Mass Effect movie announced

[Stofsk]

Chris Priestly wrote...

I am very pleased this morning to announce that there will be a Mass Effect movie made by the fine folks at Legenday Pictures! I know there has been a lot of speculation amongst our fans ever since Mass Effect 1 came out as to whether or not there would be a movie, who should star in it, who would direct, would there be a Wrex sized bucket of popcorn, etc and I can now reveal that, yes, there will be a movie (popcorn deal is still unconfirmed.

Legendary Pictures, the studio behind great films such as The Dark Knight, Watchmen, The Hangover and 300 have picked up the rights to make Mass Effect. Legendary Pictures will produce with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni along with Avi Arad (who has been behind great films like Iron Man, X-Men and Spider-Man). From BioWare Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck and Casey Hudson will serve as executive producers.

"At BioWare, we’ve always thought of Mass Effect as having the depth, emotion and plot twists perfectly suited for an adaptation to a motion picture,” said Casey Hudson, executive producer of the Mass Effect series. “With Avi Arad and Legendary attached, we believe that the Mass Effect movie will be an extraordinary entertainment event that realizes our vision for the franchise and thrills fans.”

I am super psyched for this and look forward to seeing the Mass Effect movie take shape.

Is it too early to buy tickets?

I don't give a fuck what anybody else thinks, I'm excited by this.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I don't think the film should have Shepard in it at all, but focus on other characters in the universe.

[Losonti Tokash]

Nah, I doubt you could really do that. What you should do with something like that, though, is adapt Blomkamp's plan for Halo: include Shepard as an important secondary character who comes in and out of the storyline, but isn't the focus.

[Stofsk]

Any suggestion that a big budget film adaptation of the Mass Effect trilogy somehow won't include Shepherd as the protagonist does not conform to any reality that I know of. You guys are totally welcome to your opinion, except you're totally wrong.

Seriously, I can't see how you would not put Shepherd up there.

[Losonti Tokash]

Well yeah, I think it's totally impossible to not include Shepard at all, there's no way in hell Legendary would allow it, since it'd lose them money. And he probably will be the main character. But I think that the best option from a quality standpoint would be a side story that Shepard is involved in, rather than the main character of.

[Nephtys]

If Shepherd is in it, she'd better be the hard-biting asshole who does the right thing by punching it, instead of the weak-ass goody two-shoes version. Also, hopefully a minimal amount of those annoying blue space skanks.

[Gramzamber]

Here's why they shouldn't put Shepard in it: Because this is Hollywood and they'd make Shepard even more of an annoying alpha male gorilla than the default male Shepard already is.
And yes it would be a male Shepard because Hollywood fears strong female leads.

[Losonti Tokash]

And because the canon Shep is the default Dutch fashion model one? And it's not like Fem-Shep is some smooth operator either, she comes across as even more ruthless and less tolerant of bullshit than the male one.

[Gramzamber]

Mark Vanderloo would no doubt be an improvement over the dregs Hollywood would bring up.
I think of them casting a wanker like Sam Worthington as Shepard and shudder.

Edit: In any case. I don't like external media treading on my games and my decisions (I'm looking at YOU Mr. Tell Me Who My Revan Was).
Call me a fat nerd or whatever, STEER CLEAR OF THAT SHIT! BioWare already do it with the books by the way, I don't see why they can't with any movie. The ME games are already movie-like anyway, retelling them would be redundant and offensive.

[Stofsk]

Mark Vanderloo would no doubt be an improvement over the dregs Hollywood would bring up.
I think of them casting a wanker like Sam Worthington as Shepard and shudder.

Edit: In any case. I don't like external media treading on my games and my decisions (I'm looking at YOU Mr. Tell Me Who My Revan Was).
Call me a fat nerd or whatever, STEER CLEAR OF THAT SHIT! BioWare already do it with the books by the way, I don't see why they can't with any movie. The ME games are already movie-like anyway, retelling them would be redundant and offensive.

Why can't you separate your gaming experience from a hypothetical movie? I played different Shepherds, one was a paragon, another a renegade, another a mix of both, one was male, another was female, soldier, vanguard, infiltrator etc. I don't really care who they decide the canon Shepherd is 'officially', it doesn't diminish the games or my enjoyment of them.

[Gramzamber]

Why can't you separate your gaming experience from a hypothetical movie? I played different Shepherds, one was a paragon, another a renegade, another a mix of both, one was male, another was female, soldier, vanguard, infiltrator etc. I don't really care who they decide the canon Shepherd is 'officially', it doesn't diminish the games or my enjoyment of them.

