And as with that, many of the best movies set in the 20th century largely ignored the major global political events, wars, etc. (at most, using them as a backdrop for a story of much smaller scope)
Then again a number of the best films of the 50s and 60s are a direct reaction to this backdrop and include the backdrop, and then there's another batch of them post-Vietnam.
A lot of Elite universe fiction (official or fan) focuses on the (small) crew of a single ship, trying to survive and make a living. A war (hot or cold) between the Federation and Empire might at most be the explanation for why they've ended up on some really dangerous mission, but the impact of that mission on the war (if any!) is going to be way above their pay grade and as a result outside the scope of the story.
Consider Phlebas (book) does a good job of including both elements and is widely considered the most filmable book, although it does have help in that a lot of a grander picture is deferred into LTW. Firefly / Serenity is kind of like Consider Phlebas with not enough of the background. Solo: A Star Wars Story manages to fit Firefly into the Star Wars war background.
2024's Civil War (not sci-fi but it is alt history, obviously) is also a good illustration of what's possible. The four journos are not in a spaceship but honestly if you put them in one and created a CZ instead of crossing the US it'd be the same movie (and come to think of it, that director has some pretty compelling sci-fi creds.) You can easily picture Jesse Plemons' face on the bulletin board, dishing out missions to find out what kind of Harman you are.
As for production design and mis-en-scene, I'd pick Elysium as one of the few movies that largely gets this right and actually Sharlto Copley should be in this somewhere. (Also it looks like I just cast Jodie Foster as one of the Powers huh?) Whilst we're at it, I think Sam Rockwell, having already played a slightly deranged President and also having lived in a moonbase, is a natural pick; in fact I kept getting bits of Rockwell in the way Hemsworth played Dementus.
I think the best approach might be a series of movies a little over two hours which are clearly in the same universe, but not necessarily the same decade. I don't think the internal consistency in the gameplay universe would stand the scrutiny of cranking out seasons of boxed sets so the writers would have to keep coming up with new things or major retcons, and that will immediately lead to complaints that it's "not Elite." Just over two hours is long enough to tell compelling stories.
And at least in IMAX you'll be able to spot bacteria from the ship.
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