Slashdot Mirror
John Woo & Metroid the Movie?
An anonymous reader writes "John Woo has optioned Nintendo's best-selling video game franchise Metroid for the big screen, says The Hollywood Reporter. Woo will produce the sci-fi movie and has the option to direct. The plan is to release the first film before 2006. The movie will center on the origins of the game's female protagonist, sexy bounty hunter Samus Aran, and relate her adventures battling the insidious life-sucking Metroids and their controlling force, Mother Brain."
I'm sold on the idea. I just wonder how he's going to get the doves to fly through space.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
directorial talent?
I talk about stuff.
John Woo is a director that realy should not be given too much money to work with. His low budget movies are great, while his cash cow flicks (MI2 etc) just hurt to watch. He needs to get back together with Chow Yun-Fat and make a good action movie again.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If women start dressing and acting like Samus Aran, will they be called metroidsexuals?
I just hope they don't try to make Samus "sexy". The last thing this movie needs is some bubble-brained ditz bouncing around Zebes in a slinky catsuit. What's great about Samus is that she totally whoops butt. And no fricken' Liv Tyler!
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
I weep for humanity, for I remember the Super Mario Bros. movie.
No good can come from this.
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
Wonder if they're gonna get Angelina Jolie for this one too...
# fuser -v
#
She's going to be in a tank top for the entire movie, most likely. Studio execs wouldn't allow the main character to be in that suit of armor for the entire movie. They need sex appeal and all that.
and hide the main character in a suit so people who never played the game don't realize she's a she until the very end when she takes off her helmet. They should not, however, emulate the game's graphics or endlessly confusing mazes. However, the turning into a ball and other stuff of that nature would be cool.
... and Winston Churchill says "I give you blood, sweat and tears, because YOU FAIL IT!"
"The movie will center on the origins of the game's female protagonist, sexy bounty hunter Samus Aran,"
But I'm afraid it would be like Tomb Raider in outer space... Who else would capture our, uhm, hearts better than Ms. Jolie?
Should I be excited that they are making a movie out of my favorite video game franchise...
:-(
Or terrified that they will desecrate it.
After hearing about Starship Troopers 2, I'm taking the latter for now
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
If he can pull it off - hats off to him... If not, then it will be a failure like almost every other video-game based movie that has been producted my Nuttyw.....errr Hollywood.
I can see it not: Jackie Chan dresses up as a woman (again)_and Chris tucker as Mother Brain screaming at Samus "Never fire missiles at a black Woman's Jar, Girl." Then they break out into synchronised Beach Boys lipsyncing.
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
the insidious life-sucking Metroids
In the craptastic spirit of other game-to-movie ventures like Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and The Wizard, I imagine the Metroids won't be the only thing that sucks.
Yes, but when are the sequel(s) coming out, so they can join the distinguished list of video game movie sequels:
1. Tomb Raider 2
Other than the fact that John Woo movies suck.
As mentioned earlier, they will try to get some sexy chick to play Samus, when the REAL reason the first metroid game for Nintendo was so BADASS was because you didn't find out she was a girl until the end. I think they should do the same thing here, but unfortunately, I expect some boring actress that has never seen a Nintendo to be yelling out stupid catch phrases during multiple explosions resulting in another bullshit Woo movie that *could* have been cool. He's like the shitty pop-star director equivalent of a Britney Spears when it comes to quality.
I enjoy Dennis Hopper with scales as much as the next guy, but Tebriel makes a very good point.
Just as long as Angelina Jolie doesn't get cast... There should be a statute limiting how many video game movies can be made in a certain period of time.
Since this movie focuses on Samus' *origins* a little sexiness might be possible: they might show Samus before she gets the metal bikini/codpiece.
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
Who will be a suitable (no pun intended) Samus Aran?
likely picks:
- Angelina Jolie
- That Dark Angel girl
- The 'Alias' girl
- Susanne Sommers (my vote)
More importantly, will the Varia Suit be captured early through Samus' mastery of the Infinite Bomb Jump?
If I've ever had hope for a video game movie, it is this one. But I'm too old and wise not to remember Mario Brothers, Resident Evil, Street Fighter (chokes back tears)...
---
WARNING:Slashdot karma not redeemable in the afterlife.
So, we all want to know who's gonna play the lead. I hope it's not Angelina Jolie -- of course, she's great, but I'd hate to see her become the "lead girl in video game movie" actress. I would like to see someone really unexpected play the part, like a female WWE wrestler.
stuff |
Hopefully a Metroid movie will be closer to the Alien series of movies, rather than the farce that was the Mario Brothers movie.
The setting of the games lend themselves to that sort of a dark sci-fi type of movie, but given that the plot comes from a Nintendo video game series, there is still the possibility the director could miss this entirely while attempting to make something funny/stupid for the kiddies to watch.
Definitely something to watch the trailer for BEFORE dropping $10 at the theater.
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!" -Rush
Take that Lara Croft! You and your tombs!
pity he hasn't made a good film since Face/Off...
You know, I had a fair bit of respect for Samus when I was young. She managed to be a female character without being a slut to the viewers (a la Lara Croft) or being some kind of animal/blob thingey (a la Ms. Pac Man, Dixie Kong). I mean sure, a few people played just to see the best ending at under 3 hours, but realistically she wasn't sold on her sex appeal (heck, you wouldn't *believe* how many people I've met who think Samus is male).
Sure, there's Kings Quest 4 and a few RPGs pulled off decent female characters at the time, but nothing nearly as mainstream. Am I the only one who's worried that Hollywood will ruin the feel of Samus by putting too much emphasis the "sexy" aspect?
