We all know that Nintendo got burned when they sold the rights for a Mario movie and this has caused them to be cautions about making the same mistake again. I believe that one of the problems with the Mario movie was that the themes and genre of the game (cartoony platformer) didn't make for an easy conversion to a good script. I think that Nintendo should try again with a game that does have a theme and genre that could make a good script, Metroid.
Now, I'm not talking about the new Metroids, like Other M, but the classics, the Metroids with the theme of a silent, solitary fight for survival. Think of movies that have pulled this off- the beginning of Wall-E, the end of Predator, and I Am Legend. I don't want some angsty protagonist that whines all the time; I want a silent and strong bounty hunter that gets the job done without asking questions.
I see the movie playing as follows: opens with an armored bounty hunter efficiently taking out a group of criminals; the head criminal discovers that his captor is the cruel and silent Samus Aran. After turning in her bounty, Samus is hired, because she is known to take jobs without asking questions, as a consultant to track the whereabouts of a military vessel that disappeared. En route, the ship computer fills in some of Samus' background with mostly one-sided conversations. Samus finds the missing ship drifting silently in space. The crew of the eerie ghost ship is missing/replaced by pillars of graphite. After discovering that the cargo of the ship was taken to a nearby planet by a group of space pirates, Samus is attacked by the hereto unknown metroid creatures. After a frantic struggle to get back to her ship alive, Samus follows the pirates to the nearby planet where she must infiltrate the underground pirate base (caves), find new ways to fight off these new creatures (suit upgrades), and stop the pirate leader (mother brain) from using these creatures to hold the galaxy ransom.
In my mind, I see this as a straight forward approach to turning the game into a solid movie. Because I remember some fan rage about a proposed actress for a proposed Metroid movie a couple of years ago, I'm going to leave this with a risky idea for who to play Samus, Mae Whitman. I think she can play a great under spoken subtle character (Arrested Development), she'd do great for the voice of the ship's overly concerned computer (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and she has done video game action movies before too (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). My one concern on casting her is that most of those gigs were comedy while this would be action/suspense.
Anyway, I know that nothing can come from a web forum, but what does the rest of the community think of my "If I had $30 million to make a movie" line of thought?
Now, I'm not talking about the new Metroids, like Other M, but the classics, the Metroids with the theme of a silent, solitary fight for survival. Think of movies that have pulled this off- the beginning of Wall-E, the end of Predator, and I Am Legend. I don't want some angsty protagonist that whines all the time; I want a silent and strong bounty hunter that gets the job done without asking questions.
I see the movie playing as follows: opens with an armored bounty hunter efficiently taking out a group of criminals; the head criminal discovers that his captor is the cruel and silent Samus Aran. After turning in her bounty, Samus is hired, because she is known to take jobs without asking questions, as a consultant to track the whereabouts of a military vessel that disappeared. En route, the ship computer fills in some of Samus' background with mostly one-sided conversations. Samus finds the missing ship drifting silently in space. The crew of the eerie ghost ship is missing/replaced by pillars of graphite. After discovering that the cargo of the ship was taken to a nearby planet by a group of space pirates, Samus is attacked by the hereto unknown metroid creatures. After a frantic struggle to get back to her ship alive, Samus follows the pirates to the nearby planet where she must infiltrate the underground pirate base (caves), find new ways to fight off these new creatures (suit upgrades), and stop the pirate leader (mother brain) from using these creatures to hold the galaxy ransom.
In my mind, I see this as a straight forward approach to turning the game into a solid movie. Because I remember some fan rage about a proposed actress for a proposed Metroid movie a couple of years ago, I'm going to leave this with a risky idea for who to play Samus, Mae Whitman. I think she can play a great under spoken subtle character (Arrested Development), she'd do great for the voice of the ship's overly concerned computer (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and she has done video game action movies before too (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). My one concern on casting her is that most of those gigs were comedy while this would be action/suspense.
Anyway, I know that nothing can come from a web forum, but what does the rest of the community think of my "If I had $30 million to make a movie" line of thought?