'Mass Effect' scifi videogame In Film development deal

[jefferiestubes8]

Yes another videogame to feature film adaptation...

the scifi series takes place in 2183 and follows Commander Shepard of the SS Normandy who leads a team on a mission to defeat an ancient alien race that invades the galaxy every 50,000 years, wiping out all organic life.

will be co-financed and distributed by Warner Bros.

'Mass Effect' In Film Deal to Legendary Pictures

Legendary Pictures has acquired feature rights to Electronic Arts' vidgame franchise

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2100078/

Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the film with Avi and Ari Arad

Legendary turning 'Mass Effect' into film

for those who don't know the Mass Effect game:
since the game takes place in the Milky Way galaxy between planets

Travel through the Mass Effect universe is aided through the use of Mass Relays, which are technological artifacts that are capable of transporting vessels nearly instantaneously between star clusters and systems,

Inside the game universe, mass effect is a newly discovered (for humans anyway) physics phenomenon that has properties along the lines of other physics forces such as gravity and electromagnetism.

Within the game, humanity has formed the Human Systems Alliance, one of many independent bodies that make up the collective of "Citadel space".

Citadel space, as a whole, is ruled by a body of government known as the Council, which is made up of members of the three prominent alien races

The game takes place primarily in two locations: the prototype frigate SSV Normandy, and the Citadel, a gigantic, ancient space station purportedly built by the Protheans and which currently acts as the center of galactic civilization.

via Wiki
The Mass Effect Council reminds me of the alliance of species Xindi in ENT.

Well we all know how the VG-to-movie conversion of Halo AKA "Halo: Fall of Reach" went...development hell and currently slated for 2012.

This movie screams of another scifi-action movie Starship Troopers (1997) to me though... as well as maybe Aliens (1986) with the Space Marines.

Hey Mass Effect has had 2 videogames with a 3rd game coming in Q4 of 2011. Some of the screenshots look great!
http://media.xbox360.gamespy.com/media/142/14235013/imgs_1.html

Some of the in-game shots come across that uncanney valley of looking like a real human:
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/dor/objects/718963/mass-effect/images/mass-effect-20070409010923267.html
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/dor/obje...s-effect-2-new-gallery-20091217040928655.html

Though the Citadel city looks amazing a futuristic Blade Runner/The Fifth Element look:
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/dor/obje...2/images/mass-effect-2-20090326063518688.html

Oh well I'll take the scifi action movie if it means we get another scifi film at the cinema.

The imdb listing:
Mass Effect (2012)
no info. currently in development.


related thread on TrekBBS:
Cast your Mass Effect Movie

 

[Aragorn]

The biggest problem could be Avi Arad. Unfortunately, he also controls the Uncharted movie rights.

 

[The Doctor]

The Mass Effect series is so film-like as it is, an adaptation seems unnecessary.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

The Mass Effect series is so film-like as it is, an adaptation seems unnecessary.

Yep same for Heavy Rain franchise whose rights have just been purchased for feature film development.

Heavy Rain is as close to a movie as you can get without, you know, actually being a movie.
Why do we need a movie-movie version of this??

Comment by The.Watcher May 20, 2010

because Hollywood can make a buck on these franchises jumping to the cinema and the eventual DVD/Blu-ray sales/V.O.D./cable-tv airings

 

[omegaone]

If they do it, hopefully it does not suck. Wonder if its gonna be after or inbetween the games trilogy?

 

[Trent Roman]

To reach an audience beyond the videogame crowd. I enjoy the world-building in Mass Effect's universe; I'd like to see it get wider recognition.

Plus, I'd love to see the end. (Damn game ultimately proved too demanding for my machine.)

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[FordSVT]

This is going to need an absolutely huge budget to pull off successfully. Like Halo.

If this is some $50 million piece of shit with plastic sets and rubber masks count me out.

 

[Dream]

I wonder if the soccer moms will bitch if there is a sex scene in this movie like in the video game?

 

[JonathonWally]

Movies based on videogames = suck

Videogames based on movies = suck

The only exceptions are when you take the universe and tell a different story.

 

[Owain Taggart]

To reach an audience beyond the videogame crowd. I enjoy the world-building in Mass Effect's universe; I'd like to see it get wider recognition.

Plus, I'd love to see the end. (Damn game ultimately proved too demanding for my machine.)

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

I'm playing through the original at the moment, and you're right. It's a very demanding game. It's the first game in awhile that makes me feel like I need to upgrade. It's an old computer by a few years, but not that old. I had to disable any of the graphical effects and even had to tweak something in a file to remove post-processing effects like bloom. The framerate was pretty bad with them on.