Didn't this fucktard make MI2?
Do I need to continue?
I imagine they will have to make a few things up to get other characters in the movie, since the game is Samus running around killing creatures, and for a movie that isn't all that interesting. So I would suspect they are going to add more characters for smaus to contend with, either allies or enemies.
It will be interesting as to how the come up with different characters to deal with. The movie that comes to mind that seems close would be Aliens. Either way I remain optimistic, it will still be a good game even if the movie is a disaster.
I presume you have heard of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon, yes?
If I fast-forward the movie, watching it in less than 2 hours, will I get to see Samus in a skimpy bikini?
I would like to make some witty comment relating the movie to some well known aspect of the Metroid games, but in thinking about it, other than the image of Samus, the most recognisable part of the games are the musical themes; the music when the game starts, the music when you pick up a missle upgrade, brinstar theme, etc. I hope they work those themes into the soundtrack of the movie.
If this movie goes well, could a Halo movie be far behind? Halo has a pretty well defined story outside of the game (there are a few books about the story leading up to Halo, and about Master Chief's return to Earth). Samus is a chick who's space bounty hunter in a super suit fighting metroids, and Master Cheif is a dude who's a space marine in a super suit fighting aliens. The concepts seem pretty similar.
This said it was about the origin of Samus. I would assume this would include her upbringing by the aliens that made the suit for her, so there will be no hiding that she is a she. I imagine the first half of the movie will be her growing up, and the second half will be her kicking butt in the suit. It will really just be your standard super hero movie, excpet set in space.
You're right. He does better with less. I really liked his early movies, but all his recent ones reek of Hollywood money-magic. Every shot, every plot, every thought has to rock or forget it, IMHO. Instead of "The Natives take the fort", try actually going into detail about it, and examine the usefullness of shots in their reflection of plots. Metroid movie? Sounds like an easy out, because Woo will only have to film it from the side!
If the movie doesn't start off by stating in large white text and a weak computer generated voice stating, "The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.", I will be walking out. Super Metroid is the best game in the series. Period.
.deviatefromtheabsolute.
I prefer using the ice beam and an unwitting enemy to get the Varia Suit early.
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!" -Rush
Will the movie be sprite or polygon based ?
"No funny stuff! And by funny stuff I mean holding hands, googoo eyes, misdirected woo- which is pretty much any John Woo film."
- Homer Simpson
they do something retarded like make Samus a guy. Nothing better than crippling a great franchise with stupid omissions/retractions/"fixes."
At least it can't be worse. Also, with John Woo at the helm, maybe we can expect to see Ben Afleck cast as Samus.
In the craptastic spirit of other game-to-movie ventures like Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and The Wizard, I imagine the Metroids won't be the only thing that sucks.
You forgot Super Mario Brothers, which I think was the very first videogame movie (but I could be wrong).
Videogame-to-movie has a very poor track record. Disney ride-to-movie also had a very poor track record until "Pirates of the Caribbean".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
He is a really smart and interesting guy. Although he had a really nasty habit odf picking his nose and eating the booger in public. Quite revolting to watch!
I sorry about stating stating without previewing previewing. I just got up five minutes ago.
.deviatefromtheabsolute.
Hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such videogame movies as the NC-17 version of Custer's Revenge.
How the heck are we supposed to put in the Justin Bailey code to see Samus half way naked in the movie....
I don't know about you, but I like intergalactic bounty hunter boobies with my action...
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
Maybe this will be big break for The Minibosses?
after you have downloaded it, if you think the man behind mi2 deserves a few more millions for crap, then again it worked for oprah
- Angeline Jolie as Samus Aran
- Natalie Portman as the Mother Brain (now also in glass jar!)
- twenty-thousand computers in a Linux renderfarm for everything else
Doing the Right Thing should not be preempted by making a buck.
Samus was *hot* for a pixelated 8-bit sprite. I would think woo would want to cast the [digital] actress from Final Fantasy Spirit Within, although she may not be aging well.
You know, I had a fair bit of respect for Samus when I was young. She managed to be a female character without being a slut to the viewers (a la Lara Croft) or being some kind of animal/blob thingey (a la Ms. Pac Man, Dixie Kong). I mean sure, a few people played just to see the best ending at under 3 hours, but realistically she wasn't sold on her sex appeal (heck, you wouldn't *believe* how many people I've met who think Samus is male).
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment (see my recent post.
I don't really have a problem with the "exploitation" or "sexual objectification" of women in the media. Hey, if it sells, go for it. Pornographic stuff, hey, even child porn or beastiality, I don't have a particular ethical problem with some publisher running out and doing what they want, because I still get to choose what I look at.
What *does* bother me is when *all* the female characters wind up as sexpots, so that I *don't* have an opportunity to watch a movie with a female character that isn't a carefully made up face on top of two giant and frequently exposed breasts. I *liked* Ripley in Aliens 1 through 3. Not a particularly sexual character, very cool, well-played. Sure enough, come Aliens: Resurrection, they've got her stripped down and squirming around in plastic wrap. I liked Metroid -- yes, there's the swimsuit shot at the end (and it *says* something that even my good examples have such major exceptions), but ultimately, there's not a lot of sexualizing Samus through the game. Sure enough, now we get "Samus the sexy bounty hunter". God *damn* it, I like my sexy characters, but there's a time and a place for it, and I'll go watch porn if I want to watch porn -- I don't like seeing all my favorite characters turned into nothing but sexpots.
And the few times there *isn't* a sexpot female lead, a good, strong character, she's frequently used as a plot device to show how sensitive the male co-lead is ("She wanted to be strong and not need help from anyone, but she learned that she needs to rely on the male lead by the end, who naturally doesn't need to rely on her to anywhere near the same degree.")
