REAL forward progress towards a Mechwarrior movie?

[Steve_Erhardt]

Caught this bit on the Wizkids Mechwarrior (http://www.wizkidsgames.com/) site about a short mechwarrior movie (there's a couple efforts floating around out there right now, but this one seems to have the most steam...)

“The director [Lee Stringer] is an Emmy-winning visual effects supervisor with credits on Star Trek, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Lee loves MechWarrior and has wanted to bring it to the screen for 10 years,” according to DAVE School Founder and Director Jeff Scheetz. “We teach our students the importance of getting strong reference, and the incredible level of art direction in the MechWarrior universe is making it easier for our students to create awesome sequences.”

The as-yet-unnamed film will release this summer, and will be screened at Origins 2006 in Columbus, Ohio, and Gen Con 2006 in Indianapolis, Ind. It will also be available for download online.
The whole thing can be found at http://www.wizkidsgames.com/wk_article.asp?cid=40609&frame=company

I'm not as wild about the Wizkids take on the game as I used to be with Classic Battletech, but nonetheless, this is exciting news.

[amusedtoe]

So anyone think this will turn out better then Wing Commander? ;)

[aversion2k]

They should base it around the clans, never liked the inner sphere stuff as much.

[nonchalance]

Oh please be good. Please please please.

And please use all the FASA material as well.

[Wasson_]

That sounds pretty cool. As long as they steer very very very far away from the direction the franchise went in on the Xbox. God those games are retarded...taking one of the most time-honored combat sims and turning it into an utterly medicore shooter, give me a break.

.....
Wing Commander is perhapse one of the dumbest movies of all time. The short lived cartoon series had better writing and more emotinoal impact than the movie. And it at least had the ships look like they did in the games... Freddy Prince Jr can suck it.

[Nite_Moogle]

Please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck

[GrinR]

It's going to suck because it's no longer a game about huge technical machines. It's been poisoned by anime "mecha" wherein the tech is secondary to the drama. Now the "mechs" just bounce around like veritechs did in Macross.

*yawn*

[critch]

I wouldn't call this forward progress at all. It's a film school project, probably on the same level as your average saturday morning cgi cartoon. If this shit gets out in the open, it might actually be backward progress.

[jpublic]

There already *has* been a MW movie. It was called Robot Jox.

[Stryfe01]

There already *has* been a MW movie. It was called Robot Jox.

lol i remember that crap!

[Wasson_]

It's going to suck because it's no longer a game about huge technical machines. It's been poisoned by anime "mecha" wherein the tech is secondary to the drama. Now the "mechs" just bounce around like veritechs did in Macross.

*yawn*

You do realize that the majority of the very first Battletech "Battlemechs" were basically "stolen" from Macross and other old mech-anime series...right?

For example, in Mechwarrior 2 - the mechs "Rifleman", "Warhammer" and "Maurauder" are basically carbon-copies of examples of mecha seen in the Macross universe.

Pay little attention to to cool mecha drawings, but read the text, it explains alot about the origions of Battletech and hence- Mechwarrior

http://www.yellowlightman.com/macross/omake/jpbt/

This also shows just how much stuff from origional Battletech is influenced by / stolen from japanese mecha.

http://brianscache.com/unseen/

[hooby3D]

I rented Robot Jox with some friends in like 4th grade and thought it was kinda cool. Funny that this project has nothing to do with this: http://mechwarriormovie.com/ or this: http://imdb.com/name/nm0002041/board/thread/4127518 . While I'm at it...... http://netmech.org/ .

[Steve_Erhardt]

It's going to suck because it's no longer a game about huge technical machines. It's been poisoned by anime "mecha" wherein the tech is secondary to the drama. Now the "mechs" just bounce around like veritechs did in Macross.

Eh? When/where did that happen?


I wouldn't call this forward progress at all. It's a film school project, probably on the same level as your average saturday morning cgi cartoon. If this shit gets out in the open, it might actually be backward progress.

