Current Events > Tony Hawk: Pro Skater documentary 'Pretending I'm a Superman' being released

(+) Yeah! (+)

It covers the influence the games had on skating culture becoming mainstream

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/tony-hawk-documentary-pretending-im-a-superman-wood-entertainment-1234601008/

Professional skater Tony Hawks documentary, Pretending Im a Superman, has found a home, Variety has learned exclusively.
Wood Entertainment has bought worldwide rights to Pretending Im a Superman The Tony Hawk Video Game Story.

Hawk and Activision launched the initial Tony Hawks Pro Skater series in 1999, selling 9 million copies and spawning a total of 17 versions of the game by 2015. The film, directed by Ludvig Gr, tells the story of how Hawk evolved from a skater to a video game mogul, and the near extinction of skateboarding culture before exploding into the mainstream in the early 2000s.

Wood Entertainment CEO Tara Wood negotiated the deal with producer Ralph DAmato, a producer on the Tony Hawks Pro Skater franchise, on behalf of DAmato Productions.

Pretending Im a Superman is a robust, real-life story of our successful video game series as told by those who created it, and many who were inspired by it, Hawk said in a statement.

The movie includes never-before-seen footage and interviews with Hawk, as well as interviews with skating stars Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska and Jamie Thomas.

Im really excited to partner with Wood Entertainment, Gr said. Its been a long journey making the documentary and Im stoked it will finally be released for skateboarding and Tony Hawks Pro Skater fans worldwide. The art form and video game had an enormous impact on Generation Y/Z and the story behind it is even more fascinating.

Wood Entertainment produced QT8: The First Eight, a documentary that chronicles Quentin Tarantinos first eight movies. Wood completed the doc after a protracted legal battle to regain the rights following a production deal with the Weinstein Company back in 2016. She began selling the rights last year at the Cannes Film Festival.

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I still find it baffling how despite THPS being one of the worst games in the series, people treat it like it's this amazing masterpiece, solely because of nostalgia over Superman being in the game.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmu77pS1bzI

CRON posted...

I still find it baffling how despite THPS being one of the worst games in the series, people treat it like it's this amazing masterpiece, solely because of nostalgia over Superman being in the game.

One of the worst only because every iteration up until THUG2 (if we're being generous) was constantly working on being better than the previous game. Game was still spectacular.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udUCjJphE-0
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I sort of hate that Superman being the primary song of Tony Hawk games because there are dozens of other great songs in the series yet people mainly remember Superman for some reason.

Also lol at thinking THUG2 is bad, people literally only thought this because they hated the Jackass era, and the Jackass hating fad is long since over.

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it was cool to skate and listen to good music. Just a relaxing, chill game. Captured the world of skating without the broken bones and hospital trips lol

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THPS3 remaster plz

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THUG2 wasn't bad, it just wasn't a huge improvement on THUG and was the beginning of the decline for the franchise. Had nothing to do with the Jackass stuff.
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Alkaline trio baby!

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You're talking about THAW.

THUG2 absolutely was an improvement over THUG1. See how the fan game/mod THUG Pro is based on THUG2 - not on THUG1.

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That used to be my series lol.

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https://youtu.be/ZmpJQmR9l0Q

fucking thps got me rocking out to body jar lol

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The Skate games killed Tony Hawk lol.

The last Hawk remotely worth playing was Project 8. Hell maybe I'm being generous. THUG 2 was the last solid one; American Wasteland and Project 8 were decent at best. Proving Ground was booty, especially in comparison to the first Skate that came out at the same time.

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Skate is an inherently different game from Tony Hawk.

A legitimate criticism of Skate is, "at that point why not just go skateboarding for real?"

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I still say THUG2 is the peak of the series. AW was a step down and it was all down from there.

Skate didn't kill the Tony Hawk series. They're different enough. Totally different vibes. It's like saying Grand Turismo and Need For Speed are the same game. The Tony Hawk series killed the TH series.

CRON posted...

I still find it baffling how despite THPS being one of the worst games in the series, people treat it like it's this amazing masterpiece, solely because of nostalgia over Superman being in the game.

It was great at the time and without it we wouldn't get the other games.

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Damn_Underscore posted...

You're talking about THAW.

THUG2 absolutely was an improvement over THUG1. See how the fan game/mod THUG Pro is based on THUG2 - not on THUG1.

This is definitely a new outlook on these two games because THUG was more liked for forever now. Story, lines, levels, models etc were all better in THUG. THUG2 had some better mechanics but it wasn't an overall huge improvement and was the beginning of the decline of TH games. THAW wasnt the beginning of the decline imo.
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Taggggg

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When proving ground came out and sucked, dudes were saying "skate is so much better than this shit"

So while it didnt kill hawk lol it took away any reason to still be interested

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Scotty_Rogers posted...

The Skate games killed Tony Hawk lol.

You killed your brother off for attention lol

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Scotty_Rogers posted...

When proving ground came out and sucked, dudes were saying "skate is so much better than this shit"

So while it didnt kill hawk lol it took away any reason to still be interested

No, poor games killed THPS

If there continued to be great games after THUG2, comparing Skate to THPS would be like comparing Tiger Woods PGA Tour to Hot Shots Golf

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Damn_Underscore posted...

No, poor games killed THPS

Get some help with that reading comprehension.