This is not for reasons of political correctness, censorship, or even "taste". I just plain find it appealing to have non-sexplot strong female characters, and I'm damned tired of the few characters that *aren't* being given over to some director/game designer who firmly sits in the traditional camp and converts them into one.
May we never see th
Interesting idea, folks.
However, to keep the Samus-is-female mystique means a director will have to have a plot and dialogue that supports a person you cannot see. Not impossible, but does threaten to be a complete bore.
This also means that whoever you cast has to be able to ACT, since looking good comes only later in such a movie, if they follow the game mythos.
Remember that Jessica Albo, Ms. Jolie, and others are just actresses, guys. Some do their own stunts, but the idea of a twisting and turning action girl really exists only in your head. Hell, they could dig up some old fossil of a woman in this day of CG and make her spin around. Give me a real actress any day.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
At any rate, the Metroids on the GBA are proof that you can incorporate plot into Metroid games. Cheezy action-movie Aliens-style plot, but were you were expecting Sense and Sensibility?
Resident Evil was not a great movie, but I didn't think it was particularly *bad*, either.
Granted, the majority of video-game-themed movies I've seen have really, really sucked. Honestly, I'm pretty biased against any movie that I know to be based on a video game, at this point. Video game story constraints are different from movie story constrants. Usually in a video game, you *are* the character, and suddenly and abruptly you are shifted to *watching* the character, who is someone else (augh, metaphor and immersion breaking...), doing X, Y, and Z.
May we never see th
I was never into Metroid, but take a walk with me down woo lane (post HK era):
Hard Target (1993) - Okay, not too bad.
Broken Arrow (1996) - Upon a second viewing pretty bad. At the time, cool.
Once a Thief (1996) (TV) - A really bad TV version of my favorite Woo film, Once a Thief (but only the Chinese version)
Face/Off (1997) - I still like this movie. Entertaining at the very least.
Blackjack (1998) (TV) - Wow. Bad. Not much more to say.
Mission: Impossible II (2000) - Dear lord, what is happening to John Woo? This is like a self-parody!
Windtalkers (2002) - No, God, no! Horrible writing, acting, and pretty bad directing and editing.
The John Woo of 2004 is not the same Woo we've all come to love. America has not been kind to him. He has become a caricature of himself. Just watch the old Woo films and pretend he never came to America (In fact, same goes for Chow Yun-Fat).
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
I'd give the part to Connie Neilson.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Jennifer Garner.
And none of that she-ain't-blonde nonsense from you purists out there. Her hair color changes every other week on Alias. She's proven that can be sexy and tough simultaneously. Find me someone better.
Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
He's flat out said that he doesn't want to do the over-the-top ballet of violence, it's bad for children. (I'd like to put a bullet in tipper gore's head for that). It seems to really be a trend anyway, directors mostly mellow with age. But he doesn't try to make excusses, he acknowledges and embraces it.
That said. While his action sequences are nothing short of operatic, it's his meditations on fraternity and duty that I find resonate with me. If he wants to give a little back to the kids ala Robert Rodriguez, I'm not going to kick sand on his picnic. Hell I'll probably see it.
Truth be told, my secret dream was for him to direct the second of three badass Star Wars prequels. Chow Yun Fat/Tony Leung/Philip Kwok would make a badass Mandalorian bounty hunter.
A classic. I loved this game!
Does anybody have a link to screenshots of the various original endings (from the original NES version)? I'd love to be able to see them again!
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Wow, this could be the next big movie franchise. Just like Wing Commander, Super Mario Bros., and countless other video game based movies.
Why can't we get a decent video game movie? Maybe we're better off sticking to the old fashioned way: Book->Movie->Video Game... ad nauseum.
Another ACTION game turned movie. More pain in watching them try to form some kind of story and character development around it (Super Mario Bros? Tomb Raider? Mortal Kombat? Street Fighter?????)
Maybe one day a game with a STORY will get made into a film.
No, not Final Fantasy again. Ick.
How about Torment? or FALLOUT!!! The BIS games had good stories, but the fantasy titles probably wouldn't fare too well post-LotR. They already had good actors doing the voices (David Warner, David Keith, Ron Pearlman, Dan Castellaneta, Tres McNeil, Michael Dorn, on and on...).
Or maybe Metriod will exceed my low expectations. Good luck, Mr. Woo.
Death and danger are my various breads and various butters.
If this is done well, Samus can be sexy and still be a battle-scarred badass in her powersuit. It just takes some style.
I'm not saying I am holding out this hope, but John Woo does have style, and might do this the right way.
Of course, this could also be the greatest travesty ever to grace the movie theater.
We'll just have to wait and see.
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
Let's get back to basics.
Pong: the Movie.
-kgj
-kgj
It's Chow Yun-Fatt, and Fatt is pronounced 'fuddt', not 'fat', regardless of his weight.
I still laugh every time someone calls him Chow Yun-Fat... sounds like Chow on ur'own fat.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
SO, for the DVD will there be a JUSTIN BAILEY hack?
That would be cool--if the movie doesn't just suck!
I love metroid, but it would be SO easy to screw this one up in a major way.
Maybe the DVD will come with a remake of the original game that you can play with your remote. That would be amusing....
