SyFy movie set on Mars - in development

[jefferiestubes8]

Syfy has just closed a deal to bring Red Faction to television via a two-hour movie, which will also serve as a back-door pilot.

set around the year 2075...

all the info here:
4/26/2010
Red Faction movie on SyFy


Actual science fiction on Syfy?! Great news!

[FreezeC77]

I doubt in my lifetime I'll see a fictional movie actually filmed not on the Earth... Too bad NASA stopped after going to the Moon or we probably would have had something filmed on the Moon by now.

[jefferiestubes8]

FreezeC77 wrote:

---

I doubt in my lifetime I'll see a fictional movie actually filmed not on the Earth...

FreezeC77 it is totally unnecessary to shoot a scripted narrative story not on Earth. With green/blue screen technology it is far easier to have a full crew and access to any actors not requiring the crew to undergo astronaut training just to get to the 'location'.

You can be assured the next time we go to the moon or an asteroid or a manned mission to Mars there will be multiple high definition cameras shooting science documentaries. Think "Deadliest Catch: Crab Fishing in Alaska" with the cost of HD videocameras dropping all the time they use a lot.

60: The number of cameras the film crews starts with each season. Only a third of the cameras are still working when they return to land. The others are ruined by saltwater and freezing temperatures.

The producers can figure the cost of them into the production, same as future science documentaries in outer space.


Check out the recent great film "Moon" by Duncan Jones and how that was shot on soundstages instead of the Moon.

Recently saw the film Surrogates on DVD and listening to the commentary I was surprised how a 1 minute scene was mostly a CGI location. That type of location looked like something on the X-Files when the camera reveals the location being a wide shot and on that TV show it would be a real location with real set dressing & props. These days with CGI you can create a location cheaper than actually building it in real life.
Movies are a commercial endeavor and they are created to make money. The cheaper you can create the narrative film the more profit you can eventually get if it is commercially successful. Look at the most successful independent movie of all time: The Blair Witch Project (1999) [based on production costs vs. profits].

The whole motion capture technology takes filmmaking to a different level somewhere between live-action and animation. Some people are more purist and prefer to see live actors on screen at least and that's understandable but to shoot at a location where is it just totally impractical due to the costs of getting the actors, professional filmmaker crewmembers, and film equipment to the location is ridiculous.

[Noname Given]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

---

set around the year 2075...

all the info here:
4/26/2010
Red Faction movie on SyFy


Actual science fiction on Syfy?! Great news!

WTF are they thinking?

[FreezeC77]

Oh I know it's unnecessary... But it's also unnecessary to film a movie scene set in the Sahara Desert in the actual Sahara... You can do it in the US, but some films do travel overseas to do it

I was just musing that I think at some point in the future, probably two or three centuries down the road with the slowness to space exploration there will be some fictional program filmed off the Earth

[Lindley]

Because if movies based on computer games are annoying, then I'm sure a whole TV series based on one will be awesome.

[MvRojo]

I liked the game...but I'm sure the movie/show will suck since it's on SyFy.

[Owain Taggart]

I wish someone would make a movie based on Ben Bova's Mars. Closest we got to it was the Race to Mars miniseries that appeared on the Discovery Channel.

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm not familiar with video games. What's the plot to Red Faction and how is it "real sci fi"?

[Aragorn]

I thought this was gonna be about SyFy getting the rights to air The Asylum's "Princess of Mars" (their John Carter ripoff).

Will Mars look like the forests of British Columbia?

[Owain Taggart]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

---

I'm not familiar with video games. What's the plot to Red Faction and how is it "real sci fi"?

The gist of it is that the miners rebel as a union against the mining corporation for the way they're being treated on Mars, which is a stretch to call it "real sci-fi". It's honestly very much like the situation happening in my town at the moment, with an ongoing mining strike of 10 months, the worst ever in the company's history. Very much a parallel here.

[Temis the Vorta]

The gist of it is that the miners rebel as a union against the mining corporation for the way they're being treated on Mars, which is a stretch to call it "real sci-fi".

That's not "real sci fi" at all if the basic story could be placed in a non sci-fi setting and essentially proceed as written.

But I won't hold that against it. Most TV and movie sci fi is just other genres (usually action, sometimes thriller, occasionally romance) with sci fi window dressing. At least the protagonists (presumably) are union members and not space marines or a space sheriff. That's kinda different.

[Canadave]

As I said in the thread over in gaming, if they want to do a Martian rebellion TV show, why not pick up the rights to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy?

[Temis the Vorta]

It's some kinda co-marketing thing with the game. Games are more lucrative for co-marketing than novels.

[RJDiogenes]

Aragorn wrote:

---

I thought this was gonna be about SyFy getting the rights to air The Asylum's "Princess of Mars" (their John Carter ripoff).

I saw that. It was like nuTrek; they recycled some names and terminology, but it otherwise bore no resemblance to the original. Other than that, it was a fairly enjoyable B-Movie.