WingCommanderMovie: How would you have made it?
- Thread starter Mjr. Whoopass
- Start date
TurboTim07
Rear Admiral
ChrisReid said:
that's gotta be bad for their tails...
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ZFGokuSSJ1
Rear Admiral
Someday, I'm gonna acquire the rights to the WC movie franchise and make a movie the way it was supposed to be.
I don't know about you guys, but the thing that was the big 'knee-in-the-back' for me was that movie-Paladin wasn't scottish, movie-Angel wasn't french and the movie-ship was called 'Tiger Claw' instead of 'Tiger's Claw'
I remember spending the entire movie, just sat in my chair, with my arms in the air, raging about it
"dammit...Paladin is Scottish! - not strange-ukraine-german"
"dammit...she's French, dammit!"
"dammit...its Tiger'SSSSSSS, dammit!"
....etc.
I did watch this movie ag-e-s ago and can't quite remember it fully, but these seem to stick in my mind. If I'm wrong, then whooops....I best watch the movie again
I remember spending the entire movie, just sat in my chair, with my arms in the air, raging about it
"dammit...Paladin is Scottish! - not strange-ukraine-german"
"dammit...she's French, dammit!"
"dammit...its Tiger'SSSSSSS, dammit!"
....etc.
I did watch this movie ag-e-s ago and can't quite remember it fully, but these seem to stick in my mind. If I'm wrong, then whooops....I best watch the movie again
Mjr. Whoopass
<FONT color=lightblue><B>I was going to say someth
So how would you make it then? It's interesting to read all of the different ideas of how it should be made from different fans. Some people like certain eras, costumes, filming styles, etc. that are completely different from others. I've read some ideas that would've made a very enjoyable wing commander movie IMO, and others that IMO wouldn't be very enjoyable at all.ZFGokuSSJ1 said:
Maybe that's what the original people who made the movie were dealing with. Trying to make a movie that would appeal to a fan base that had several different eras complete with varying styles and characters, while on top of this making a show that appealed to viewers who had never seen any of the games/cartoons/books/etc. So the "way it was supposed to be" might be true for you while not being the "way it was supposed to be" for others. The topic of this thread is how would you make it if you had total control irregardless of how the actual movie was or if others agree with you.
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Percy said:
The good news is that Angel wasn't French and Paladin wasn't Scottish in the Wing Commander games either. The bad news is, you've completely failed to follow the directions spelled out explicitlity in this thread.
"If you were given full control and direction of the Wing Commander Movie, how would you have made it? This thread isn't meant to include WCM rocks/sucks comments."
"2) If you think a subject you're posting is controversial (eg. Blair's death, politics, religion), think twice before posting it. A good debate is encouraged, but some subjects have already been debated to the death."
Stop screwing up these threads.
AD
Finder of things, Doer of stuff
Considering the nature of movies vs. games, part of the challenge of addapting WC is meeting gamers expectations of themselves in the role of Christopher Blair. While I would love to see another WC movie with him as the Central character, I think I would relegate him to an important, yet secondary role, even if it only amounted to not much more than a cameo. Having a story that takes place parallel to the games yet ties back to them in many ways by referencing ang including game characters is a way to expand on without trampling the existing universe. Plus its a great way to expand the scope of what we know about th wc universe (much the way privateer doesnt have blair leaving confed to make an extra buck as a gun for hire)
Another thing i might try is to find an event in wc2 where a ship is supported or supports the concordia for a bit. (in game you might be able to protect or escort with possibility of losing the ship) So the movie could tell the story of the other ship while having one key sequence that intersecte the game with the news movie.
Concerning the visual style of the film, I dont mind a bit of shake, yet I find a lot of directors dont seem to understand that just stringing together a series of closeups and explosions is only going to give me a headache and isnt remotely exciting. (off the top of my head, compare the action sequences in Bourne Identity to those in Bourne Supremacy. Whether or not you like the films, the shake is ok in Identity, yet the sequences are almost painful to watch in supremacy). Personaly I hate that strobe effect that is so over-used post Saving Private Ryan. I'll admit it has been used effectively in a number of films, but for the most part I prefer my action clean and smooth.