"We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
Last Starfighter wasn't about a video game
Ever seen that film? It was about a console arcade videogame called "The Last Starfighter" which was used for recruitment to fight in a galactic war. The main character reached a high enough score level which triggered an extraterrestrial transmission. The aliens then came and whisked him off into space and trained him to fight in a "Real" space ship that was like the one in the console arcade game.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This is how I think the movie *should* go:
Introduction/Teaser:
On a dusty, red planet, some Chozo (big scrawny bird-like aliens) find a gender-non-detriment human child on their planet. Montage of scenes of GND child growing up on them, learning their ways and technology. You could pretty much shot this whole thing just like any cheesy chop-sockey film where child/teen/adult learns martial arts from monks in hidden monastery. In this chunk of the movie, it stays true to the Metroid story, to a standard chop-sockey movie, *and* keeps the gender of Samus a mystery.
CUT to:
Years later, praying-mantis-like Space pirates (which are totally sweet Real Ultimate Power and kick ninja ass!) find Zebes and the Metroids, and start their nefarious plots. Insert typical amounts of bad guys Being Bad, killing people, and cool action scenes. End scenes with shot of Mother Brain. This meets the chop-sockey requirements of introducing the bad guys, stays true to the Metroid story, and Samus's gender is *still* a mystery.
CUT TO:
A full-suited Samus in the Samus-mobile, cruising the galaxy, getting the distress call to head to Zebes. If Lucas can hide Leia's voice in the Ubese armour in RotJ, Woo can damn well do the same here. Maybe have Samus kick some ass as she bounty hunts as a taste/teaser before she gets the call.
MEANWHILE, BACK ON ZEBES:
Space pirates start fooling around with top secret weapons, like Kraid and the Ice Beam...
Then, have Samus on Zebes, kicking ass, taking names, etc. Instead of her just shooting up creatures, set it up as the creatures attacking her in one of those suspenseful "stalking hidden danger" type things, and then, after that, she knows the creature-type is dangerous and then she can kill it with a clear conscience.
Of course, she kills Kraid and Ripley, big action sequences, she finds the "weapon upgrades", maybe a bit of the morph ball, bombs, missiles, charge shots. Probably not the screw attack. Enter the Metroids, Space Pirates, mimes, etc, etc.
Big finale: attack of the Mother Brain. Samus wins, barely (naturally), flees the self-destruct, takes the helm off, end of movie.
"Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
Bullet In The Head
For plot I can't help but love A Better Tomorrow II, after having seen the first of course. Magnificent.
With the sound muted.
I talk about stuff.
If they don't make it crap targeted for children, it would work great. No PG-13 bullshit, either. All out R. It's not too much to ask, either, since the majority of Metroid fans are probably well above 18 (the original came out in.. what, '88 with Super Metroid being released in '94).
... whatever the hell they were in that movie. Humanoid lizards?!
Reason being, Metroid is more like.. Starship Troopers or Aliens. It's not meant to be a walk in the park. I see it more like sci-fi horror than Indiana Jones in Space. The CGI done for the Metroids better be good too, and they NEED be terrifying or the movie will be crap. Same for Mother Brain. I expect to see a glass jar with tubes coming out of it hooked to some cyberorganic something and a gigantic fucking brain.. not some woman in a cape, cowboy boots, and labcoat.
I expect there to be abandoned space stations, laboratories with dimly lit hallways with Metroids floating up and down the corridor.
The way Hollywood sees it is quite different. Mother Brain *will* be a human, like how they fucked King Koopa up in Mario Bros. the movie. Why, Dennis, why? King Kooopa is NOT a human!! Goombas are not
Unless John Woo is a diehard Metroid fan and can prove me that he can find 100% of the items in ALL Metroid games, he needs to stay the hell away.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
and raise you one Jessica Simpson.
I'm surprised I haven't seen this mentioned yet:
Discourse, 11/13/2002
They're good games, hours of entertainment but they are just games. They are not novelisations of potential film scripts and if the Tomb Raider & Mortal Kombat films are anything to go by, the Metroid movie will be another dire game adapation to be a quick money generating scheme from the teenage masses. (I've not seen Resident Evil so I can't comment on that one.)
Why, oh why, when we have a wealth of good science fiction novels on the shelves of our bookstores, can Hollywood not just take a chance and film an Iain Banks, Greg Bear, etc. novel and just give us some good science fiction?
In the past ten years or so, we've had two rubbish Star Trek films, two average Star Wars movies & Solaris (yawn!) Other than that, I cannot think of any other films that could be classified as nitty-gritty science fiction - the Dune mini series was good, I'm looking forward to Ringworld but they're TV releases.
What happened to the early 80s when we had the likes of 2010, Enemy Mine, Blade Runner, Alien & Aliens, etc?
Give us geeks some good sci-fi movies and leave the games for entertainment between trips to the cinema...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
but were there any other Disney rides that became movies?
In order:
"Tower of Terror"
"Country Bears" (technically not a ride, but close enough")
"Pirates of the Caribbean"
"Haunted Mansion"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
She is the ultimate Kick-A** B*tch. Anyone who has seen even a few episodes of Farscape would agree.
Yeeek!
How about Natasha Henstridge? Maybe she's too old..
From an admitted (should be committed?) Super Mario Bros. fan, the Super Mario Bros. movie sucked. There were elements inside the movie that reflected the original inspiration (Bob-ombs, Goombas, etc.) but the rest of it was way off. The writers probably thought they needed to explain everything when they were better off just making the game come alive on screen. A talented writer could have taken what story elements are already in the series and flesh it out into something that better matches the original spirit of the game.
This is exactly what happened in The Resident Evil movie which was/is, IMO, the best video game inspired movie. Watching it was like "living" the game. The viewers learning what was happening along with the characters. Not to mention the action was very similar to the game. This action aspect wouldn't be trivial for Super Mario Bros. but with Metroid it should be simple.
