41 replies to this topic

[Wolf Hreda]

Nakamura Takeshi, on 11 June 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

What era would you prefer? I personally think a story doesn't have to be very linear but I would focus on pre-clan. I can see the story as having roots back man hundred of years rather than just a few. It's interesting how we've gone from a Feudal society in the past and now the story is focusing (again where I am looking) into 5 feudal houses (not to mention the clans, periphery, etc). Also the 'mechwarriors have a lineage and that can also be explored.

I think a major studio would mess it up (for commercial reasons) badly and I agree with you.

Start with The Sword and the Dagger. It takes place around 3025 and has a good cinema friendly plot device, the all time classic Impostor. I think this would be an excellent place to start, especially as it's the first book chronologically.

[Nakamura Takeshi]

Banshee Bullet, on 11 June 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

I don't know about rights procurement but I do have a suggestion for the director: Michael Bay

Hear me out!
Granted his actual skills as a director are... limited, not terrible but not great either. That aside, the effects would be EPIC
The Transformers movies were kinda crap, but really cool popcorn flicks that made a lot of money and brought a surge of new fans to the series. If we could do that for BT... good things would follow I think.

Christopher Nolan would do a better job. To Michael Bay and many people it would be yet another giant "robot flick" and the lore would suffer in my opinion.

[Skylarr]

I think the movie should be the Clan Invasion. You will need to take about 10 minutes to explain the basics about the history of man kind and were they are at. Three 3-hour movies.

then if they did do good you can see if people wanted to know more about the history or if they just wanted to the future.

If it was popular you could do a TV series. Not a TV series that never ended. Just 2 or 3 seasons long.

Anything you did would not be a huge success here in the US. It is the Global market you are targeting.

Edited by Skylarr, 11 June 2012 - 02:41 PM.

[Ambartanen]

Wolf Hreda, on 11 June 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:

Start with The Sword and the Dagger. It takes place around 3025 and has a good cinema friendly plot device, the all time classic Impostor. I think this would be an excellent place to start, especially as it's the first book chronologically.

may i redirect you to this page: http://www.sarna.net...ttleTech_novels

Please check the 1st item!

By the way i'm currently reading Star Lord, it's not good movie\telemovie\series\miniseries material!

Edited by Ambartanen, 11 June 2012 - 02:42 PM.

[Proteaus]

There was a movie , Robot Jox , was decent

[Lt muffins]

Skylarr, on 11 June 2012 - 02:38 PM, said:

I think the movie should be the Clan Invasion. You will need to take about 10 minutes to explain the basics about the history of man kind and were they are at. Three 3-hour movies.

But the thing is that the clan invasion has been covered so many times from multiple medias (books, i think 3 video-games, and a cartoon series) , that any battletech enthusiast could tell you what happened and more than likely in what order. I am not saying that i don't want to see the clans beat the living daylight out of the great houses just to get their @sses kicked by an angry telephone company. I just think that the movie would be better if it was based in a different time.

Edited by Lt muffins, 11 June 2012 - 02:51 PM.

[Nakamura Takeshi]

Skylarr, on 11 June 2012 - 02:38 PM, said:

I think the movie should be the Clan Invasion. You will need to take about 10 minutes to explain the basics about the history of man kind and were they are at. Three 3-hour movies.

then if they did do good you can see if people wanted to know more about the history or if they just wanted to the future.

If it was popular you could do a TV series. Not a TV series that never ended. Just 2 or 3 seasons long.

Anything you did would not be a huge success here in the US. It is the Global market you are targeting.

I don't think people would want to sit through that, I think the writing should explain the story as you go along. A brief introduction would work though. If you think on a smaller scale I think it would work out better. To tackle the "whole" story would be difficult and not entertain people (except the die hard fans who have a familiarity and patience with all those elements). Bringing people up to speed maybe isn't the best thing.

