'Mass Effect' scifi videogame In Film development deal

[MarianLH]

Can you provide some examples?


Marian

It's more of the visual style you see in sci-fi movies in the 80's like Blade Runner and Empire Strikes Back - very cyberpunkish. Technology is very over the top, with a feeling it's out of control, bits and bobs added more for artistic purposes then any possible fictional use, huge towering "man"-made structures etc etc.

I don't see anything of Blade Runner in Mass Effect, and none of the rest of that is unique to the 80s. Maybe you see the 80s because you aren't as familiar with other eras? Cloud City, for instance, was straight-up Art Deco, not something new.

Verhoeven-style ads would be an example of something stylisticly 80s, like the "erector-set" vehicles. Unfortunately I haven't been able to scrounge up the $$$ for part 2 yet. But that's still only two exceptions, not a rule.


Marian

 

[Arrqh]

I don't see anything of Blade Runner in Mass Effect, and none of the rest of that is unique to the 80s.

I'm not really sure how you could look at, say, Omega and not see Blade Runner to be honest. Or for another take on it, Illium. The soundtrack especially of the first game takes a lot of cues from the synthetic stuff that was popular in the 80s, notably Blade Runner and Total Recall.

You can also see here in an interview with the art director of ME 1 and 2, where some of the artist influences are listed... including Syd Mead, who's scifi design work includes Blade Runner, 2010 and Aliens. And the art director himself describes the look as "80's scifi".

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Re: 'Mass Effect' space battles

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

I'd say the space battles in the trailer of
Jumpgate Evolution PC Trailer - Enter the Fray
rival Trek space battles as pretty epic.

 

[Brandonv]

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

I would LOVE for there to be a Star Trek game that copies the formula of the Mass Effect games. Just replace the Normandy with a Federation ship and come up with an epic story set in the Trek universe. Maybe throw in some ship-to-ship combat.

 

[eastman23]

I would look forward to seeing a Mass Effect movie if they did it right and I suspect that the guys at Bioware would make sure that it would be done right.

Like others have said though, I wouldn't want to see an adaptation of the games. Instead, I'd like to see the beginnings of humanity's reach into the stars. They could start off by finding the Prothean ruins on Mars and the Sol system mass relay. Then have the bulk of the film about the First Contact war and to end it, show the first humans arriving on the Citadel.

They have to include the Citadel at some point. If only so we could see it on the big screen.

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

I would LOVE for there to be a Star Trek game that copies the formula of the Mass Effect games. Just replace the Normandy with a Federation ship and come up with an epic story set in the Trek universe. Maybe throw in some ship-to-ship combat.

"A Final Unity" is one of the best Trek games I've played (not that there's many to choose from sadly ), though it doesn't have much in common with Mass Effect.

 

[RAMA]

Just one reservation...I've been doing some research and the designer/artist for Mass Effect seems to be not only replicating, but stealing designs from Syd Mead!!

RAMA

 

[Arrqh]

Just one reservation...I've been doing some research and the designer/artist for Mass Effect seems to be not only replicating, but stealing designs from Syd Mead!!

RAMA

As I already said, Syd Mead is listed as one of the influences for the art direction. Nothing was "stolen".

 

[jefferiestubes8]

If there were any tie in to the release date for 2012 of Mass Effect 3 for 2012 or 2013.
As of yesterday:

ME3 will be coming to the 360, PS3, and PC next year on March 9, 2012.

EA at E3: Mass Effect 3 out in March, Insomniac developing co-op shooter

The Mass Effect series was always designed to be a trilogy,

source

Yeah I'd like a CGI feature film series based on these type of visuals. Check out the new trailer [1:10] from this week.
Mass Effect 3 E3 2011 Fall of Earth Trailer [HD]


looks like a anime only film coming though:

Electronic Arts announced that BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect, has inked a deal with Japanese animation studio FUNimation to develop a feature length animated Mass Effect movie. No word on where in the storyline the movie will fall, if at all, but production has begun, and the project is slated for release in the summer of 2012, after the third installation of the game series has been released.

The Mass Effect Movie Is Happening, Will Be Animated

also

Production is already underway for a summer 2012 digital and home launch

Mass Effect anime film to release in 2012

 

[Yevetha]

Animation is good idea.

It is going to look great.

 

[bullethead]

I just hope they get good writers. That's what makes or breaks these sorts of things, not the visuals.

 

[Yevetha]

I see your point, but i think animation fits the visual world of ME better.

 

[RAMA]

I would like to see a movie since I don't play video games, and I have seen some good reviews about this game series. I also enjoy the concept work on the game, which as I pointed out last year strongly resembles Syd mead's work. Hopefully they will not change the whole look like Wing Commander. A new Space adventure milieu is much needed right now.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Re: 'Mass Effect' Film screenwriter

Screenwriter Morgan Davis Foehl has been hired to take a new pass at a script

Davis-Foehl has yet to have a script produced, but he had one on the 2009 Black List, and he wrote Alien Sleeper Cell and worked on Rescue Me as well as some Happy Madison films. He’s a massive Mass Effect fan and producers liked his take after, obviously, deciding not to move forward with the original script written by Mark Protosevich.

source
via
Variety source
At least this franchise has a feature film moving forward with development. This game's universe deserves to have a feature film and hopefully a film franchise.

also of note this week TG Daily's article:
Will Mass Effect make it to the big screen?

 

[Reverend]

Given the overall track record of games made into films, I shan't be holding my breath. I'd be much more interested if they intended to cast femShep as the lead though.


...that or just leave Shepard out of it altogether and tell a parallel story.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Given the overall track record of games made into films, I shan't be holding my breath. I'd be much more interested if they intended to cast femShep as the lead thogh.

Yeah but wouldn't that lead to people asking "Who the hell is that chick?"

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

That's okay, because most moviegoers will be asking "what the hell is this 'Mass Effect' thing about, anyway?"

 

[Thestral]

Given the overall track record of games made into films, I shan't be holding my breath. I'd be much more interested if they intended to cast femShep as the lead though.

Casting FemShep isn't exactly hard - they have Jennifer Hale's number.

 

[Reverend]

^No, I meant that if they're using Shepard at all I think it would be more interesting if it was femShep rather than maleShep. But only if they actually characterise her as she is in-game. By which I mean a soldier who just so happens to be female rather than overcompensate by making her a shallow "tough action chick" or a male-pandering objectified fantasy masquerading as a feminist empowerment figure. If they get that right then they're golden.

 

[Skywalker]

If they use Shepard, it'll more likely be the male version. That's who was in almost every single bit of advertising. That's who the casual people who might be aware of Mass Effect would recognize. Regardless of BioWare's "Shepard is your character!" claptrap, he is very clearly a human male to their eyes.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

That's okay, because most moviegoers will be asking "what the hell is this 'Mass Effect' thing about, anyway?"

The intro text pretty much covered it, so just put that at the beginning of the film.

If they use Shepard, it'll more likely be the male version. That's who was in almost every single bit of advertising. That's who the casual people who might be aware of Mass Effect would recognize. Regardless of BioWare's "Shepard is your character!" claptrap, he is very clearly a human male to their eyes.

Specifically the default male Shepard.