Not really, no. The various ways I play Mass Effect are different but all as valid as each other. Some external source telling me only this was "the right way" irritates me.
Hell, with Knights of the Old Republic the only reference to who Revan was is some EU shit I haven't read and never will, and yet still smartasses have told me "dduur that's the totally wrong way to play Revan, Revan was a light side male lolol" as if I'm supposed to be beholden to that.
I can only imagine what it'll be like if we get some sort of "canon" from any movie.

[PREDATOR490]

Its going to be a male Shepard, no doubt.

As for this, its going to be shit. Sorry, I cant recall of any GAME > MOVIE cross-overs that have managed to be anything more than shit or hosed down to the most basic aspects of what the game was. Even more so when Mass Effect is the type of game it is with the RPG element.

The effects might be interesting so I'll grant but the story is going to be nothing like Mass Effect.

I'll guess the following:

Male Shepard - Check
Female romance option - Check
Probably Ashley - Check (Cross species sex... yeah dont see it happening)
12 Certificate - Check ( Maybe a swear word and pathetic 'child friendly' violence.)
Shepard Spacer background - Check ( Easiest of the backgrounds really)
Shepard Adept / Soldier class - Check ( Gotta have our super human with super powers)
Some scenes involving the Citadel - Check

Realistically, the best option would be to make the movie happen around the events of the games so that it dosent trample over the game story. However, that would cost them intrest from those wanting to see Shep and the like so possibly an origin story or follow-up to Mass Effect.

Some time passed between ME 1 and ME 2 so they could do some stuff in that intermission without much trouble and even get some Collector stuff. I would'nt be surprise if this is going to be the precursor to a series of movies just like the games.

[Ghost Rider]

Woo! Super Shield RAMBONA in spaaaaaaaace! The story is about SHEPPARD, lone man that only his wo/man/dogwoman understands him against the forces of the great beyond darkness beyond and it's meat puppet robot slave horde. Dazzle as he makes hard boiled tough choice of siding with the sexy babe or what the fuck is that?! critter. View upon the magnificent vistas of forest planet of an ancient civilization of super hyper modern technology! Scream at the horrors of faceless robot lamps! Cheer as he engages the foul fish man in THE debate for FREEEEEDOM!

If we get some plot wherein he doesn't have a hidden power, doesn't have some assbackwards Prothean secret, and finally doesn't have a hand to hand fight at the end over some bridge that looks over some overly bright background arena. If it actually tries to realize that Mass Effect's complex story is a standard action movie with a few plot points that should not try to be SW part 27, I'll be happy. My cynical side says two of the three will be in there, with an easy possibility of all three and something else that will make me wonder.

Strangely I will take the cliches such as bad pointless romance, stilted dialogue, and one note alien cultures. I can accept they won't stray that far off, but the rest...I see easily as well.

[Havok]

Woo! Super Shield RAMBONA in spaaaaaaaace! The story is about SHEPPARD, lone man that only his wo/man/dogwoman understands him against the forces of the great beyond darkness beyond and it's meat puppet robot slave horde. Dazzle as he makes hard boiled tough choice of siding with the sexy babe or what the fuck is that?! critter. View upon the magnificent vistas of forest planet of an ancient civilization of super hyper modern technology! Scream at the horrors of faceless robot lamps! Cheer as he engages the foul fish man in THE debate for FREEEEEDOM!

Holy crap GR, did you just channel Shroomman or something?
Of course I agree, but still.

I don't know how I feel about this... I sorta disconnected from Mass Effect after playing through the second one... I'm not really sure why.

[Stofsk]

What do you mean disconnected?

[Havok]

I dunno... like, I stopped caring about the characters. Maybe the story wasn't as strong or I felt like I was being led around by my nose too much, but Sheppard in this one... It's like Kaiden/Ashley were right and Sheppard doesn't realize that he is completely working for and being brainwashed by Cerberus and all that crap about not altering his mind one bit is just that, crap. That would be a great plot twist by the way.

I guess, for me, it is just bad story... like Grunt. Lets bring back Wrex, but only make him MORE Wrex! Except they got completely wrong, what people liked about Wrex (His feeling of helplessness and obsolescence and trying to somehow find a way to fight that, only not knowing how) and just turned the badass up to 11.

It was like that with quite a bit of the game... I guess it felt hollow to me.

[Losonti Tokash]

It probably didn't help that Grunt's voice was the same guy that seems to play Wolverine in fucking everything. Yeah, Grunt is a weak character because the Krogan stereotype isn't particularly interesting, though at least his loyalty mission was fun.

[adam_grif]

Oh wow, this image I made for Bioware social like a month ago turned out to be prophetic far sooner than I'd thought it would.



Also, the plot to ME1 is ok. The ME2 plot, however, is horrendous, so I really don't mind if they take liberties with the MEverse to get rid of the stupid fucking reaper slushee machines of DOOM.