Proving Ground was def compared to the first Skate at the time.

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Scotty_Rogers posted...

Get some help with that reading comprehension.

Proving Ground was def compared to the first Skate at the time.

Are you serious right now?

Proving Ground was not a very good game... that's the point...

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Damn_Underscore posted...

Are you serious right now?

Proving Ground was not a very good game... that's the point...

Yes, and with there being a much better skateboarding game at the time, there was no reason to even settle for Proving Ground.

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Proving Ground gets such a bum rap these days. I avoided it for the longest time as well, since I was super into Skate like everyone else at the time was. But years passed, and I decided to pick it up since it was like only ten bucks at the time or something.

And man, it's so much better than people give it credit for. It felt a bit more realistic, and wasn't nearly as cartoony as the previous games in the series were which was a step in the right direction. There was more emphasis on skateboarding as a culture. You could focus on building a career, avoid that and stay an underground legend hardcore skater, or just dick around in the environment and seeing what spots you could come up with via the rigger path.

I dunno, man. I'm probably one of the very few people on this board that legit likes it. It's probably the third or fourth best game in the series IMO.

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The Tony Hawk series is way, way more than Proving Ground.

Back then I played the classic Tony Hawk games more than I did Skate. I think I only played a few hours of each Skate game, if that.

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Damn_Underscore posted...

The Tony Hawk series is way, way more than Proving Ground.

But in 2008, Proving Ground was the newest Tony Hawk game. People wanted new games; no reason for a normal person to live in the past by playing the older Tony Hawk games when they could just play Skate.

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yes playing games that aren't new is unheard of

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Damn_Underscore posted...

yes playing games that aren't new is unheard of

Except it's the new games that get the most attention when they come out. No one is comparing the Tony Hawk series as a whole to Skate 1 here dawg.

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You said as your first post in this topic "The Skate games killed Tony Hawk lol"

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Context lol

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Yes, context. You then talked about the latter history of Tony Hawk games. You were clearly talking in a general sense and saying a lot more than "Skate was much better than Proving Ground"

And as I said, it's not even true that Skate was the reason Tony Hawk stopped being popular. Poor games were why Tony Hawk stopped being popular. For awhile Tony Hawk was probably the only yearly-release game series ever to improve with every iteration. Then the games stopped getting good and the last ever Tony Hawk game released by Neversoft (after that the series had no redeeming qualities whatsoever) was released in the same year as Skate 1.


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Damn_Underscore posted...

Poor games were why Tony Hawk stopped being popular.

Naw if Skate wasnt a thing people would have tried to accept Beta Ground

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They didn't accept Project 8.

THAW was when people back then saw that the Tony Hawk games were getting worse. For some people it was THUG2, but that was due to hatred of the Jackass storyline.

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Project 8 was lukewarm, Beta Ground was first when the consensus became Tony Hawk was trash

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL416C0EA752DDDF2E

specifically

https://youtu.be/1d8xYwcdjgE

thug 2 is by default a lot worse of a game than thug, some of the worst maps in the series. thugpro is awesome and i play it a bunch but thug 2 vanilla i couldnt imagine ever wanting to play again

project 8 is definitely when the series started on a noticeable downward spiral, that game was ass

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THUG2 is the like 2nd best game in the series. The fuck is wrong with you people? There's so much fun content in that game.

THAW was definitely the beginning of the decline

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I liked THAW and Project 8. I played the crap out of both of those. THUG 2 was my least favorite because it felt like the focus wasnt really on skating and the levels were a downgrade. I remember getting 4 and THUG for Christmas when they came out and thinking they were some of the coolest games ever.

THUG 2 is arguably the height of the series, mechanically.

But that's about it. Everything else about it is sub-par in regards to everything that came before it, and including some that came after it. The soundtrack was pretty good, though.

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the story and humor of THUG 2 is basically the fucking worst

basically Jackass without anything that makes it enjoyable + all the worst elements of that "xtreme" gross out era

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My brother had all Tony Hawk games up to Project 8 except THPS 4

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Ska was a mistake

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Damn_Underscore posted...

I sort of hate that Superman being the primary song of Tony Hawk games because there are dozens of other great songs in the series yet people mainly remember Superman for some reason.

Also lol at thinking THUG2 is bad, people literally only thought this because they hated the Jackass era, and the Jackass hating fad is long since over.

Plenty to dislike aside from the Jackass stuff. It's still a good game at the core, but THUG2 is bloated to the brim with unnecessary crap that got in the way of the campaign, and that's just speaking from a gameplay standpoint. The halfassed nonskateboard characters, the sticker slap conflicting with the wallpush, tossing stuff, dumb new "tricks" that were closer to fart jokes, and unfocused map designs.

It was the jumped shark. It was good because the core of THPS is good, but it was dressed up like a clown.

From personal preference, having gone back after several years, I find THPS2 to be the most solid experience. The manuals, transitions, and later walking all make for very bloated singular combo goals. Sure, at the time it was insane, it was great, but it got tiresome. It's like MVC3 infinites compared to just, you know, a nice, satisfying 7 hit combo in SF2.

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Was THPS4 good

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Scotty_Rogers posted...

Was THPS4 good

yes, some people dislike it though (not hate it), not sure why.

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So when is this coming out?

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