I've heard of Metroid the movie being a possibility for a long time now. I was only a bit nervous but now that Jon Woo's name is attached to it, I'm down right scared. I didn't like Mission Impossible because it was so much unlike the TV show. I simply hated MI2 because it was even worse and dumbed down with all the annoying action sequences. He can bankroll this movie but I hope to hell he doesn't have much to do with the story/creative elements.
Metroid has a very strong meaning to the people who can find every missle tank in Super Metroid's Zebes. I can only hope this modern day mythology can get the same careful treatment that LOTR received.
...My vote Kate Beckinsdale...she absolutely kicked ass in Underworld, and I could so see her in the role, at least the out of the suit parts anyway.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
If you like the first nintendo version, have you played "Metroid:Zero Mission" for the GBA? Its the first game with redone graphics and such.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
why couldnt they seriously pick someone better than John Woo to do this?
:P but I prefer samus the bounty hunter over samus the slut) and the occasional reference to metroid
because I can imagine it now, it'll be her in a space acadamy doing shit, with the occasional shower scene, sex scene, etc like in most random movies (though that wouldnt be that bad
from what it sounds like, this is going to be about the games as much as hitler was for civil rights.
however, if it proves to be better than the summary, then I'll be happy.
with the right people, the metroid series could EASILY be made into a good movie. because it's more realistic and more on the lines of a lot of scifi movies out there.
What would have made it perfect is if the guys behind Alien got ahold of it, then we would have seen some bad ass shit, and that would have been a respectful thing to do seeing as the creator of metroid was a fan of Alien (also was part of the inspiration behind the metroid games)
"Terence Chang and Brad Foxhoven will share production responsibilities."
At first I read this as "Terence Chang and Brad Foxhoven will share responsibility."
And I thought "Good, we'll have someone to beat up if it sucks.
http://thechubbyferret.net - Ferret pictures and informative links.
I *liked* Ripley in Aliens 1 through 3
When Ripley is striping in Alien, the channel six is a Bill Clinton sax solo. Back in her day, she was quite the tight little package.
But given the frequency of sex-pot and your insistance that there aren't many movies of strong female characters who aren't sex pots. What you really mean is you'd like to see extraordinarily beautiful women who don't use their sexuality as part of a character. Well Charlize Theron is your girl. Turns out it's hard to ugly up really pretty. Who knew. If mean if you want Kathy Bates, About Schmidt is the movie for you, boy!! Even Gothika, you'll get a big kick out of Halley Berry's shower scene. Keep the Clorox on hand to wash your eyes out.
But it's pretty unrealistic. Isn't it? If the actress is pretty, the character is pretty, and sexuality is a theromonuclear weapon in the world of mostly hetrosexual men, there is no completely effective defense. As such the option is alway near the table, if not on it, whether or not there is even a hint that it will be used. It simply has to be addressed. There is some wisdom to be found in where the bikini takes its name. If it were entirely untrue it wouldn't have stuck. Now everyone knows the bathing suit, and far fewer know of the former island. And it's not because of the happening floral patterns.
I think that a Metroid Movie should be an almost silent one. Depicting the loneliness of Samus against the mysterious space pirates and Metroids.
John Woo is specialist on complicated and espectacular stunts. Metroid shines on putting you on an alien world. You don't go with your guns blazing in Metroid, dodging bullets ala Matrix.
This has the potential to suck
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
This will be the best thing since SFII the movie! I CAN'T WAIT!
Absolutely NONE of the metroid games have any speaking characters at all, the closest there is are those "pirate data terminals" in prime. Who is Samus gonna talk to for 2 hours? Is she gonna keep a hunter's log or something like that? She clearly doesn't operate under any kind of military or any other organization so arguing with her superiors won't work. The chozo are all long dead, so that's out unless they spend a huge amount of time showing her training. Space pirates could talk I guess, they obviously have language but who wants to hear them do anything but snarl?
As much as I'd love to see Samus on the big screen, I don't think there's enough material to flesh out into an entire movie that will keep casual viewers interested while staying close enough to the original concept to keep the fans happy. It would definitely make for some fantastic action sequences but as a movie? I can't see it.
I can only imagine Metroid as a CG only movie like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. If this movie is done with live actors it will most likely suck. I don't think there is any female actor that could effectively embrace the character of Samus.
No offense guys but I would take this with a large chunk of salt, I mean how many times we were told the doom movie was being made (starring Arnold Shwarzenegger no less)? Metroid being made by Jhon woo? come on! april fools was 4 days ago.
If Metroid ever gets made it will be some stinker ad stunt like the Tomb Raider movie done by some guy whom latest work was a sitcom. Not John Freaking Woh the guy made MI2! (it wasnt that good but it was a very high budget movie), Besides as much as it hurts to say it, Metroid is not THAT Mainstream, is more possible they choose a franchise like Zelda (Link) Halo or (heaven help us) a Pokemon live action movie.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
I hope they get The Minibosses to do a few songs for the soundtrack. It would only be right.
When are they going to do Zero Wing: The Movie?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I would use a named actress who was ridiculously beautiful and had wire-fu experience. Kate Beckensdale comes to mind.
I would put her in the preview, with another reasonable maybe action star in the credits. She would be talking to the person in the armor, which would be sick with style. Her name, Samus would not be mentioned, instead the topic at hand is the alien infestation.
