Post by: StrikerObi on April 07, 2004, 07:26:04 AM
A new report from the Reuters news services has revealed that famous Hollywood action director John Woo has optioned the rights to make a Metroid Movie. Woo snagged the rights after the previous holders let them expire after purchasing them in January of 2003.
The movie will focus on the origin of the game's heroine, Samus Aran. It will follow her story of battling the metroids and Mother Brain. "We have to assume the mainstream audience is unfamiliar with the property," said Producer Brad Foxhoven. "As for the rest of the film, we will stay true to the game and have Samus battling the Metroids and Mother Brain in a fight for control of the galaxy."
Woo was quoted as saying, "We are very fortunate that there is such an extensive amount of material to draw upon for the film due to there being so many iterations of the game over the years."
The story also mentions that John Woo's video game development house, Tiger Hill, is currently working on three games. All are being overseen by Woo, who is directing the games' cinematics, watching over voice talent, story, motion capture, and character design. The first of his games will be available late 2005.
Post by: past pixel on April 07, 2004, 08:50:30 AM
Post by: couchmonkey on April 07, 2004, 09:09:40 AM
Post by: Ian Sane on April 07, 2004, 09:24:11 AM
At the very least he seems to have some knowledge in the Metroid series so we'll hopefully not have a Metroid film in name only. His "experience" in games doesn't mean much to me though. I think Enter the Matrix shows that movie makers aren't guaranteed to "get" videogames even if they think they do.
I personally think the ideal director for this would have been Ridley Scott. Since Metroid takes a lot of inspiration from Alien it seems like a natural fit. Metroid is about isolation, not non-stop action. The ideal director for Metroid is someone who is familar with suspense or science fiction. Metroid should be like Alien. Woo will likely make something like Aliens.
Post by: vudu on April 07, 2004, 09:26:56 AM
Quotejust to be clear, all john woo has done is optioned the movie. the script hasn't been written, actors haven't been picked out, filming hasn't taken place, and editing is so far off it's a joke. movie won't come out until end of 2005, at the earliest. look for a tailer sometime around then.
Originally posted by: past pixel
hey can u try to find the trailer of that movie
Post by: KnowsNothing on April 07, 2004, 09:43:38 AM
Quote
His films are always so unrealistic (even by action movie standards) and to make it worse they take themselves too seriously which is a big no-no in an over-the-top action movie.
Well, I don't know if i've ever seen any of his movies, but I don't think the same problems will happen. What's too unrealistic in the Metroid series? Being able to survive a fall from any height without a scratch? I don't think either of the things you metnioned would be a problem in a metroid movie.
Ah, who am I kidding. Even with a director into videogames this movei withh still suck. =P
Post by: Bill Aurion on April 07, 2004, 10:15:01 AM
Well good thing the Metroid series isn't about realism...
Post by: Ian Sane on April 07, 2004, 10:49:52 AM
"Unrealistic" is probably a poor choice of words. "Not believable" is a better way to describe Woo's movies. In John Woo movies I find it hard to suspend my disbelief.
You can say that Metroid isn't realistic but if they had something really goofy like Samus using her speed booster to vertically run straight down a wall to beat a falling bomb from reaching the bottom of the pit first you would probably think it didn't make much sense. Metroids don't really exist but the universe presented in the Metroid games does have it's own rules of reality. Breaking those rules would look out of place and silly.
Post by: Rich on April 07, 2004, 11:38:49 AM
Post by: mouse_clicker on April 07, 2004, 11:44:31 AM
Post by: Don'tHate742 on April 07, 2004, 11:51:10 AM
Post by: Nile Boogie on April 07, 2004, 12:00:16 PM
I love John Woo, "The Killer" is my Fav movie of all time and his flare is unmatched by any director around save 4 maybe QT. His movies include:
Mission Impossible 2
Face-Off
The Killer
Hard Boiled
Windtalkers
Broken Arrow
Hard Target
plus a few others that escape me @ the moment.
...and one more tidbit. Bullet-time that became so popular in the Matrix is John Woo's staple(he mabe it up, everyone is copying him). He didnt have the bugdet to make it as crispy as hollywood but HongKong action movies are supposed to be ashy and grimey. I look forward to his vision of a space epic.
Post by: ThePerm on April 07, 2004, 12:12:12 PM
the only movie that i can think of that i saw was mission impossible 2.....but i dont even remember that movie....all i remember that it was entertaining.
Post by: Ian Sane on April 07, 2004, 12:52:48 PM
Maybe John Woo has made some really great films, I just haven't seen them. Since I haven't been impressed by what I have seen so far (all three of those movies got pretty good reviews) I haven't bothered to check out his other films.
Nonetheless I don't think his style gels with Metroid that well.
Post by: JonLeung on April 07, 2004, 12:52:55 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: Rich
Not all of his movies are bad either, I enjoy both Mission Impossibles espesially the first.
John Woo didn't direct the first one.
Quote
Originally posted by: Reuters article
The first "Metroid" product was on the now-defunct Nintendo Entertainment System. Realizing the value of owning such a recognizable brand, Nintendo relaunched the "Metroid" franchise with the high-profile release of "Metroid Prime" in November 2002 on its GameCube platform. Other titles, all of which have been best sellers, maintained the franchise's reputation for impressive 3-D graphics and engrossing battle scenes.
