141 replies to this topic

[Duke Falcon]

I mean, yeah... There are dozens of mostly bad DC movies, Disney-ruined Star Wars, retcon Star Trek and everything else of crap you could imagine... Yet no BT movie?!

That would be cool and cost effective because everything is ready visually! No need for costume designers and such because everything visually are here in the books! Yeah, lots of CGI for mechs but CGI nowadayas is BASIC in movies...

So, someone finally give us some BT movies! 3025-era, War of 3039 or Clan Invasion (or all in a trilogy)... It is more than time for such a movie already.

+ it could have plenty spin-off options for more cash-harvest like "mature content" Magistracy of Canopus films!

We all know how Canopus opusi would probably end... After some mech-scenery of course...

So, let us shout together loudly:
WE WANT AND NEED A BATTLETECH MOVIE ALREADY!!!

[Knownswift]

Because no studio wants to deal with this.

[Meep Meep]

This is the only battletech show I have ever found.

[martian]

Duke Falcon, on 11 October 2022 - 12:16 AM, said:

Why Is There No Battletech Movies?!

So, someone finally give us some BT movies! 3025-era, War of 3039 or Clan Invasion (or all in a trilogy)... It is more than time for such a movie already.

Approximately 20 years ago one Hollywood producer licensed BattleTech movie rights.

However, nothing has ever come to fruition. I guess that those rights have eventually reverted to their owner.

[w0qj]

And they should do movies, try making TV episodes... get a army of story-writers behind this great franchise, to the point that the lore is deeper, and this in turn can be commercialised into Battletech/Mechwarrior online games...

I mean, just look at St*r W*rs, St*r Tr*k, etc... it's so lore rich from so much canon material one can work with...

eg: There's a homeworld called Onubtenium, where inhabitants is used to its antigravity environment... Onubtenium pilots (and its Standing Cockpit Item) gives your Mech +1.5% Speed Tweak (ie: 1 skill node).

eg: There's a homeworld called Achernar, its Roughneck mech making inhabitants are unrivaled engineering genius...Achernar pilots (and its Standing Cockpit Item) gives your Mech +4% Reinforced Casing (ie: 1 skill node). etc. etc.

[tankhare]

the closest thing you'll find to a BattleTech movie is a old sci-fi flick called Robot Jox, should be on youtube, I believe

[feeWAIVER]

I think it needs to be an HBO/Amazon style TV show.

[ScrapIron Prime]

tankhare, on 11 October 2022 - 06:46 AM, said:

the closest thing you'll find to a BattleTech movie is a old sci-fi flick called Robot Jox, should be on youtube, I believe

Honestly, I think "Robot Jox" is why they never made a Battletech movie. It flopped, it was BAD. Studios fled from the genre.

Go watch "Dougram, Fang of the Sun" if you can find it streaming.

[martian]

ScrapIron Prime, on 11 October 2022 - 08:54 AM, said:

Honestly, I think "Robot Jox" is why they never made a Battletech movie. It flopped, it was BAD. Studios fled from the genre.

Hey! I loved that movie!

[ScrapIron Prime]

Oh it was an excellent bad movie! The stop-motion animation of the bots alone was worth watching it for. (Certainly not the dialogue!) The same studio also made Robot Wars a few years later, and that non-sequel of a turkey REALLY knifed the genre in the gut. it was even more bad.

[martian]

ScrapIron Prime, on 11 October 2022 - 09:40 AM, said:

Oh it was an excellent bad movie! The stop-motion animation of the bots alone was worth watching it for. (Certainly not the dialogue!) The same studio also made Robot Wars a few years later, and that non-sequel of a turkey REALLY knifed the genre in the gut. it was even more bad.

I remember how disappointed I was that this supposed "sequel" had not much in common with the first movie.