Open the movie with the prerequiset establishing action sequence. Asteroid blows up, and 'tada', to reveal she's in the armor! And then she's out of the armor in a futuristic swimsuit which might be from the video game, or Appleseed, cue story that leads to a hour long breathless action finally. Maybe do a die hard buddy picture, she's on the inside with the alien hords busting sweet moves and snappy one liners, while the person the audiance indentifies with is on the outside offering folksy homespun feel-good wisdom for the 22nd century. Wal*Mart will be reference under penalty of death. Pumpkinhead will be referenced under penalty of twinky.
And that's why I'm Roger Ebert and you're not. Check out my movies Beyond Valley of The Dolls, and The Bra of God.
As Mother Brain--A giant blob of evil ugliness that gets missiled to death at the end. This alone would make me wanna see the movie three times.
...Face Off? That probably was an expensive Hollywood blockbuster, but it was pretty good. Well, what I mean was I like it.
Shakespear's corpse is going to come flying out of his grave and crack open a tureen whoop-ass on someone. And I for one hope it's Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, their kids, friends, and pets.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-11 -13&res=l
George II -- Spreading Freedom and American values, one bomb at a time.
>The movie will center on the origins of the game's female protagonist, sexy bounty hunter Samus Aran, and relate her adventures battling the insidious life-sucking Metroids and their controlling force, Mother Brain."
Better stock up on some hand lotion.
I will be happy if they keep Samus a cool aloof bounty hunter and not try to make her into some champion of justice. The Instructions for the first game make her seem very aloof and that it cost the federation a pretty penny to hire her. The later games, however seem to make her more of a champion of justice (fusion being the main culprit).
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
What a crime. Woo needs to get back with CYF and make normal crime movies again. Someone oughta take away Woo's budget.
I heard that Woo doesn't like Sci Fi. He drained all the Sci Fi out of Paycheck. Why would he do a Sci Fi video game?
Shut up, this new way is way better. Your opinion -- uh... *cough*
... er ...
You have some interesting points, but I think that while it is important to maintain a firm grasp on tradition, sometimes it is necessary to
YOUR OPINION SUCKS.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
It's called "Alien".
Metroid itself pretty much ripped off everything from Alien- H.R. Giger imagery, ambient soundtrack, female lead, and so on..
Maybe John Woo will call it Alien 5: Metroid
HILARIOUS.
2 points!!!
Stage Manager: But Mr. Woo! There aren't any doves on Zebes!
John Woo: They're compulsory, damnit! How else will people know I directed the movie?
From the article:
Nintendo will unveil its eighth "Metroid" game, "Metroid Prime 2," at its E3 press conference May 11.
While I have my concerns about the movie(s) (note that the FIRST movie will be before 2006), a 2nd Metroid Prime ought to be sweet!
-------
* Concerns for the movie(s):
* Ditsy actress for Samus
* Samus running around with 2 pistols
* Capturing the feel of the games. They are primarily puzzle games with a little action.
* Staying true to the Metroid world (Nintendo Power comics? story bits from all the games?)
no comment
Considering how wonderfully dull Paycheck was, I don't think we should be excited at all about another sci-fi thriller/action flick from Woo.
No movie based on a video game has ever not sucked.
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
A soundtrack for Super Metroid:
Relics of the Chozo.
Well, I more or less thought Paycheck was a modest positive on balance. But that aside, hello, like the Studios have said, "hey that shit you did in Hong Kong was bitchen, do more of that, and don't listen to us because we and our focus groups consisting entirely of mid 40's suburban california mothers with absolutely zero going on, we don't know shit."
I really liked Windtalkers, which incidently was the movie he was filming when he said he was going to try to move away more from the violence.
Given the gulf of quality that exists between A better tomorrow II and Bullet In The Head, I'm not inclined to write him off yet.
...is which actress is sufficiently limber to be able to pull off a convincing morph ball.
Yeah, since when is Samus "Sexy"??
I'm all for hot chicks and all, but Samus is an intergalatic, (partial-cyborg?), bounty-hunting, loner who rarely speaks. Why would she be sexy? She's a killer.
I've seen some of the concept work for Prime2(great artists over there at Retro) and it looks like they may play up that angle, which would kick ass.
Woo signing on for the movie isn't a good sign, in my opinion. Hopefully he doesnt direct it. This movie needs grit and suspense, not flash and slo-mo.
FUNK!
I think one of the cooler, younger actresses out there right now is Elisha Cuthbert from the fox show 24. She all that you /.ers want in a Samus. She is young, can kick but and can, um, fill up the varia suit easily.
Just my 2 pesos.
What, me Tweet?
Well, we've got a line-up in the past of video-game-based movies that generally suck, though some aren't too bad. The trend seems to be picking up though, and like the Marvel movies, we might see a few "X-men" type movies to match the disaster that was "the Hulk."
So far, we've got a future line-up of: Metroid
Final Fantasy: Advent Children
FFAC (basically a sequel to FF7) looks like it could actually be very cool, sticking much more to the original theme as opposed to CGI-in-space like FFSW was.
Metroid, in-theme also sounds cool... though it could definately go the way of "stuff blowing up in space, lasers, and boobs."
Can anyone mention any video-game-based movies that were worthwhile? How about games that might make promising movies... so far I can think of a few:
-Zelda
-Pretty much any of the Final Fantasys except X2
-Starcraft/Warcraft
-Space Quest? Most games of this genre, particularly the longer-lasting ones, could make a decent miniseries.
-Diablo: Demons, knights, and undead - oh my! heck why not?
-Wing Commander: Some of these were more-or-less movies anyhow. Could make for a decent SCI-FI miniseries
A lot of the "classic" games I played actually developed somewhat interesting stories. Metroid was actually one that - while more action-focuses - had a decent plotline. There is no reason why these couldn't have the potential to be good movies... except that studios already bastardize books/etc enough and video games tend to take a bad beating as far as plot/action.