So...Metroid titles other than Metroid Prime have impressive 3D graphics? News to me... Also, this:
Quote
Originally posted by: Reuters article
Nintendo will unveil its eighth "Metroid" game, "Metroid Prime 2," during a news conference at the E3 expo in Los Angeles May 11.
Eighth? Did I miss one? I doubt it, and they're probably wrong. The next one should be its seventh.
And saying E3 Expo is as redundant as saying PIN number or ATM machine.
Post by: Ian Sane on April 07, 2004, 01:07:36 PM
I imagine the reason they came up with eight is that whoever did the research just looked up release dates. The original Metroid was released twice on the NES. The second release came out in 1989 (the first was 1986 or 1987, I'm not sure) and featured different packaging. Odds are the guy counted the release dates and didn't realize that both of those NES games are identical.
Interestingly enough the multiple releases of the NES Metroid even confused NOA as they incorrectly listed the re-release date as the first appearance date of Samus in SSBM.
Post by: JonLeung on April 07, 2004, 01:24:56 PM
The first choice in my mind for Samus (note that I said first, not best, feel free to come up with better ideas) is Bridgette Wilson. With only Samus in most of the games, there really aren't many others to cast...unless you think Ridley should be coherent (as he was in the Nintendo Power comic and Japanese web e-manga) and they'd likely cast some other bounty hunters, space travelers, or scientists.
Post by: oohhboy on April 07, 2004, 02:58:30 PM
Rush hour and the Shaganhi Series from Jackie chan is a bit closer representantion of what Hk films are now to about 5 years ago. HK films have started to sycn up with Hollywoodd, but with it's own flavour. But alas, some of that movies are too much in sycn with Hollywood. eg 2002
Broken Arrow is the only one of two decent movie he has made but that was due to a good cast. "The One" came off ok due to that fact John woo was allowed to throw the rules of phyisics out the window as he please. But the funny with was, for such a movie it was rather subdude.
Post by: Jale on April 07, 2004, 03:03:13 PM
Post by: Nile Boogie on April 07, 2004, 03:36:39 PM
Post by: nickmitch on April 07, 2004, 04:13:37 PM
Post by: Neil on April 07, 2004, 05:51:25 PM
I hope it wont be a huge disappointment...
Post by: ThePerm on April 07, 2004, 07:08:11 PM
whoever directed that could make a good vg movie...someone all alone.....but going through alot of ****..yet somehow surviving.
Post by: slacker on April 07, 2004, 07:26:09 PM
I think the movie should take a Terminator/Aliens type of approach. Aliens has the suspense build up prior to the finale, and Terminator has that carefully paced action sequence that are fun to watch. I'm not a big fan of John Woo's live action sequences, but I'm confident he will employ something tasteful. I would be more comfortable if James Cameron were director, but some one like him don't do video game movies. As for someone to play Samus, how about Keira Knightley from Pirates of the Carribean. She was hot in that movie.
Post by: Knoxxville on April 07, 2004, 09:42:35 PM
Post by: Termin8Anakin on April 07, 2004, 11:45:51 PM
Face/Off was pretty cool, and Mission Impossible 2 was a great escape from reality. The stunts may seem a little outlandish, but I don't really care.
One thing I'm wondering is how he's gonna put in his little dove trademark in, seeing as it's in space and all
I'm looking forward to this movie more now that it's under the guidance of John Woo. I have more faith in him making a decent movie, and you should too, seeing as how the previous guys were from an American Pie background.
While Metroid DOES have a lot of inspiration from Alien, getting Ridley Scott would make it too damn obvious, plus the fact is that he's making Alien 5 anyway. Having it too similar to Alien (in terms of the creepy atmosphere and eerie silences) is not too good. I know a space action movie is overdone as well, but I'm interested as to how Woo will make it. And if there's going to be info about it at E3, Woo may have asked Miyamoto to help out too.
Post by: oohhboy on April 07, 2004, 11:47:31 PM
The Jame Bond series has the same flaw. Jame Bond never has been a straight action movie until now. Now we got Koreans trying to be europeans, a car chase to no where, CnC syle space based weapons. Very un james Bond.
Anybody can over produce with a big enough budget. All it involves is shoving in as much SFX in to the movie as one can produce.
Post by: miji on April 08, 2004, 06:54:38 AM
"he was also supposed to make a cg ninja turtle movie that never came out....."
If you go to Mirages' website www.ninjaturtles.com, I'm pretty sure they said it was on the backburner, but not cancelled. Just delayed. (they have screenshots^_^)
Post by: JonLeung on April 08, 2004, 12:25:37 PM
I think that those who say that it's in good hands are overly optimistic. And those who say that all video game-based movies are doomed to suck are overly pessimistic. Obviously, the final verdict will be when and if the movie actually comes out and we all see it...
Post by: Bill Aurion on April 08, 2004, 12:28:45 PM
Post by: Jale on April 08, 2004, 03:20:24 PM
Post by: ThePerm on April 08, 2004, 11:10:55 PM
Post by: Avinash_Tyagi on April 09, 2004, 06:41:29 AM
The movie will come out around the release of the N5, so have one of the launch games be metroid; Release the movie at the same time and watch sales rocket.
Plus they could plug the rest of the lineup during the prieviews.