If you check out some of the shorts they have on their site, you'll see they aren't bad at all. Not Weta, mind you, not by a longshot (because, hey, they ARE a school, not a polished rendering powerhouse), but definitely up to rendering a nice Battlemech fight, which, I'm hoping would be good enough "proof of concept" material for an actual studio push on a full blown movie. That would be forward progress beyond all the lip service we've seen so far.

Now, if you're right, it still wouldn't be backward progress, as that would mean this effort would have to be even WORSE fare than the Battletech Cartoon was over a decade ago. That simply isn't possible.

They should base it around the clans, never liked the inner sphere stuff as much.

You, sir, are crazy. ;)

Battletech was really in it's prime for 3025. Dystopic future, galactic empires barely hanging on to power, man waging war with machines he no longer totally understood; each one a precious-as-life-itself family heirloom, and political systems forced back into a backwards feudal system ripe for corruption... THAT was the nitty gritty, my young friend. The Clans were cool and the gave the game a needed shot in the arm with their arrival, but IS and it's wars/intrigues will always be the tops if you were there from the beginning. ;)

So anyone think this will turn out better then Wing Commander?

Well, it's only going to be a short film, so assuming they don't try to get all pretentious on us and try to tell some meaningful story and instead just stick to the basics (lots of mech action), then it should hit it's target far better than the Wing Commander movie did.

Though I have to say, much as I detest the Wing Commander movie for it's blatant disregard for the game's universe, it IS a guilty pleasure I indulge in nearly every time it's on TV. :p

[Steve_Erhardt]

Robot Jox.

God that was painful.

[Rakael]

Robot Jox...wow, I haven't thought about that flick since I last watched it at somewhere around eight years old.

[Frogleg Special]

I want a game, not a non-interactive movie.

Mechwarrior 5 please...

[neutronbeam]

Hey, I'm interested, and I greatly appreciate your running this story! Good work and thanks for it! :)

[aversion2k]

I remember robot jox (it had nothing to do with mechwarrior for people who dont know)
I remember at the end the good guy and the bad guy have blown up each others mechs and are fighting on the ground, then the good guy says "Wait, we dont need to fight, we can just be freinds" and the bad guy says "your right" then the movie ends

[Zeal]

Who the hell would want a MechWarrior film.

[aversion2k]

You, sir, are crazy. ;)

Battletech was really in it's prime for 3025. Dystopic future, galactic empires barely hanging on to power, man waging war with machines he no longer totally understood; each one a precious-as-life-itself family heirloom, and political systems forced back into a backwards feudal system ripe for corruption... THAT was the nitty gritty, my young friend. The Clans were cool and the gave the game a needed shot in the arm with their arrival, but IS and it's wars/intrigues will always be the tops if you were there from the beginning. ;)

I felt the clans were much more interesting then the corperations and royal familys.

General flees solar system with giant army, divides army into honorable, religous competing clans, which selectively breed the best pilots. Writes a "bible" which half of clans decendents missinterpret, dividing the clans into 2 main groups, one of which wants to return to the "innersphere" and kill everyone.

I've read a heap of battletech fiction and backstory, I like it all, but I like the clans best.
Although it may have something to do with mechwarrior 2....

[RandomViolence]

Who the hell would want a MechWarrior film.

Who the hell would want words to come out of your mouth?

[RandomViolence]

Eh? When/where did that happen?




If you check out some of the shorts they have on their site, you'll see they aren't bad at all. Not Weta, mind you, not by a longshot (because, hey, they ARE a school, not a polished rendering powerhouse), but definitely up to rendering a nice Battlemech fight, which, I'm hoping would be good enough "proof of concept" material for an actual studio push on a full blown movie. That would be forward progress beyond all the lip service we've seen so far.

Now, if you're right, it still wouldn't be backward progress, as that would mean this effort would have to be even WORSE fare than the Battletech Cartoon was over a decade ago. That simply isn't possible.