Well, I hope the movie has more distinctive weapons. The weapons in the game were all very generic lol.

The only exceptions are when you take the universe and tell a different story.

Well, this actually might work considering it's more of a story driven game with a good script in the first place. Movies based on videogames that have the most trouble are the ones that don't have much of a story to begin with, like Doom for instance. I suspect they'll have an easier time making a movie out of something that already has a well fleshed out universe.

 

[clint g]

While it could be awesome, I think they would have better luck doing a Halo: Fall of Reach movie

 

[Sheep]

I'm not sure how a film could possibly do Mass Effect justice given that the first game alone put most TV shows (which have more time than films to develop an array of characters) to shame.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm not sure the BioWare formula would work on screen (big thing happens, explore five planets, finale)... but if they remove all that, all they're left with is a rather pedestrian Star Trek knockoff.

I think the only thing that might make it interesting is if they went with a female Shepard with... well, real acting chops. Angelina Jolie would be the bland obvious choice but I could imagine someone older like Sigourney Weaver or someone like that doing the role.

 

[Sheep]

I'm not sure the BioWare formula would work on screen (big thing happens, explore five planets, finale)... but if they remove all that, all they're left with is a rather pedestrian Star Trek knockoff.

I'd take that considering Mass Effect does a better job being Star Trek than anything Star Trek has put on the screen in more than a decade.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm not sure the BioWare formula would work on screen (big thing happens, explore five planets, finale)... but if they remove all that, all they're left with is a rather pedestrian Star Trek knockoff.

I'd take that considering Mass Effect does a better job being Star Trek than anything Star Trek has put on the screen in more than a decade.

Yeah, I guess so. The only really unique thing about ME was when they went retro with ME1 (something they abandoned in 2, curiously enough) and that's the one thing they probably can't translate to film without turning it into a big gag/parody (and we got that with Galaxy Quest, the best Trek movie ever).

I'm sure you can probably make a perfectly fine summer blockbuster out of the ME universe though. I'm just not sure it'd be recognizable as ME after the fact.

I'm sure Faunts won't play over the end of the credits, among other things.

 

[JonathonWally]

The only exceptions are when you take the universe and tell a different story.

Well, this actually might work considering it's more of a story driven game with a good script in the first place. Movies based on videogames that have the most trouble are the ones that don't have much of a story to begin with, like Doom for instance. I suspect they'll have an easier time making a movie out of something that already has a well fleshed out universe.

Final Fantasy 7 had one of the best stories in a video game, of all time. Advent Children isn't that great on it's own merits as a movie, and Spirits Within flat out sucked.

Resident Evil is an epic series of games, one of my all time favorites, and while I do enjoy all three live actions, and anticipate the fouth this year, I'll be honest and admit how they're aren't really that great of flicks.

So you're pardon me if I can't muster excitement for a Mass Effect movie.

 

[Deckerd]

This is going to need an absolutely huge budget to pull off successfully. Like Halo.

There's a Halo film?

 

[bullethead]

This is going to need an absolutely huge budget to pull off successfully. Like Halo.

There's a Halo film?

It's in development hell after Neil Blomkamp and Peter Jackson left due to Microsoft telling the studios to fuck off instead of letting Fox and/or Universal (IIRC) to get some creative control over the movie. Now Steven Spielberg is said to be interested in it, but considering that he's made some bad choices in the past few years, I don't like that fact.

As for the Mass Effect movie, I think the best bet would be to go for a prequel or something occurring around the time of the games, but not involving Shepard. Stuff like Garrus's past in C-Sec, the First Contact War, and other things would be a lot better than trying to adapt the game's plot.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Re: 'Mass Effect' film development

Mass Effect does a better job being Star Trek than anything Star Trek has put on the screen in more than a decade.

Interesting.

another commenter CrispyLog mentioned:

Mass Effect is all about the depth of the universe making it feel tangible and giving weight to your actions making it truely epic; in a short movie form it's just a film with spaceships and aliens and probably very little context. The only way it would work is if the followed the blueprint of the recent Star Trek film.

and luckily here's commenter knucklix also mentions what the Exec.s at Bioware have apparently said:

I watched a documentary wherein the big boys of Bioware said they'd like a Mass Effect film, but what they're after is a kind of Star Wars-esque wide, canon-rich franchise where everything fits into the continuity - they wouldn't tell the story of the games, because that story's already been told; they want to tell a different story, as they've done in the books or the comics.-

 

[John Clark]

On the one hand, I'm a big Mass Effect fan and will see the flick if released. On the other, I can't see it being that great.

I hope I'm wrong and that it turns out to be good though.