He’s the man who “made it cool to make films in Canada,” noted moderator Ray Sharma of producer Don Carmody, who delivered a keynote interview at GameON: Finance yesterday to discuss the success of his game-to-film adaptations.

“All of us in the film business are watching how games are surpassing film,” Carmody told delegates at the Interactive Ontario conference. “We definitely have to keep our eyes on it, stay ahead and collaborate. We should work in close collaboration with some of the big game companies.”

He even admitted his reluctance to initially embracing the rise of new tech. “For the longest time, I was dead-set against mobile. Now we have to keep it in mind. Even I would probably watch a film on an iPad now.”

Carmody has been a supporter of game franchises, as evidenced by having his hand in several game to film adaptations, most recently Resident Evil Afterlife 3D (which recently surpassed Porky’s in worldwide box office as the most successful Canadian feature film).

As he approached this fourth installation, Carmody felt “the franchise was getting tired: what could we do to stand out?” which is what led him to the third dimension.

“There is an appetite for young audience to see the right films in 3D,” stated the producer, who noted that over time, 50% of ticket sales came from 3D, with “a huge chunk of that from IMAX.”

Currently, Carmody is working on another game-to-film adaptation, Silent Hill 3D. Because of the rise in 3D, there are more technological choices available now and he’s still in the process of deciding which one to use.

As for audiences, it’s not just the fanboys who wanted to see the game franchise come to life on the big screen. Carmody says that RE appeals to folks between the ages of 40 and 50, and part of that was making the decision to make changes to the story.

But they weren’t frivolous changes. “You have to entertain audiences that don’t know the franchise,” he explained. “We took an amazing amount of heat for changing the main character. If it makes sense to change, you’ll piss off gamers, but it will pay off for the brand in the long run.”