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Doom Movie Scriptwriter Dave Callaham Interviewed
rsmith-mac writes "The HomeLAN Federation has posted an interview with Dave Callaham, the scriptwriter for the forthcoming Doom movie. The interview goes over id's influences on the movie and willingness to change the mythology to work with the movie, along with the earlier reported studio shift, and some very light details relating to the characters in the story. If all goes as planned, the Doom movie will start principal production this month in order to hit the theaters in August of 2005."
Interviewer: So, Mr. Callah, let's start with the most important question on everyone's mind. Will there be lava? And, perhaps more importantly, will there be crates?
Callahan: I want to put everyone's mind to rest on this point. The studio has the best lava people in the business, and they've specifically assured me I will have a free hand.
Interviewer: Phew. Also, before I forget. we're all dying to know. Will the hero at any point successfully outrun a fireball? This is something that is so important, not only to me, but I think I can speak for all moviegoers out there. It's an image that really really gets better every time I see it.
Callahan: Well, Ed, I don't want to give too much away, but we briefly considered having the hero run from a nuclear explosion! Don't worry, there'll be plenty of what we know the audience loves most.
Interviewer: So, let's talk about the plot. Which of the hero's family members will be killed? Mother? Father? Both parents? Or will it be a hero-parent who loses his kids?
Callahan: Actually, what I'm allowed to say is that we're going a bit unconventional on this. We're going to have a brother and a sister, and each one will lose a parent. I know this is pushing the envelope a bit, but the producers are behind me and I believe the studio will hold off and allow us some of the artistic integerity which we all know is so rare in this business.
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The best video game movie since Super Mario Brothers!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I have high hopes that will be another classic video game transfer. Just like Super Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Tombraider and Wing Commander.
Will I have to upgrade my eyes/ears to see it?
I dunno...if the whole movie just involves one actor running through a pitch black set with random zombies jumping out from in front and behind (after he just cleared the room behind him), I think the movie will get real old, real fast. Zing!
SIGFAULT
willingness to change the mythology to work with the movie
If they get stuck with this...give me a call.
G. Lucas.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will also appear as Sarge, the head space marine, but Callaham warns, "He is not going to be smiling a whole bunch. You won't see him raise his left eyebrow."
This movie is bound to be good - The Rock only accepts scripts of the highest quality.
I've been waiting so long for an action movie where there is a single hope for mankind?! I wonder if there will be explosions and stuff...?!
One thing that id did insist upon is that the main character in the movie be named John. When asked, Callaham was unsure if that was a tribute to id's master programmer John Carmack but did admit there is another character named Carmack in the movie.
Yes, quite the mystery where that came from...
with lot of talent and lot of time on their hands wouldnt use the Doom3 engine to (a)create new models (b)create new environments and (c) with the help of a good story writer, create a pre-rendered movie with an acceptable level of voiceover acting, great action and stuff that blows up sky high. Or does someone really need to spend around 200 mil to find what Aliens Versus Predator just found out?
I would even pay if someone could make it engrossing enough to waste a few hours on it, and salacious enough to keep the young viewers glued to their screens.
Rapid Nirvana
Sarge Shots The Monster
Sarge Runs
Sarge Shots The Monster
Sarge Picks Up More Ammo
Sarge Runs
Monster Shoots Sarge Just Before He Shots The Monster
Sarge: Ouch!
Sarge Runs
Sarge Opens A Secret Door
Sarge Applies A Medkit
Sarge Runs
Sarge Shots The Monster
Sarge Finds A Bigger Gun
____________________________
Academy Award, here we come!
(Note: I couldn't put directions in all caps like a real script due to Lameness Filter...)
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Can they make the movie as real as the game is, especially doom 3?? I doubt it.
Honestly , i am not a fan of games2movie type of movies ... i prefer games to remain games ... i won't be watching this ... anyone else feel this way ?
This is NOT a sig - billy
I wonder...are they going to land on mars using Carmacks Armadillo spacecraft?
