Francis Ford Coppola needs your help to make an Apocalypse Now video-game

Really? Although APOCALYPSE NOW is highly regarded and considered to be one of the best war movies of all time, I can't imagine that many people were eagerly awaiting its video-game adaptation. Francis Ford Coppola has announced that should we want it, we'll soon get to experience his psychedelic vision of Vietnam in video-game form. In order to "maintain the creative freedom and integrity that this daring and intense tale demands, the project is being financed outside the traditional video game publishing system" over at Kickstarter. Head on over to check out what they have in mind and hear from Francis Ford Coppola himself, but I'll assemble the nuts and bolts for you below.

The APOCALYPSE NOW game will be an "immersive, psychedelic horror RPG" which has assembled creators, designers, directors, writers and producers responsible for games like Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2, Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Everquest, DC Universe Online, PlanetSide, PlanetSide 2, Star Wars Galaxies and many more. The campaign is looking to raise $900,000, at least initially, and has the full backing of Francis Ford Coppola. The game will be an interactive recreation of Captain Benjamin Willard's (Martin Sheen) journey to assassinate Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), as seen through a survival horror lens which gives players limited resources as they're faced with unspeakable terrors.

By choosing how to react to these situations, each player molds a unique version of Willard within the loose confines of the film story. You are Willard and your actions will determine his fate. Your mission begins in Saigon, where Willard is holed up in a dingy hotel. Audio and visual distortion evoke Willard’s emotions and past experiences. The game provides you subjective access to a character who is already nearly insane. Unlike a traditional RPG, the emphasis is not choosing dialogue, but rather actions and postures. Combat draws from survival horror to emphasize combat avoidance and stealth. This is not Call of Duty in Vietnam.

As of this posting, the campaign has over 600 backers and has raised just about $25,000 of its $900,000 goal. Still a long ways off, but as this project was just launched today, it's entirely possible that they'll make their goal over the next twenty-nine days. Is an RPG based on APOCALYPSE NOW something you'd like to support? What other unlikely movies could you see getting the video-game treatment?