You, sir, are crazy. ;)

Battletech was really in it's prime for 3025. Dystopic future, galactic empires barely hanging on to power, man waging war with machines he no longer totally understood; each one a precious-as-life-itself family heirloom, and political systems forced back into a backwards feudal system ripe for corruption... THAT was the nitty gritty, my young friend. The Clans were cool and the gave the game a needed shot in the arm with their arrival, but IS and it's wars/intrigues will always be the tops if you were there from the beginning. ;)



Well, it's only going to be a short film, so assuming they don't try to get all pretentious on us and try to tell some meaningful story and instead just stick to the basics (lots of mech action), then it should hit it's target far better than the Wing Commander movie did.

Though I have to say, much as I detest the Wing Commander movie for it's blatant disregard for the game's universe, it IS a guilty pleasure I indulge in nearly every time it's on TV. :p

I don't know. Some of the post-3060 intermingling of the Clan and IS universes was pretty fucking interesting. Wolf's Dragoons before that were always a personal fascination for me. The idea of the clans creating a mercenary unit (something they truly despise) to spy on the Inner Sphere just seems so mind-blowingly cool. I was always partial to the Jade Falcons, too, for the stories about Aidan Pryde (if anyone's a true BattleTech fiction junkie, they'll know that name :D) and the ravaging of that clan. The exile of the Wolf Clan to the Steiner empire under a freeborn ruler was also damn sweet.

Wow. Thanks a lot, assholes. Now I really miss this universe :(.

[aversion2k]

battletech is gooooood

[Stormwatcher]

considering how huge the FASA-Era BattleTech mythos is, and how uninspired the WizKids BT is, I can't see how this movie could be good.
And Wing Commander Movie wasn't that bad. Sure, it was no Wing Commander IV, but it was probably one of the 3 best game movies ever.

We are still wating for our Spider-Man or X-Men movie equivalent, though.

[ÜberJumper]

I'd love to see a story about the fall of the Star League (the battle for the Sol system alone would be worth the price of admission! God that fleet battle would have been insane... Kerensky's ships battling in system, the battle raging for days, from the jump point under pursuit from the in-system defense drones, ending with Kerensky's Orion kicking in the gate to the Cameron's summer estate.), and setup the Exile of Kerensky's army. That would set the stage for a 3025 movie (with Davion vs the Combine). Have wolf's dragoons show up, and it'd be a rousing good go. Third movie could be the return of the Clans.

[hooby3D]

You should probably watch the old Battletech show to pass the time.......
http://imdb.com/title/tt0138224/
download.....
http://www.sarna.net/files/index.php/media/video/tv/

[Steve_Erhardt]

I felt the clans were much more interesting then the corperations and royal familys.

General flees solar system with giant army, divides army into honorable, religous competing clans, which selectively breed the best pilots. Writes a "bible" which half of clans decendents missinterpret, dividing the clans into 2 main groups, one of which wants to return to the "innersphere" and kill everyone.

I've read a heap of battletech fiction and backstory, I like it all, but I like the clans best.
Although it may have something to do with mechwarrior 2....

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the Jade Falcons have always been my favorites (at least, once the clans came on the scene... before that it was House Steiner). :)

[random johnald?]

I don't know. Some of the post-3060 intermingling of the Clan and IS universes was pretty fucking interesting. Wolf's Dragoons before that were always a personal fascination for me. The idea of the clans creating a mercenary unit (something they truly despise) to spy on the Inner Sphere just seems so mind-blowingly cool. I was always partial to the Jade Falcons, too, for the stories about Aidan Pryde (if anyone's a true BattleTech fiction junkie, they'll know that name :D) and the ravaging of that clan. The exile of the Wolf Clan to the Steiner empire under a freeborn ruler was also damn sweet.

Wow. Thanks a lot, assholes. Now I really miss this universe :(.

Fuck yeah, Pryde was kickass. For the books at least, the clan stuff was way better than the Inner Sphere, but either way, I'm hoping for this to not suck.