filming the Mortal Kombat live action series.

I saw the first one, but I didn’t see the whole series. I was very impressed by it. It was very, very cool, absolutely. I would want our (digital series) to look more low budget, though. I think if we were to do the Sweet Tooth slasher movie, it should be raw and it should almost look like a snuff film, you know? It should look like you found the footage…like in that Nicolas Cage movie 8mm. It should look like you found this sh*t and it’s like, “F**k, did Sweet Tooth document this? How did he get this footage?” That’s how it needs to make you feel…it needs to make you sick.

DT: The cinematics in the new Twisted Metal game look pretty gruesome.

Yeah, but that’s not like what I’d want the movie to look like. This is a Teen-rated game. But I think you can play with these characters just like in comic books and you can tell stories that take place in different worlds. Like you have the Batman movies, but then there are the Batman video games. The essence is still there but they’re different characters. So for me, the Sweet Tooth slasher movie’s got to be raw. For Twisted Metal, it’s more like a really fun, twisted comic book.

(images via)

Editors' Recommendations

John Gaudiosi
John Gaudiosi has been covering video games for over 25 years, dating back to his work for The Washington Post while in…
This Asus gaming laptop is discounted from $1,430 to $900
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2023 front view showing display and keyboard deck.

If you're on the hunt for gaming laptop deals, here's one that should catch your interest -- the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for just $900 from Best Buy, following a $530 discount on its sticker price of $1,430. It's still not as affordable as the cheapest laptop deals, but you should expect to pay a premium for a dependable gaming machine like this one. You'll be getting amazing value for money with the potential savings in this offer, but you need to hurry because there's no telling when the bargain will end.

Why you should buy the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop
If you want a gaming laptop that will be able to run the best PC games at their highest settings, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a stellar option. It's powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. The gaming laptop also comes with a 512GB SSD, which will provide ample storage space for multiple AAA titles and all of the updates that you need to download for them. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 also comes with Windows 11 Home out of the box, so you can start installing games right after booting it up for the first time.

Read more
The Finals is out now for free and we’re already loving it
Three contestants jumping into an arena in The Finals.

The former Battlefield developers at Embark Studios used The Game Awards 2023 to surprise launch the studio’s debut game: The Finals.

Available now across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, The Finals is a team-based competitive first-person shooter with a gaudy game show-like aesthetic and emphasis on destruction. Several playtests have happened over the past year-and-a-half, with an open beta in late October garnering the most attention. Now, Embark Studios has decided to officially launch the game into Season 1 at The Game Awards.

Read more
The Game Awards 2023: Here’s the complete list of winners
Key art for The Game Awards 2023.

This year was full of fantastic games and they were all celebrated at this year's Game Awards.

Between all of the new game premieres and release date announcements, the industry handed out several awards to some of our favorite games. Heading into the show, Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 and Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake 2 had the most nominations — and they earned multiple awards each.

Read more