Topic: Eternal Darkness the Movie?

[StrikerObi]

Max Roivas rumored to believe "this isn't happening."

Hypnotic, a Hollywood production company, has acquired the TV and feature rights to Nintendo and Silicon Knights' critically acclaimed 2002 title, "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem."  The three companies have worked together in the past, as Hypnotic was responsible for overseeing the Eternal Darkness Films contest last summer.

Here's a little snippet from the Variety.com article:

"We are thrilled to once again work with Nintendo to extend this brand and its powerful story to the masses," said CEO Dave Bartis. "We are eager to get the project started and to leverage our relationships in both the entertainment and marketing worlds to propel 'Eternal Darkness' to another entertainment platform."

[Fammy2000]

Haven't we seen enough failed attempts?

[ThePerm]

It make a great mini series, think 6, 2 hour long episodes . There was this awesoem mini series about UFOs on the sci fi channel..while watching it i though...hey this is great...it spans through several periods of time telling a gigantic overall story..kinda like eternal darkness...hey maybe they should make a mini series!  

[mouse_clicker]

I do NOT want to see Eternal Darkness turned into a television show- a movie or mini-series is great, but I don't the idea of such incredible story content being crammed into 30 minute episodes. I agree with ThePerm- with a mini-series you could accuratley portray each segment of Eternal Darkness into 6 or 12 2 hour segments. Better yet, Denis has said they have a LOT of content they didn't put into Eternal Darkness but a sequel is in doubt due to ED's poor sales- maybe they could transform the content that wasn't in Eternal Darkness into a mini-series or movie.

[oohhboy]

I am hoping it is not too long or you end up with the Shinning styles. Not good. Anyway, i never liked mini-series as they try to be movie like, but come off chesser than chesse.

[vudu]

can you say naomi watts as alex?  

[Grey Ninja]

Personally, I have high hopes for this.  Eternal Darkness has a great story, and if done right, it could be translated into a movie quite well.

[dafunkk12]

Just as I'm hesitant about Evangelion's "retelling" of the original 11hr series in a mere length of a movie (for those who haven't heard, a live-action version is being produced by ADV Films with effects by Lord of the Ring's WETA), I also doubt the ability to simply transcribe the game's events into 2hrs.  The main idea is the long history and cast of players of the Tome of Eternal Darkness, and conveying that in feature length would provide for a very miniscule time budget for each era.  A movie version would have to be a minimum of 3hrs, I say.  I vote for a mini-series translation.

[Djunknown]

(Perhaps some minor spoilers. You've been warned...)

hmm...TV series, Mini Series, or Full length movie? As much as I love all three of those options, the question is how the mainstream will recieve it? Will they catch or simply scratch their heads?

I remember Mr.Dyack saying the appeal of ED was that of an Indie film, and since only (relatively) a handful of people bought it, it will be difficult to target an audience. As far as a sequel (or Prequel) to ED is concerned, it MAY be possible; it may not of sold well but it did get props at this years DICE and GDC if memory serves correctly. Getting recognition from your peers has to count for something, right?

Of the three options I mentioned, a movie would be least likely; there'd be no way you can put the focus on the 12 characters equally; it'd have to focus on the Rovias line with the other characters having less than half an hour each. A TV series is more feasible, if the episodes were an hour long, each episode dealing with 1 or 2 characters (assuming they put a lot of effort in this) but it would be over in one season.  It could probably use this oppurtunity to fill in gaps that the game purposely left blank. A mini series? I don't know much about them, so I can't say much.

Here is a licscense who's source material is like gold. If Mr.Dyack or some other member of Silicon Knights who were involved in the process (Nothing too major, kind of like the Metal Gear Solid remake where Konami is looking over their shoulder) it may be crazy enough to work. But on the other hand, it was a quirky game, but those who love it, LOVE it, like yours truly

[KDR_11k]

Hehe, imagine a multipart movie like LOTR...

[Mario]

Quote
Originally posted by: kingvudu
can you say naomi watts as alex?

No, but i can say Sarah Michelle Gellar as Alex!

[ThePerm]

yeah i agree, alex had no personallity...but buffy does. OI mean what other blond, short girl dop you know who is already fouhgten demon and vampires.

[dafunkk12]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Hehe, imagine a multipart movie like LOTR...

Hmm, now that you mention it, the movie idea seems much more feasible that way...  But as was mentioned before, the audience just may be too limited.  Unless there's some humongous word of mouth work ala My Big Fat Greek Wedding, budget constraints may just constrict such an ambitious thing to direct-to-video.  

On that matter, my friends and I were spreading the word about Equilibrium, but it was only in our 24-screen multiplex for all of two weeks, leaving many people unable to experience it (which was resolved by the building hype working towards anticipation of the DVD release).  Did the same thing happen at anyone else's theater?

[Grey Ninja]

What makes you guys think the story is the same as the game?  I am thinking that Alex would scarcely even be in the game.  The Eternal Darkness universe is freaking huge, and the movie/tv series/mini series would most likely focus on entirely different events than the game.

Personally, I would like to see a TV show with each 1 hour episode being devoted to one chapter of the Tome of Eternal Darkness.  The chapters are about the right length, and I'm sure that there are enough of them to make a pretty good size TV show out of.

[ThePerm]

that 28 days wasa pretty good zombie movie..

[Berto2K]

Quote
Originally posted by: Grey Ninja
What makes you guys think the story is the same as the game?  I am thinking that Alex would scarcely even be in the game.  

If they put some of the game into the movie then they could also twist in some advertising for it and maybe get some more sales. But if the show had no connection to the game other than the name Eternal Darkness and the Tome, then some people could be left with a sour taste in their mouth like many did when playing ED the first time expecting RE. Sure there would be similarities, but if the content is much different they won't seem like the same ideas.

I feel that it would be better if they include stuff from the game and expand on them to make the episodes (or movies) longer and more detailed. DD said that there was tons of stuff that they couldn't get into the game and wanted to. Why not use those ideas like spinoffs in the show to add more depth. This could attract some of the x-files fanatics if done correctly. This could either succeed or bomb badly. They better have someone from SK overseeing it, preferably DD so that it stays true to the game and their ideas.

[Grey Ninja]

Well, you might have a point there, but I still think it would work better if the tv show was a parallel story line, rather than a direct continuation.  Alex's chapter was wrapped up pretty good at the end of Eternal Darkness.  It's time to change to a new main character.  Alex might appear as a reference in a later chapter or something, so it's entirely possible that the show could be linked to the game, but I think it's a REALLY bad idea to have Alex as a main character, as I am right positive that they would screw it up.

[ThePerm]

i never did like alex as the main character in the first place..of all the characters paul luther was the best...and mx roivas..i neversee a fat guy with so much energy. Now heres a quesiton..anyone with writing skills? Wanna write a script and submit it?

[Grey Ninja]

Heh.  I have often considered making a fan fiction for GBA, but I never wanted to risk it, as I am positive that the level of quality would be far below what Silicon Knights came up with.  I just don't want to disgrace either my own name, or Eternal Darkness' name.