[Laughing Mechanicus]

I also wouldn't have any problems with them rejigging the plot to fit the format better and/or remove some of the stupider elements; I enjoy the Mass Effect games not so much for their plots as the setting anyway.

Given how much inspiration the Mass Effect artists took from the concept work of Syd Mead (take a look at this rover and this ring world for starters), it would be very interesting if they could get the man himself involved in doing concepts for the film, or at least allow the BioWare artists set a similar style.

[Ghost Rider]

Woo! Super Shield RAMBONA in spaaaaaaaace! The story is about SHEPPARD, lone man that only his wo/man/dogwoman understands him against the forces of the great beyond darkness beyond and it's meat puppet robot slave horde. Dazzle as he makes hard boiled tough choice of siding with the sexy babe or what the fuck is that?! critter. View upon the magnificent vistas of forest planet of an ancient civilization of super hyper modern technology! Scream at the horrors of faceless robot lamps! Cheer as he engages the foul fish man in THE debate for FREEEEEDOM!

Holy crap GR, did you just channel Shroomman or something?
Of course I agree, but still.

I modeled that bit around the 1950s style of movie preview. I kinda wished I added pictures

I don't know how I feel about this... I sorta disconnected from Mass Effect after playing through the second one... I'm not really sure why.

I blame the mini-game

But my problems are that we have Mordin as the only character that tries. Grunt is Ultra WREX without Wrex's past. Garrus is...Garrus with kinda more humor. Jacob is THE GOOD SOLIDER!!!, Miranda is the arrogant she bitch! that you tame with your MANHOOD. Jack is Emo bitch, who you tame to the softer woman that lies beneath them all. Tali is Tali but louder. Thane is mr mournful emo ball of emotion hiding beneath the cool leather exterior. Legion may as well been blank with bog standard "Hoomans are strange, hur!". And finally Samara is sex kitten looks with space paladin emotions!

So while people may vary, Mordin was the only fucker I enjoyed conversations, except bending to my SUPREME will of dumbass/bad dumbass.

Though of note, never played a female Sheppard. Maybe the game's dialogue is a tad better, but given the comments...not really. Just a slightly more ballsy dialogue to make up for the lack of cock on the avatar.

[Starglider]

Also, the plot to ME1 is ok. The ME2 plot, however, is horrendous, so I really don't mind if they take liberties with the MEverse to get rid of the stupid fucking reaper slushee machines of DOOM.

The majority of ME2 is better written than ME1; the bio-reaper part is the only serious problem. Even that makes logical story sense, it just doesn't make technical sense to anyone who understands biology.

[Losonti Tokash]

GR, Femshep is a way better experience than with a male Shepard. Mark Meer does an okay job, but Jennifer Hale's acting totally blows him out of the water.

[Gramzamber]

I don't get why it has to be a retelling of the games at all.
Think about this for a second, every video game movie out there tries to retell the games and they all suck. Yeah that's not exactly the sole reason why they suck, but it's still part of it.
Plus a quick skim over at the BioWare forums shows a lot of people don't want Shepard in the movie. The Mass Effect universe can be bigger than Shepard and the fucking Reapers.

[General Zod]

I don't get why it has to be a retelling of the games at all.
Think about this for a second, every video game movie out there tries to retell the games and they all suck. Yeah that's not exactly the sole reason why they suck, but it's still part of it.
Plus a quick skim over at the BioWare forums shows a lot of people don't want Shepard in the movie. The Mass Effect universe can be bigger than Shepard and the fucking Reapers.

I don't think anyone should listen to what Bioware fanboys want as far as this movie goes. If you want the movie to appeal to anyone outside of fatty nerds who have memorized every codex entry then you have to at least stay close to the main plot. Sticking to obscure bits of the game doesn't seem like a good way to rope in new fans.

[Gramzamber]

I don't get why it has to be a retelling of the games at all.
Think about this for a second, every video game movie out there tries to retell the games and they all suck. Yeah that's not exactly the sole reason why they suck, but it's still part of it.
Plus a quick skim over at the BioWare forums shows a lot of people don't want Shepard in the movie. The Mass Effect universe can be bigger than Shepard and the fucking Reapers.

I don't think anyone should listen to what Bioware fanboys want as far as this movie goes. If you want the movie to appeal to anyone outside of fatty nerds who have memorized every codex entry then you have to at least stay close to the main plot. Sticking to obscure bits of the game doesn't seem like a good way to rope in new fans.

You can do that easily by focusing on the contact war, or something post-trilogy. Or make up a standalone story. What would "new fans" know what is obscure and what isn't anyway?
This kind of "stay the course" logic is what's turned the Star Wars EU into a stale, tiny universe always focusing on the movie characters and their descendants.