I actually have relatively few things on my list of things I don't like about the existing movie. For me there are only two really serious flaws, first of which is the dialogue (screenwriter) and the kilrathi. I dont mind the look (and I'm sure you might not have if the suits had performed corectly and didnts look so rubbery)
But on a technical level the suits were a failure. To me, scenes with thrakath and the emperor, or of other relatives and such in positions or commands are part and parcel with the WC experience. For the effect to work best I think I would use a combination of Live action shots and CG. All sets would be real ( including the kilrathi ships) and the kilrathi would be played by actors with great voices and facial expresions (but they would act in a green suit) Their height would be acheived by filming in perspective (like in LOTR) and their kilrathin look would be acheived with CG, Except you get all the little nuances and ticks in the performance an 3D animator might overlook that help pass the CG creation as real.
The main things I would do different with the space combat would be to have each individual fighter confrontration last more than a second, and to have it so that it was easier to keep in mind where all the action was taking place in relation to what.
Another thing i might try is to find an event in wc2 where a ship is supported or supports the concordia for a bit. (in game you might be able to protect or escort with possibility of losing the ship) So the movie could tell the story of the other ship while having one key sequence that intersecte the game with the news movie.
Concerning the visual style of the film, I dont mind a bit of shake, yet I find a lot of directors dont seem to understand that just stringing together a series of closeups and explosions is only going to give me a headache and isnt remotely exciting. (off the top of my head, compare the action sequences in Bourne Identity to those in Bourne Supremacy. Whether or not you like the films, the shake is ok in Identity, yet the sequences are almost painful to watch in supremacy). Personaly I hate that strobe effect that is so over-used post Saving Private Ryan. I'll admit it has been used effectively in a number of films, but for the most part I prefer my action clean and smooth.
I actually have relatively few things on my list of things I don't like about the existing movie. For me there are only two really serious flaws, first of which is the dialogue (screenwriter) and the kilrathi. I dont mind the look (and I'm sure you might not have if the suits had performed corectly and didnts look so rubbery)
But on a technical level the suits were a failure. To me, scenes with thrakath and the emperor, or of other relatives and such in positions or commands are part and parcel with the WC experience. For the effect to work best I think I would use a combination of Live action shots and CG. All sets would be real ( including the kilrathi ships) and the kilrathi would be played by actors with great voices and facial expresions (but they would act in a green suit) Their height would be acheived by filming in perspective (like in LOTR) and their kilrathin look would be acheived with CG, Except you get all the little nuances and ticks in the performance an 3D animator might overlook that help pass the CG creation as real.
The main things I would do different with the space combat would be to have each individual fighter confrontration last more than a second, and to have it so that it was easier to keep in mind where all the action was taking place in relation to what.
ChrisReid said:
So what's the deal with Taggart's little Scottish flag in the Prophecy manual?
Also, who gives a damn if a subject has been debated before? If people are still willing to talk about it, why dump on someone who wants to discuss it again. How about we lay off on the dictator sauce a wee bit?
Death
gh0d (Administrator)
The "to death" in the forum rule Chris quoted was included in the original for a reason. It's not that WCM has been discussed previously. It's that the exact same things keep getting brought up, and promptly refuted, to ultimately wind up fading away with something to the effect of "I don't accept that as fact" from the objector, even though it comes from one of the few people who could be said to be the definitive authority on what does/doesn't count as "Wing Commander" (Roberts). All it would take to see that is about five minutes using the search function of the forums.
Now, shall we continue with the thread as it was intended by the original poster, FrostyNSO, or are you going to continue down the "you're a meanie for insisting that the thread stay on-topic" path?
Now, shall we continue with the thread as it was intended by the original poster, FrostyNSO, or are you going to continue down the "you're a meanie for insisting that the thread stay on-topic" path?