I remember Dune was a bit heavy on the history in the beginning and tried to explain things and they cut this from the theater release. I loved Star Wars but oddly enough I didn't want to stare at all that text slowly scrolling up. I would prefer a movie to get into the action and story rather than the history. The history is VERY important but can be conveyed through the characters/action/story as I see it rather than pausing to take team to go into it.

[the colonel]

If there ever was a BT movie franchise made, the only possible ideas would be The Warrior Trilogy, Blood of Kerensky Trilogy and a Two part film dealing with the fall of The Star League (Kind of like they are doing with The Hobbit and have done with Harry Potter.)

And as much as Bay would make a good "Blow the living hell out of everything" movie. I would prefer Peter Jackson as he has proved that he can stay true to a established storyline and capture the essence of it perfectly.

But again those are just my thoughts.

[Nakamura Takeshi]

Lt muffins, on 11 June 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

But the thing is that the clan invasion has been covered so many times from multiple medias (books, i think 3 video-games, and a cartoon series) , that any battletech enthusiast could tell you what happened and more than likely in what order. I am not saying that i don't want to see the clans beat the living daylight out of the great houses just to get their @sses kicked by an angry telephone company. I just think that the movie would be better if it was based in a different time.

I do agree and not saying the clans can't be covered but there is a long lineage to battletech that can be explored and hasn't been touched on in the books before the 31st century. Not to say a whole series should dwell within the earlier periods but can be enriched by visiting them and moving on with a good backstory. I don't think that a good battletech movie has to be entirely rooted within a certain period to succeed just written well like any story.

For example a you can write about a battle between two Houses, two units and down to two warriors at a certain place and time. Each of these warriors came from a particular lineage, and those who sent them their have as well. You can touch upon (briefly) their histories and what led them to this point and why they are here (who they are, etc.) and potentially allude to where this story will go. Around them you also have people that are effected by the battle and how it will turn out on other words.

the colonel, on 11 June 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

And as much as Bay would make a good "Blow the living hell out of everything" movie. I would prefer Peter Jackson as he has proved that he can stay true to a established storyline and capture the essence of it perfectly.

We all want fireworks and special effects but I think of the two men Peter Jackson would be a better choice for this reason.

Edited by Nakamura Takeshi, 11 June 2012 - 03:02 PM.

[Atomfire]

TwoFaced, on 11 June 2012 - 01:56 PM, said:

There were 2 movies made around battletech...Robot Jocks and something else cant remember, both were like d rated, sucked horribly. They are older films, I am thinking mid to late 90s.

YOU WILL TAKE THAT BACK CRIMINAL SCUM!

[Xetherius]

I wouldn't mind seeing one about a pre-invasion merc who ends up meeting/impressing the Wolf's Dragoons, and then being recruited. The thing about this is it would be both action-centric, protagonist being a merc and all, but the from 3005 - 3028, the Dragoons had worked under just about every major group worth working for in-universe. This would mean that some of the intricacies of the Inner Sphere and the Great Houses could be explored and the history could be elaborated upon without being too heavy or boring. The thing is either the movie would have to have time jumps of several years, or be multiple movies, perhaps ending with the Battle of Misery, or the Clan Invasion. Title's easy thoug, could always just call it Dragoon. Anyways, a BT movie would be epic, but it would be hard to both please the fans and keep it open to the majority of the public, after all their first priority is making money, followed by making a good movie.

[Wilhelm Kerensky]

There was already many series and movies made with the original mechs that Fasa copied (licensed or not) to create the Battledroids / Battletech / Mechwarrior games. These are the Unseen, as the non-anime mechs (not designed by Shoji Kawamori) are generally very boxy and generic (ugly to me):

http://en.wikipedia....emember_Love%3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macross
http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Battletech
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

Time fer an edu-mah-cation! Mad Cat was, surprisingly, NOT an Unseen!

If you want to see your favorite Unseen mech in action, use the Battletech Wiki (last link) to figure out which series you need to find and watch.

