<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Avery:
Sweetpea financed Imperium Games with the thought that by developing Traveller as a property and grooming it properly, it would become a movie after they did the D&D movie. The problem was that writing was rushed and incompletely co-ordinated with "me." Then, the economic down-turn in Asia forced the investors behind the project to stop putting money into it. Finally, they pulled the plug, and everything reverted to "me."
Maybe there will be a movie someday.
Marc
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Marc; that's very interesting to hear. But are you sure you want a film based on your work that turns out like that D&D movie? I don't know what your movie experience is, but here are some thoughts based on my personal experience.
Years ago I used to fantasize about producing a Traveller film, but only if I could either find or write a good script that had some integrity behind it. Right now we're riding the peak of a sine wave that oscillates between market driven films and art driven films. One extreme being films like the infamous D&D movie, Will Smith's version of "The Wild Wild West", and more recently "A Knight's Tale," and "Planet of the Apes." The other extreme being any independent film shown in any film art house across the nation. Within the last ten years there've been very few, if any, films that have been produced that encompass portions of both.
These days (actually, ever since Star Wars) Hollywod shoots for the blockbuster, so with something like Traveller they'd pack it with gunplay and outrageous action sequences, witty language, and groin kick jokes, because that's what your average gamer expects, and according to the marketing data the average gamer is some acne potted teenage male who likes "in your face" kind of stuff. And since they're the ones who go out on dates (i.e. movies), they're the ones whose dollars you have to grab.
If you wanted a thoughtful story about, say, a band of adventurers seeking out "The Secrets of the Ancients", you might read the first draft, probably approve of it, only to have the thing reworked during filming, and reworked again in post (post-production; editing, sound, music, and so forth). Heck, they may even shoot a couple more scenes without your consent. But this is their perogative since you did sign away your rights on the Traveller property. Hence they can do anything they like with it.
Exploitation movies have always been made, but now it's all the trend, and is done so unashamably, and probably also out of ignorance by those who are the film industrie's masters. However, there was a time when films, even big action flicks, were created not just with technical craft (lighting, pyrotechnics and what have you) but were also created with a kind of artistic integrity that has not seen the light of day for some time. Just look at any of the classic Westerns, and you'll see rightaway what I'm talking about. That kind of spirit may return at some point, but even so I think today's audience has become so conditioned to bad movies that they wouldn't know what to do when they saw a good film; i.e. a film that didn't have a sexually suggestive joke or gun going off every five minutes, nor had some kind of rythmic pop soundtrack constantly playing in the background. Heck, they'd probably call it a bad movie, and would ask "Where're the sex jokes, pop sound track, and action?"
Myself, I think there's a hidden market that's more than ripe for a good movie, but they're not the ones who go to the movies anymore. They used to, but the movie experience has gotten so bad that you rarely see people casually taking in a movie anymore. Movies are now an event, and to grab the dollar at the event you have to create an event. And so the industry is now caught in this vicious circle in which it needs to spend the big cash on the big blockbusters, or they go belly up. And it doesn't matter if the film is good or not, it just needs to be hyped enough, and crafted enough, such that people will feel compelled to go see it.
Now, do you really want your game's fiction subjected to that venue?
Just some thoughts from someone who worked in the industry for nearly a decade.
[This message has been edited by Blue Ghost (edited 01 August 2001).]