Ni.
Ghosts of Mars
mars. demons. guns. space marines. little or no plot.
seemed like doom to me.
just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
Let's see here. What have got:
a) Movie based around a video game whose entire plot was "bad things came from hell, kill them."
b) First time scriptwriter.
c) B-Movie director whose best credits are Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds, and involvement in such classic stinkers as Species and Speed, changed in to direct at last minute.
d) Will star The Rock and a washed out Bond girl in leading parts.
e) Tossed around between studios.
I think we are looking a three or four Academy awards, at least!
Since Doom's plot (even Doom 3's plot) is very weak and really has no substance, the movie has a potential to make up whatever story they want. Ideally, they'll leave the setting on Mars/in hell and throw in some recognizable artifacts (such as the chaingun or plasma cannon -- maybe the BFG) and put the main character - a marine - in some dirty green uniform; slap UAC on a few walls and signs and you've got yourself a Doom movie! If you REALLY want to stick to the game - add pinky demons, imps, and maybe a death knight or arch vile.
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
I would really love to see a movie based on that game. I like the setup, it just tickles my imagination and arises my curiosity. On the other hand, it would be really easy to spoil the atmosphere of the game, if the filmmakers get it wrong. Which they almost always do. So, beware of the Doom movie, it might be a let-down for many Doom fans.
OTOH, I really like "Resident Evil" the movie, better than the game.
Sigged!
The only thing I want to see a doom movie for is to watch a real actor rocket jump to an otherwise-inaccessible ledge.
Oh yes, and I want to see someone telefragged on screen.
Its called Aliens.
If they want this movie to not suck, they better consult with James Cameron.
Hell..... if there are going to be making movies based on old shoot-em ups why not pick one that acutally has an interesting story and plot?
No see the real trick will be getting it out before the Duke Nukem: Forever movie...
Before they switched directors, this movie had a chance to be an amazing flick. The guy who was previously directing it has worked on a few Nine Inch Nails videos, and you can bet he was planning to stay as true to the original mythology with as little overdramatized love-interest-style garbage as possible. Now, it seems, it will be just another movie based on a game that hollywood butchers for the sake of the almighty dollar. The original director's unwillingness to compromise with money grubbing producers is probably a big part of why he's not on the project, anymore.
Within days after the new director was announced; the script had already been butchered with the addition of an endangered love interest and the elimination of the pre-human civilization plotline.
The evil quotient of hollywood producers is right up there with the MPAA and RIAA.
For it to really be a Doom movie, it has to be done first person shooter style.
This means, of course, that the camera has to be permanently mounted behind a gun barrel and, aside from mirrors and other reflective objects, you never get to see the protagonist's face -- because he is, after all, the true everyman, representative of everyone and specifically looking like no one. For truly, who among us has not had to slay a million zillion zombies?
A true first person shooter version of Doom / Quake etc would be cool, in a "Blaim Doom Project" kind of way ...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Remember that when facing down the Cyberdemon, the space marine shoots first!
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
UK folks use a soft 'g' for giblets, but Canadians and many Americans use a hard 'g' for giblets. Cooks likely use a soft 'g' because they are hoity-toity. :-)
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Unfortunately, his opinion of the movie so far is that it is going to be 'crap'.
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
Did anyone else read the four Doom novels by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver?
The books got increasingly metaphysical as they reached the fourth book, but the first book was awesome and I always saw it as movie-ready. It dealth with the solipsism and paranoia of being on a space-station by oneself (and, ok, a couple of thousand Satanic spawn).
...is that the people doing CGI for the movie probably couldn't run the game on their systems.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
So, when do we get to see the Commander Keen movie? I nominate Rush Limbaugh for the part of Dopefish.
You mean id was willing to be flexible with the DOOM storyline? The storyline that went something like...
It's demons.
It's aliens.
No... wait... It's demonic aliens.
No, they're really demons, from hell.