AD
Finder of things, Doer of stuff
FrostyNSO said:
No!
Paladin is scottish the same way I'm scottish:
http://www.crius.net/zone/showpost.php?p=281487&postcount=29
I even have a clan history on the shelf somewhere including a tartan and crest/coat of arms.
Last I checked, I don't have a scottish accent either.
Haesslich
Spaceman
FrostyNSO said:
In this, you are correct - look at the title below said flag - "The Residence, Dumfuirlin, Scotland, Earth" - Paladin was born on Aries Station, an orbital platform involved in the terraforming of Venus, and his PARENTS were from Scotland. Thus, if you look at background, you could call him Scottish, but his accent's been noted to slip away when he gets serious, as per the WC3 novel and Blair's observations of him during the Temblor Bomb briefing.
Chevieblazer
Spaceman
hmm, if i made a wc movie...
i acutally noted the ww2 style(including the cramped bridges with little windows) and i totally disliked it. i suppoes the intended parrallels went by most people. for a long time i took the retrofittet ww2 rapier simply as a measure for saving money.
i'd stick mostly to wc1 era, in ship design also, but take the red brown murky interiors of cat ships from wc3. the kilrathis would be completely animated(most of the movie is anyway, so it wouldn't raise costs so much), making them a 2 legged version of african and asian predator cats, very fast, agile and stealthy, not to mention tall and about as strong as a man in power armor. and WITH HAIRS and no flashlight eyes.
the story would propably follow the general idea of wc1 with a giant kilrathi dreadnaught blasing colonies and the claw getting on its track and trying to hunt it down(though the sivar would propably have more the size of the wc3 dreadnaught)
a little aspect of personal vendetta, played out on one or several command levels, maybe with a bit of ahab-ian self sacrifice.
of course the cats must plan to take the sivar to earth(that's for the audience because earth is the one planet everybody can indentify with)
on the vendetta level, blair is pitted against a kilrathi ace (baktosh, in my version) who killed his love on their first contact.(if i go any further, i'd spoil WCT
)
tolwyn is battling high command as much as the kilrathi, his adversary are old-school-by-the-book admiral alvin craig and prince thrakath, orchestrator of the sivar's rampage.
then of course we have a girl, she's in love with blair, but he won't sse her since he's on the revenge trip, but she saves him in the end.
actors...well, since i have only 21 mil bucks, nonames will have to do. maybe i'd try to get malcom mc dowell as tolwyn, he fit perfectly. freddy actually looks a lot like young blair(he only became blond in wc3), maybe the guy who plays charlie in taken...
a few eastereggs would be nice though..like gillian anderson as the claw's board doctor, mark hamill as the claw's wing commander stuff like that
jürgen prochnow, he's a hackface(as we say in german) he'd play the terran admiral (nice touch, the admiral has a hat of a german submarine commander) id mc dowell is too expensive, he'd also make a great tolwyn, btw...
i have a complete story in my head, and i was actually planning to go to hollywood and make a WC movie, like 10 or so years ago.
that went down the drain, but the story still lives, and i'll use most of it for WCT
i acutally noted the ww2 style(including the cramped bridges with little windows) and i totally disliked it. i suppoes the intended parrallels went by most people. for a long time i took the retrofittet ww2 rapier simply as a measure for saving money.
i'd stick mostly to wc1 era, in ship design also, but take the red brown murky interiors of cat ships from wc3. the kilrathis would be completely animated(most of the movie is anyway, so it wouldn't raise costs so much), making them a 2 legged version of african and asian predator cats, very fast, agile and stealthy, not to mention tall and about as strong as a man in power armor. and WITH HAIRS and no flashlight eyes.
the story would propably follow the general idea of wc1 with a giant kilrathi dreadnaught blasing colonies and the claw getting on its track and trying to hunt it down(though the sivar would propably have more the size of the wc3 dreadnaught)
a little aspect of personal vendetta, played out on one or several command levels, maybe with a bit of ahab-ian self sacrifice.