[pattonesque]

while it's possible a good Battletech movie could be a hit, it'd be an extremely CGI-intensive film with a small, aging fanbase.

probably what you'd need to do is focus on an up-and-coming mercenary company with a bunch of broadly-sketched, quirky characters who can fill the time between what people are really tuning in to see, which is giant stompy robots

[LordNothing]

its sort of like worse than dune in terms of making a movie out of it.

you can either:

do a campy movie with a decent budget, and end up delivering either a turkey or a cult/art film depending on who you ask.

do a lame miniseries in syfy cgisploitation fashion that actually matches the books well.

do an overpriced visual masterpiece with big name actors, a big name director and run it into the ground financially by releasing it on streaming first.

so its not dune, but the parallels exist. the first would have been robot jox, the second the cartoon series. we want number 3, but done right such that it is at least a 2-3 star movie. the spectacle of movies like pacific rim is what most brain dead movie goers want. essentially a dumbed down dune '21.

as a book adaptation is tricky. because i consider the battletech novels to be more outdated teen fiction where as dune was a sci-fi masterpeice. there are also so many, and none that i would consider core to the battletech universe.

[ScrapIron Prime]

pattonesque, on 11 October 2022 - 09:56 AM, said:

while it's possible a good Battletech movie could be a hit, it'd be an extremely CGI-intensive film with a small, aging fanbase.

That describes most of sci-fi.

[Duke Falcon]

Huh, so many reps!
1. I seen Robot Jox as a child (4.-5.th grade elementary school) and liked then. Re-seen a few years ago and now I see that "Jox" is the misspronounce of "Jokes". So much so long...

2. I like Dune movies (except the mini-series what where odd considering that I f**king love the sequel Children of Dune). Dune basicly impossible to adapt exactly to screen however.

3. Battletech movies may need either to focus something "related stuff" as pattonesque said or focus on persons in it (Aidan Pryde, Alexandr Kerensky, etc...). Either way part of the "fan-base of BT" would be dissatisfied. None could help. (I wote for the Jade Phoenix Trilogy's adaptation because I am a "Falcon fan").

4. CGI + stars is nowadays standards. Sadly braindumb movies either (Pac rim 1-2 and a few others like Jupiter's rising). I think mech-clashes could appease "braindumb spectators" while the other parts may have some deeper message (like "Never trust in a Davion, never!" or "Steiners bring you to bankrupt").

Trully said, see what kind of craps are made in the last, say, decade a few Battletech movies may not hurt. Maybe it even help raise BT-player base a bit like Stranger Things done with AD&D (just with less crying, teethless guys)...

Oh, @Knownswift
Old handbooks had strange illustrations. I mean some handbooks are beaten by today's kindergartens by terms of quality. Times changes (all hail Tzeentch?!)... And even I start on that level what your posted illustration represents (is he a kuritan?)...

[ScrapIron Prime]

Oh, Pacific Rim (the first one) is the perfect homage to Japanese giant monster and giant robot stories... right down to the smart guy with the beady eyes whose job it is to shout at the protagonists! As a standalone movie, its perfect.

To capture Battletech in a movie or a series, you need to start with Inner Sphere and 3025 era. That's what everything else is built on. You can either make it a drama focusing on commanders and royal families with a backdrop of mechs or you get in the gritty with it and tell the story of the Grey Death Legion to get the field and plumb the Lostech angle. Clans would have to come in a later sequel or season.

Edited by ScrapIron Prime, 11 October 2022 - 11:44 AM.

[FLG 01]

Can't wait.

[ScrapIron Prime]

[Meep Meep]

ScrapIron Prime, on 11 October 2022 - 12:43 PM, said:

Have you seen what netflix and hbo are doing to long established stories? Race swapping just for the sake of race swapping even when that race swapping makes zero sense. That new rangs of power is the perfect example. I don't care that multiple races are used in a show but it has to at least make sense. Now the hobbits who were a tiny seclusive very homogenous race that didn't trust outsiders are now somehow every color in the rainbow because of muh diversity?

[evil kerensky]

get the dude who did pacific rim to do it. he at least understands "the rule of cool" which is the only way a battletech movie would work.