You go to hell and kill all of the demons.
Research on Mars summons demons who try to steal ships to invade Earth.
I don't know how they could EVER justify deviation.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
My mom is from Chicago, my maternal grandmother from St. Louis, my dad from the Northwest, my paternal grandfather from Boston, and my maternal grandmother and great-great-grandmother were from Tulsa. All of them pronounced it with a soft 'g' so I tend to think that this is the dominant pronunciation around the US at least. However, Dictionary.com has two entries with differing pronunciations -- the American Heritage Dictionary has it with the soft sound, and the Webster's has the hard sound.
Lending some weight to the one side, though, I believe that John Carmack has said that it was pronounced with the soft 'g' around id. Since they presumably coined the word, they do have some say in how it's pronounced.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
... it'll be every bit as good as the comic book.
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
Agreed. If they aren't spawned from Hell then what the hell is the point?
"Hey, instead of having our 'Tale of Two Cities' movie taking place in France during the revolution, let's place it in a Brooklyn barber shop during a series of momma jokes. The audience will love it since they're a bunch of twits who like sparkley objects!"
So I say to hell (no pun intended) with the Hollywoodization of this project. I want my hellspawned demons pouring out of a science project gone bad (on Mars!). I want (almost) everybody dead, I want my marine so lonely that his animal instincts kick in and he's not afraid to grow a pair and throw himself out in a room blasting imps and hellknights with rocket launchers and machine guns.
I want a movie where our lone marine must save himself before he can worry about anybody else on the planet, and THEN maybe save Earth in the sequal. I would say more, but it all comes down to wanting a movie based on the game, not somebody's idea of a another 'horror' movie that's the same plot, just different characters in another place.
You will be just as surpised as I when you read this:
Alien vs Predator Domestic Total as of Oct. 5, 2004: $79,690,462, Worldwide total $101,614,954
They've already gone into profit territory on this and in fact it's being called a success: The studio also saw success this year with Regency's "Man on Fire" and "Alien vs. Predator."
So stop all the hate and learn the facts.
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
They are commanded by a hardbitten veteran sergeant for who this is a reward, a few easy years at a top post before his retirement. He does not a chip on his shoulder about anything. New is the officer but he is smart, knows his stuff, knows to use his NCO's and that sometimes orders are there to be disobeyed. None of his family had been killed by anyone and he is single.
In the first ten minutes we learn a little about how nice and stable they all are and see a bit of the base. Perhaps get a few hints about some Big Fucking Gun being developed and meet the system administrator, a nice tomboy girl with no hangups and also single. She and the officer take an instant "dis"like to each other and trade funny one liners.
Remember this takes about ten minutes. During the opening credits. Then the movie starts and hell breaks loose as the research goes wrong.
From then on we don't got any lines longer then two sentences. The "story" is basically the sergeant and the officer trying to get their team together (spread out across the base during the incident) with the help of the system admin (que banter and very light love interest) and then beat back the demons with the help of the tech gadgets hinted at during the intro with of course the final mission to collect the BFG and kill the boss demon.
After the first suprise no-one gets killed needlessly, everyone does their job with perhaps just a few civilians being funnily slaughtered because they do the stupid thing. None of the marines panick or betray the team or any of the hollywood crap. The team doesn't get smaller and smaller but gets bigger as the group gathers members.
In short? Band of Brothers Meets Alien. That is the Real men acting like real men in a future world with really nasty monsters and big explosions.
Avoid all the "incompetent officer" "hardbitten marine with broken home" "backstabbing civilian" "scream queen love interest" "slowly people getting killed off in incredibly stupid ways" and you won't need a "great story", the audience will be too relieved with your originality to care.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
...the 'disposable' characters should all be called "Player" and would get 0wned as soon as each firefight commenced. The main actors would then unanimously chime in with "omfg n00b!! r00fles!!!". I wonder... to be truly like the game, should there be characters that shoot themselves in the arse with their own rockets?