Mass Effect The Movie

[Compound]

Via Chris Priestly at Bioware:

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.

Well, these are the folks who did The Dark Knight and are also working on a Warcraft film. Then again, they did 10,000 BC too...

But at least it's not Uwe.

Hmmm. I wonder what the video game based on the movie based on the game will be like.

[Doctor Who?]

I wonder who will direct?

I'd like Ridely Scott but that isn't going to happen.

What about what's his name who did District 9?

[MSTJedi]

Hmm . . . Not sure what to think about this. Even there are some good people behind it, there are so many ways it can be screwed up after being run through the Hollywood machine of suckosity.

That aside, which way will they go with Shepard, Paragon or Renegade? Pretty sure they'll go with a guy similar in look to the default Shepard in the game.

[Pak-Man]

I think going with Shepard would be a mistake. Too much of the game is about making Shepard your own. The Mass Effect universe has room for a non-Shepard story. Maybe tell the story of the second human Spectre, or something along those lines.

[Compound]

I say they make the film about that guy in the Citadel who's trying to return something without a receipt. That would be epic!

[warofthebees]

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel."  If you did not automatically read that in Shepard's voice, you did not play enough Mass Effect 2.

I think that they'll probably go the Paragon route with Shepard in a movie, only give him a little bit of a Renegade side at some points.  I have to say, though, that I don't like the idea of a Mass Effect movies.  One, like Pak-Man said, too much of the game is about making Shepard [your] own.  Two, the game is already so cinematic that to make it into a movie just seems pointless. 

Also, you know the movie won't have the chutzpah to show Shepard having sex with an alien. 

[MSTJedi]

Also, you know the movie won't have the chutzpah to show Shepard having sex with an alien. 

I'd love to see them have Shepard hook up with Tali. And then not show her face, just like in the game.

[Scorpy]

Two, the game is already so cinematic that to make it into a movie just seems pointless. 

Yeah, that's the thing I keep thinking.  It's like we already have a movie and making an actual one seems unnecessary.

[Scribblesense]

Details to be revealed by Legendary Pictures at their Comic-Con panel:

http://www.destructoid.com/legendary-pictures-teases-mass-effect-movie-at-comic-con-205488.phtml

Legendary Pictures has revealed the line-up for their Comc-Con panel this year and lo and behold, they have listed their Mass Effect film! Legendary had previously announced they acquired the rights to the franchise's silver screen incarnation on May 24, with the studio's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni producing the film alongside Ari Arad -- not to be confused with franchise-ruining Avi Arad (Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand) who optioned the rights in 2008.

On the panel will be BioWare's Casey Hudson and screenwriter Mark Protosevich. You may know Protosevich from his writing credit on movies like Cell, Poseidon, I Am Legend, and the upcoming Jurassic Park IV. Thankfully he also worked on the story for Thor, so that's at least one decent movie under his belt.

No details on the plot yet, but one would assume Comic-Con would provide at least some information about the project. I'm going to wildly assume it will involve Reapers, Protheans, Mass Relays, and an intricate sci-fi noir story about Commander Shepard's corrupt practices while doing PR on the Citadel.

Legendary Pictures certainly knows their stuff (in most cases; I'm looking at you, Clash of the Titans) and it'll be interesting to see what they're coming up with. I really wish they would get their asses in gear about the Warcraft movie, though this has nothing to do with the Mass Effect movie (except to say the Warcraft movie was announced in freaking 2007 and the only thing we know now is Sam Raimi is directing, so excuse me if I'm less than optimistic about a Mass Effect movie coming out before I can collect social security).

The Legendary Pictures panel is on July 22nd.

[Sideswipe]

Bring on Blasto!  The first Hannar SPECTRE!