Who is Justin Bailey anyway?
Well, the consensus seems to be that the movie will suck. The thing most people forget however (or maybe don't even know) is that a regular producer has almost no creative control over the finished product (thats the directors job). A producer will get funding and organise shit. It sounds like he's optioning the rights so he can make some cash rather than make a movie.
This movie will suffer the same thing the recent Metroids have suffered, with the possible exception of Prime because of the way it was done--obsessing over Samus the character and her origins.
It's a bit like the difference between GTA3 and Vice City. One was an originless, storyless everyman people could live vicariously through, the second game was good but included a character hard for me to relate with.
The same with the Metroids. They keep trying to introduce plot and storylines now, cut-scenes and so forth, when the first game and Super Metroid were about being sent to some far-flung planet and travelling deeper and deeper underground into claustrophic caverns and tunnels, battling bizarre creatures. The fact that you were in a cool-looking suit was great, but even better was that it was just taken for granted that you were Samus Aran, a woman. It was never really a big deal. Even in Super Metroid, in which you already knew it was a woman. She just happened to be one.
This movie's going to play off the whole woman thing and make it extremely cheesy. I liked Samus when she was just some mysterious, silent bounty hunter you knew little about. Now they're trying to fill in her origins, storyline, motivations, and so on, and it doesn't feel like it belongs. Somehow, Prime pulled it off because they never really revealed too much and kept things myserious and ambient. Most of the plot was revealed through Chozo lore on the walls.
I guess it's one of those situations where you know you and your game-playing buddies who love Metroid could sit around one night and come up with a better story and movie tone than the one that's going to come out from John Woo...and it's going to be extremely frustrating when you see the resulting movie. Then again, this doesn't necessarily mean a movie will get made...just that he's signed on if one happens.
. . . Samus isn't played by Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, or Eliza Dushku - all way overrated. Can't act, can't be really physical, and oh ya, not even that hot.
...you do realize this joke is completely ripped off from Chud's report on this, don't you?
Nintendo continues to water down its prime characters with more pointless sequels, lets hope the movies dont spawn the same garbage.
It's going to be great if Woo sticks even a little to the game. I haven't played the original NES I or II, but Metroid III got me hooked. I remember I could never beat the game when I was younger, but thanks to ZSNES and other emulators, I finally beat the game the other day with 89%. It's a very addictive game.
You can get ZSNES here.
You can get the super metroid rom here.
To see some amazing game play action (100% at 1 hour), see here.
Please let me know where you got concept work for Prime 2!! I didn't even know it was out there!! :-)
01000001 01011001 01000010 01000001 01000010 01010100 01010101
I've dreamed of a Metroid movie since I saw the first movie clips of Metroid Prime.
Next on my game-to-movie list: Warcraft. Come on Blizzard, you know you want to.
Put a hot chick with a gun on the poster and you're guaranteed to make at least $100 million USD. ;)
Wing Commander's already a movie, and a bad one at that.
I hate to say it, but the odds are against Woo making a good Metroid movie. The odds are against anyone famous and Hollywood-respected enough to make a Metroid movie, and also willing enough to make one, making it any good.
But there is a real danger here. Ask a random guy on the street, "What is Pokemon?" First thing that will jump into their head is that annoying cartoon. Nevermind that the core GBA games are all brilliant designs, and that each tier of the series has introduced so many astounding cool ideas that I have trouble categorizing them all. The same thing is happening to Kirby, which is a shame because roughly one-in-three "traditional" Kirby games (for the record: Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Adventure/Nightmare in Dreamland and Kirby Super Star) are actually quite decent action games.
Movies and TV shows have a way of displacing things they're based on in the popular culture. It's happened to countless books and plays, and it could very well happen to Metroid. It didn't happen with Super Mario Bros. because the movie flopped and SMB was *the* game that revived video gaming, it probably won't happen to Resident Evil or Tomb Raider because those games are popular enough to be somewhat known to random Joe X. Average, but Metroid... as far as popular games go, a lot of people who don't play games have never heard of it This could harm the franchise.
If the movie can go from start to finish in less than 3 hours, will we see Samus in a skimpy outfit at the end, after the credits?
___ In the words of Gen. Douglas McArthur: "I'll be right back."
Metroid has always had some of the absolute best music of any games.
"
And don't get me started on the same damn catch scene he puts in his movies. You know the one where the good and bad guy both of each others guns pointed at one anothers head.
"
No shit man! He's always pulling that crap with me too. I'll be over at his place and I'll be like:
"Hey John, I'm getting kinda hungry. Wanna go grab a -- whoa! Hey, put that thing away, man. No, dude, it's not funny."
I've never quite figured out why there's an "Offtopic" mod. It should really be "Unrelated" or something, if there needs to be a catchall category for GNAA and goat.cx. It's what it's really used to mean on Slashdot. "Offtopic" originated on USENET, where you had tens of thousands of newsgroups -- "topics" -- ecisting at the same time. Posting to the wrong newsgroup *was* the wrong thing to do -- one should post to the right newsgroup. The problem is that this sort of thing doesn't *exist* on Slashdot; you can't just cruise on over to another "newsgroup", since Slashdot stories are of limited duration".
IMHO, "Offtopic" mods should be reserved for posts where the post is not only unrelated to the story, but also unrelated to the parent post. There is little point in attempting to halt productive discussion that has wandered away from the original story submission.
