INTERVIEW: New film explores impact and history of ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’ video game
Photo: Pretending I’m a Superman details the meteoric rise of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game. Photo courtesy of Wood Entertainment / Provided by press agent with permission.
Tony Hawk is arguably one of the most famous skateboarders of all time. He was a legendary member of the Bones Brigade and redefined the industry with his dazzling work on the skateboard, plus his merchandising, media appearances, video games and live shows.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater first hit video game shelves in 1999 and went on to sell a mind-boggling 9 million units. That release, more than 20 years ago, kickstarted a resurgence in the skateboard business and a shot in the arm for skating culture. The world has never been the same since.
A new documentary from filmmaker Ludvig Gür, called Pretending I’m a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story, takes a look at those formative years and the video game’s many incarnations over the years. The movie, which was recently released digitally, is perfectly timed because Pro Skater is ready to be relaunched in September.
“Growing up, I played Tony Hawk’s first video game, and it changed my life,” Gür said in a recent phone interview. “And I wasn’t the only kid who picked up a skateboard after playing the game. There were millions of kids who did that and essentially were introduced to skateboarding again. Skateboarding has become mainstream since then, and it’s stayed there ever since, unlike past decades. I really wanted to make a film that showed the influence that the video games had on pop culture and so many lives out there.”
Gür pitched the documentary idea to Hawk, and he apparently was immediately into the idea. The film, which has been years in the making, looks at each chapter of the Pro Skater franchise until the good news stopped coming with Pro Skater 5 in 2015. It seemed for a few years that Hawk’s name wouldn’t don another video game after that last one wiped out on the concrete with bad reviews and less-than-stellar sales, but this fall, there’s a remastered version of Pro Skater 1 and 2 ready to be released.
“We pretty much said we’d make a documentary about every single game leading up to the downfall of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 in 2015,” the director said. “This was way before any remake was announced.”
Gür and his team shot a trailer in November 2016, and that tasty morsel went viral, exciting audience members about the prospect of reliving some of these gamer memories. A crowd-funding campaign through Indiegogo unfortunately came up short, but they still walked away from the attempt at crowd-sourcing with a lot of publicity.
“It took a while for us, but eventually we got our funding,” he said. “And we started shooting the film again in November 2017. … We obviously didn’t shoot every day for two-and-a-half years, but it definitely took two-and-a-half years to pull the whole thing off.”
Now Gür is excited to have the public watch the film, which has been talked about for years. He also thinks some mainstream audience members will check out the movie because ultimately the story of this low-budget video game that changed the lives of millions of people has universal appeal.
“I was born in the ‘90s,” the filmmaker said. “I think I was about 4 when I stepped on a skateboard for the first time. … I found it amazing, and I was so inspired seeing all the kids in the skate park and stuff like that. Yeah, I started skateboarding, and it went pretty much all the way up to my teens. I was never really a good skater. I was more of a filmer, which probably explains why I ended up being a filmmaker.”
He added: “It’s not a coincidence that we’re releasing the film now, but when we started making the film we had no idea that they were going to make another Tony Hawk game. Eventually we did hear about the development and stuff like that, and now it’s amazing timing since everyone is talking about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Now they’re going to be able to watch a film about it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Pretending I’m a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story, directed by Ludvig Gür, is now available digitally. Click here for more information.