of course the cats must plan to take the sivar to earth(that's for the audience because earth is the one planet everybody can indentify with)
on the vendetta level, blair is pitted against a kilrathi ace (baktosh, in my version) who killed his love on their first contact.(if i go any further, i'd spoil WCT
)tolwyn is battling high command as much as the kilrathi, his adversary are old-school-by-the-book admiral alvin craig and prince thrakath, orchestrator of the sivar's rampage.
then of course we have a girl, she's in love with blair, but he won't sse her since he's on the revenge trip, but she saves him in the end.
actors...well, since i have only 21 mil bucks, nonames will have to do. maybe i'd try to get malcom mc dowell as tolwyn, he fit perfectly. freddy actually looks a lot like young blair(he only became blond in wc3), maybe the guy who plays charlie in taken...
a few eastereggs would be nice though..like gillian anderson as the claw's board doctor, mark hamill as the claw's wing commander stuff like that
jürgen prochnow, he's a hackface(as we say in german) he'd play the terran admiral (nice touch, the admiral has a hat of a german submarine commander) id mc dowell is too expensive, he'd also make a great tolwyn, btw...
i have a complete story in my head, and i was actually planning to go to hollywood and make a WC movie, like 10 or so years ago.
that went down the drain, but the story still lives, and i'll use most of it for WCT
No, but the fact that your parents were Pequot Indian, would make you a Pequot Indian, n'est-ce pas?LeHah said:
I'll stop now as I can't argue this without going off-topic, sorry.
Sorry, my bad. Looks like I got "owned" on this one. I know you love those phrasesChrisReid said:
Right - WCM never existed and I have unlimited budget. Here goes:.....
Style:
Everything is a direct copy of the WC1 game. Ships, sets etc. because I feel that's the essence of Wing Commander. If we have different ships then it just won't feel familiar. Forget about inventing new ships/characters etc. to intice newbie WC fans - the existing universe/background/story is rich enough to attract them.
Think Star Trek tv shows and Star Trek movies.
Don't think Star Wars films and Star Wars expanded universe.
No other WC game is going to feature in this movie. Its all pure WC1 as I believe the story in WC1 is strong enough to carry the movie (I'm also thinking sequel potential here
)Its going to be live-action.
Obviously, its going to be CGI special for the space battles (with some suitable high-quality compositing of actors in cockpit windows, mixed with hi-qual blue-screen sets etc - think Star Wars AOTC kind of technology).
Cast:
I'll make all the cast as they appear in WC1 and I'll include ALL the characters too (Shotglass, Bossman, Iceman et al).
I'll make Angel of French-Belgium descent and Paladin never lose his scottish accent because he's a proud Scotsman (by heritage, and they're intensely proud of being Scottish anyway and hate being classed as "British").
As for the actors/actresses....I agree with whats already been mentioned, don't use the people that acted in the games. Snag as many A-list as we can for the entire crew of Tigers Claw - stereotype the actors into those roles. - we have unlimited budget so we could even afford Julia Roberts to be a background workcrew member or something!
Story:
Basically, its a movie version of the story that ran through WC1.
When you're on the success path throughout the whole game, its a real feel-good, kick-ass, Independence Day, we're here to save the world/universe kind of thing. Obviously, it can't be that all the way through, because it would make it a dull-ish kind of film, so I guess we need to have the first 2 thirds of the film about the cats on a winning streak.
Movie Poster Blurb:
I've got several movie cheeselines......
Stuck in a war with one outcome, the survival of humanity rests on one small ship
Its a cat-and-mouse game, but this time, the mouse has a plan
"We're losing this war, live each day as your last". One ship did that and changed everything
'American heroes' is an old cliche. This time, the whole world plays a part.
(that's just a slight dig at the 'ID4' movie and also a nod to the international nature of the crew of Tigers Claw)