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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.
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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!
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I weep for humanity, for I remember the Super Mario Bros. movie.
No good can come from this.
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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.
If they want to stay true to the storyline, they'll make a point of ignoring her sex until the very end of the film. It won't make a bit of difference to the fanboys who are already mentally queueing up to see it, but hey, it'd be true to the series.
;)
If the movie ends in an hour and a half, do we get to see Samus in a bikini?
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.
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
But I'm afraid it would be like Tomb Raider in outer space... Who else would capture our, uhm, hearts better than Ms. Jolie?
Jessica Alba!
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.
Jessica Alba!
Very nice! I like it!
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" ----------
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?
If I fast-forward the movie, watching it in less than 2 hours, will I get to see Samus in a skimpy bikini?
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.
"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
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?
- 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.
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
Wouldn't it be cool if we get to watch flashbacks to training? In these flashbacks, you see several men and women and have no idea which one is going to *be* the metroid warrior. They could make it look like it's going to be some guy, then at the end of the movie they reveal that it's the chick you least expected it to be!
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A halo game could be really cheap to make too. They would be able to just reuse all the set pieces over and over without any modification.
Yeah, but how often does hollywood actually want to stay true to the story?
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.
Let's get back to basics.
Pong: the Movie.
-kgj
-kgj
If this movie goes well, could a Halo movie be far behind?
Red vs. Blue.
Meroid has been on every single console Nintendo has produced, with the possible exception of the N64 (I haven't researched it, going from memory now).
It's much older than pokemon, but has a few less games than pokemon because of the myriad colors that one comes in.
Samus Aran (the main character) has also appeared in a few other games, mainly the Super Smash Brothers series, though there may have been one or two others.
I can't find the launch date for the original Metroid, but I know it was within the first 2 years of the NES being released.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
"tombs"? Is that what the kids are calling them these days?
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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...
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The thing about keeping the gender neutral until the end would be that they'd have to keep the identity of the actress secret and such.
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She is the ultimate Kick-A** B*tch. Anyone who has seen even a few episodes of Farscape would agree.
And adding one more T is going to make us realize that it's not pronounced "fat"?
heh. You're too kind.
Karnal
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
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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.
Nope... It's just spelt that way. It's the result of romanising Chinese names gone wrong. How the name is spelt doesn't actually reflect the way it's correctly pronounced, but we try for an astatically pleasing spelling that's as close to actual pronunciation as possible. Translating according to standards sometimes gives a person a funny name when read by a person not familiar with the original language - which is why it's translated in the 1st place.
The reverse is also true. Like how in Chinese coca-cola only sounds like coca-cola but doesn't actually mean the same thing, reason being that the literal translation is a PR nightmare.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
Perhaps someone should have done a better job anglicizing the name - don't laugh at people pronouncing a word the way it's spelled.
Languages like German in which they also use the Latin alphabet I can understand some discrepency between spelling and pronunciation. But there's no reason for a name that's never been spelled out in English before to be anything less than perfectly phonetic (at least as close as our language will get to the actual pronunciation)
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George II -- Spreading Freedom and American values, one bomb at a time.
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?
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.
No it's not. It's "Chow Yun-fat" with one "t". I may be a gweilo, but I happen to live on Lamma Island, where he was born, and you can imagine he's a real local hero. Also, that's the way it's spelled on the movie posters. And if I had to write it phonetically the way Cantonese pronounce it, it'd be something like "Chow yun fah", not that far removed.
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.
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."
You left out the parts about the shifty-eyed dog and the talking pie...
Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.
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.
Gunpei Yokoi made Metroid, Metroid 2 and Super Metroid, not Miyamoto. Miyamoto also didn't create Pokemon, that was Satoshi Tajiri.
I remember reading that there weren't any new Metroid games after Super Metroid because Yokoi didn't want any more to be made. I don't know if he had enough power within Nintendo for that to be the case (could Miyamoto really stop Nintendo from making more Mario and Zelda games?). From what I understand, the Metroid franchise isn't as big in Japan as America, and that might have been a factor as well. He left Nintendo in 1996, possibly because of the failure of the Virtual Boy, and died in a car accident in 1997. A bunch of threads on Usenet lamented that with his death, there'd be no more sequels for Metroid or Kid Icarus.
Metroid 64 news / rumors trickled out, but I can't remember if that was while he was still living. I think Miyamoto was involved in Prime's development, but I don't remember how much. Might not have been too much, since Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker were also in development, along with whatever other long range projects were on his plate (Mario 128, Pikmin 2).
In fact, Metroid Prime wasn't even made by Nintendo - it was made by Retro Studios, and published by Nintendo. MP may have been in development for the N64 at the beginning, but it was moved to the GC pretty quickly (before anyone knew it was first-person, etc.)