May we never see th
I can't believe all the gaming geeks think that hiding the characterization of the main protagonist of a film would work as a film. Sure you can tolerate it in a video game character that you control but for someone to get into a movie you have to get to know the characters. I imagine that Metroid the movie could get by with having the protagonist speak through a mechanical filter to disguise the sex or having an androgynous lead but both would be awkward.
The movie will center on the origins of the game's female protagonist, sexy bounty hunter Samus Aran
It'll be like Tarzan, but in space. And instead of apes, we'll have Chozo aliens. And instead of swinging by vines, we'll have a grappling beam. Imagine the laughs as Samus swings, full body, into a tree, er, metal column.
Pat as Samus Aran!
That's right. All your base.
I think someone modded this wrong, it should be -1 overated, because that sorry excuse for a comic strip isn't funny.
Alright, remove sexy from this movie. There should be no sexy. Show Samus kicking butt. Give us creapy alien ambiance. But through out the entire movie, don't even mention that she's a she.
Maybe somewhere on teh DVD release, or during the ending credits, we can see her with her helmet off or something.. but we really don't want them to latch on to 'sexy' when the entire game was devoid of sexy until you descovered Samus was a girl.
All the sexy is implied through the post game knowledge that she's female. None of it is overtly displayed. If they're starting off with the idea of sexy, rest assured we'll just be watching situations where samus's running around out of suite for contrived reasons just to demonstrate the sexyness of it all.
- Someone from the dev team
- "Bailey" is British slang for "swimsuit", therefore the whole thing is "just in swimsuit"
- One of many random sequences that just happen to fit the format of the code except this one has a recognisable name
The swimsuit one sounds the most reasonable, but Google doesn't seem to think it's true. Does anyone have a reputable theory?WTF? HE said he wouldn't do action flicks anymore -- whata freakin pussy. I guess that's where the money's at...
Sort of:p
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Linky.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Granted, John Woo may be talented, but I don't think there was EVER a truly great movie based on a video game.
"Would you rather be right, or happy?"
When they set loose a big-ass flock of shriekbats.
Several of them ... speed run movies :-)
Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-01 -24&res=l
We'll always have that confusion from those who don't know. Which is actually funnier.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
Please, God, let Peta Wilson get the role of Samus. There are few women who can match her in that magic combo of smarts, sex appeal, and sheer kickassitude.
Yancy Butler would be an acceptable second.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Does anyone remember what happened to Paycheck? It get a lot of fiction, but NO SCIENCE!!! If we were allow Hollywood to screw up yet another game franchise with a famed action movie director, the scale of bankrupcy will make Square Studio looks good by comparison.
For those interested, here are the end of game sequences for the metroid series:
Metroid (NES)
Super Metroid (SNES)
Metroid 2 (Gameboy)
Metroid Fusion (GBA)
Metroid Zero Mission (GBA)
Oh, and I found an old Metroid comis put out by Nintendo: click
Anm
(call me a karma whore, but people want to know!!)
"A pretty woman with a gun in her hand is way sexier than one without." --Eric S. Raymond
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Watch out for ocular herpes.
They should be different and have a non-sexy Samus as the star.
I only ever really played the original NES version, and Samus was not sexy in that game. I didn't even know Samus was a girl until long after I stopped playing.
I remember Metroid (and Super Metroid) as games with a constant soundtrack and a constant stream of enemies. I also remember Samus as a lady with many physical talents, such as jump-spinning, dashing, bouncing off of walls, etc. Don't forget the wide variety of weapons.
Maybe you are thinking of Alien; a John Woo action spectacular sounds perfect for the Metroid I remember playing.
Let's see... we've got Resident Evil, but then we have Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat(1&2), Tomb Raider(I&2), Street Fighter(I&2), Double Dragon, Wing Commander, Final Fantasy, and, of course, House of the Dead, ignoring any of the pokemon movies and their ilk.
I'm probably forgetting a couple, but here's the point. Movies tell stories, and how many of the list above have actual stories. ie. not The president's daughter has been kidnapped! You must rescue her! or You must destroy the evil karate master through a series of fights at bizarre locations, but only if you know the correct button combos! Staying true to these sort of games is destined for disappointment. Final Fantasy and Wing Commander had vast worlds of story to deal with, but look what resulted.
I've only played through the original Metroid and Super Metroid, but if a Metroid movie compares to the games the way the above movies compare to their respective games, I have a bad feeling Metroid may be a cross between Mario and Tomb Raider.
Justin Bailey actually means, "just in bailey." It is not someones name, bailey is an old term used for swimsuit
Come to think of it, somebody might actually make Metris (2nd link, 2nd panel) as a hack of Puyo Puyo or something, or Metroid Space Dancer (2nd link, 3rd panel) as a StepMania simfile based on music from game soundtracks.
just hope it won't be another disaster like The Hulk. (shudder)
The plot of Metroid Fusion would work for that. You'd need a voice for "Adam", and the backup techs that kept sending upgrades to the station. Plus, Samus vs. SA-X seems perfect for Woo's talents.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke
Pong - It's not just a game!... the Pong flash movie ;)
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
The article said that Metroid Prime 2 will be the eighth Metroid game. Can somebody see if I missed something here?
Metroid (NES)
Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)
Super Metroid (Super NES)
Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)
Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)
Metroid Prime (Gamecube)
Looks like it'll be the seventh to me...
This is not part of my post. It's my signature. I bet you're disappointed.
"I think that a Metroid Movie should be an almost silent one. Depicting the loneliness of Samus against the mysterious space pirates and Metroids."
Now explain how you would do this while selling tickets.
OK, so that was a smartassed comment, but I really am curious how you would expect to sell a movie with essentially one character in it.
+++ATH0