[Fragtastic]

Just remember: "Knowledge is ammunition"

[Haakon Valravn]

There's only one director I trust to work on a BattleTech movie: Joss Whedon. Maybe Neil Blomkamp can co-direct.

Peter Jackson can produce, but not direct. The Lord of the Rings was not that good. I love the mythos and I enjoyed the movies, but they weren't especially good. And King Kong was terrible. Michael Bay? ...have you seen his work? JJ Abrams? No f___ing way would I let that famous copy-catter get close (Star Trek wasn't that good. Cloverfield was horrid. Lost, from all accounts, was actually pretty meh. That leaves Super 8, which at this point I have no desire to watch).

Make it a docudrama about a unit on a Lyran, Rasalhague, or Draconis world during the Clan Invasion... a world which then gets invaded.

[KBone]

Lt muffins, on 11 June 2012 - 02:19 PM, said:

I personally prefer the time of the 4th Succession War through the Clan invasion.

I just got a strange feeling that if they do make a movie they would focus on the dark-age.
(mainly because it has not been elaborated on as much as the eras before giving the writers more freedom in interpreting the universe)

Wolf Hreda, on 11 June 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:

Start with The Sword and the Dagger. It takes place around 3025 and has a good cinema friendly plot device, the all time classic Impostor. I think this would be an excellent place to start, especially as it's the first book chronologically.

Skylarr, on 11 June 2012 - 02:38 PM, said:

I think the movie should be the Clan Invasion. You will need to take about 10 minutes to explain the basics about the history of man kind and were they are at. Three 3-hour movies.

then if they did do good you can see if people wanted to know more about the history or if they just wanted to the future.

If it was popular you could do a TV series. Not a TV series that never ended. Just 2 or 3 seasons long.

Anything you did would not be a huge success here in the US. It is the Global market you are targeting.

The fourth Succession war and the War of 3039. Playing out the story of the marriage of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner at the Time of the Silver Eagle incident and the creation of the Federated Commonwealth is the perfect staring place (a la the Warrior Trilogy En Garde, Riposte and Coupe). It provides the majority of the background and history for the major art of the BattleTech universe, many of the major players and in my opinion is the nexus to the rest of the story; Especially when you consider that everything that comes before it is more of the same (i.e. 5 houses constantly at war for 200 years while technology degrades, yada yada yada, blah blah blah...). The presence of an overwhelming power (FedCom) galvanizes the remainder of the Inner Sphere and provides an excellent bogey man for just about any story you can think of during that era in BT. Whether a TV series or a movie, the great thing is that once you have completely spun the tale of the Fourth Succesion war, you can then ease right into the Clan Invasion relatively easily as you have already set up most of the main players while adding in the 'young guns' to the story line...

just my opinion, we welcome yours....

[Nakamura Takeshi]

Thanks for all the input guys I really appreciate the information and opinions (well except one).

[Tannis]

if Im not mistaken, there was talk once that a Movie was going to be made, but the director was the same as the person that made " 8 legged Freaks " bad choice...

I agree there is great potential to be great if they used the same Sfx that was used in the Transformers movies... just need to get Michael Bay to make the films...

I say you start with the Jade Falcon Trilogy...

[Charles Cage]

Michael Bay should not be allowed anywhere close to this franchsie. He already butchered my beloved Transformers... please not mechwarrior/battletech as well!

Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Neill Blomkamp. Those would be my choices.

[EyeOne]

Charles Cage, on 12 June 2012 - 11:05 AM, said:

Michael Bay should not be allowed anywhere close to this franchsie. He already butchered my beloved Transformers... please not mechwarrior/battletech as well!

Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Neill Blomkamp. Those would be my choices.

I think Chris Nolan would be bored by the straight forwardness of a BT movie.

How about M Night? Ha, I kid.

[Arkroyal]

Crash and Burn came out a year after Robot Jox, I had a feeling they were somehow linked in someway.

Edited by Arkroyal, 12 June 2012 - 01:25 PM.