Waiting for "Elite Dangerous - The Movie"

[Markov Chaney]

FDev's annual turnover is of the order of £100m.

The budget for Elysium (which I mentioned just now feels quite Elitey to me) was $120m. (Oblivion was about the same). In other words someone else would have to fund the movie entirely because FDev just don't have cash, even in years where they make notional profit.

The problem is FDev are a post-Kickstarter studio with no credibility in the franchise space (get me with my harsh truths, but the Kickstarter did not say "we want to be an AAA $1bn studio") and they very obviously do not have a retained function responsible for intellectual property or even consistent use of the lore and background which they do have. The narratives we liked were largely written by freelancers in the first place. I would imagine there are some pretty horrifying rights issues lurking too, given that the original Elite, as someone just mentioned, borrows from all over the place and 90% of what we treat as lore now was made up on the spot by two guys larking about writing a game for fun, before games were even taken seriously as IP. Even Microprose had only been going three years at this point.

So all the "won't happen" comments in this thread are entirely accurate... but I don't think that was the point of this thread!

 

[Cosmo]

FDev's annual turnover is of the order of £100m.

The budget for Elysium (which I mentioned just now feels quite Elitey to me) was $120m. (Oblivion was about the same). In other words someone else would have to fund the movie entirely because FDev just don't have cash, even in years where they make notional profit.

Of course. For example: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) were financed by movie studios and investors. Nintendo and SEGA sold a license to make movie-adaptations. Same for the other examples.

The problem is FDev are a post-Kickstarter studio with no credibility in the franchise space (get me with my harsh truths, but the Kickstarter did not say "we want to be an AAA $1bn studio") and they very obviously do not have a retained function responsible for intellectual property or even consistent use of the lore and background which they do have.

Fdev can just sell the license to make an adaptation.

the original Elite, as someone just mentioned, borrows from all over the place and 90% of what we treat as lore now was made up on the spot by two guys larking about writing a game for fun, before games were even taken seriously as IP. Even Microprose had only been going three years at this point.

ED has more than enough of lore, artwork, even in-game cinematics that can all be used for comics, movies, live-action series.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Because lots of fans want to see more of ED (and Elite in general) in other types of entertainment.

Big franchises such as: Super Mario, Sonic, Assassin's Creed, Cyberpunk, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, Resident Evil, Castlevania, The Witcher, Gran Turismo, Mortal Kombat did that and some had great success. It could also increase interest and the player-base.



Everything has a risk of flopping including video games. The risk would be on the people who pay for a license to use Elite for their movie, series, comics. Fdev could also receive a percentage of the revenue.

Comics based on ED would the lowest cost, risk option.

Books have already been written in the Elite universe. I do not know how well they did, but contact the authors and ask them why they are not champing at the bit to make more.

as for the list of games above.......... they are all huge franchises, and as much as Elite means more to me than any of them, I recognise that compared to them Elite is an unheard of nobody..

The Witcher also isnt predominantly a game. the game is a spin off of an already established series of books......

 

[Ian Doncaster]

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.

Sure. I was thinking when I wrote that about something like Casablanca - the war is very definitely the setting and the setup, but the film is about the war's effect on the characters, rather than the characters' effects on the war.

Because lots of fans want to see more of ED (and Elite in general) in other types of entertainment.

Then make some. Frontier is very happy for you to make non-commercial fan works; if you can get thousands of readers/viewers when it's free, maybe it's then worth discussing the commercial possibilities for next time.

 

[Markov Chaney]

Of course. For example: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) were financed by movie studios and investors. Nintendo and SEGA sold a license to make movie-adaptations. Same for the other examples.

Nintendo made $11bn in sales last year. That is a hundred times the size of FDev. And famously, Nintendo are an IP company much more than a games company and they are extremely litigious.

As for the other example, again, Sega are a much more serious proposition. Sonic's budget for the first movie is a bit smaller at $90m so it's interesting at that level, but it's also ~90 minutes and aimed at a much less discerning audience. Agree it's an example of how it can be made to work, but again, not from where FDev are standing. Sonic was a household name before the movies.

Fdev can just sell the license to make an adaptation.

The point was they don't have clearly identifiable IP in this area, and it is a LOT of work to put that together (it does not take long to spend £100m on IPR lawyers). So there's no licence to sell. Assets are not licences. So there's nothing to sell to a partner and they can't do it without a partner.

Now you could have an angel partner who comes in and overlooks all that but unless they are an arch angel you can guess which legal entity in that partnership will end up sitting on a pile of highly saleable IPR. Clue: not FDev.

 

[Markov Chaney]

Sure. I was thinking when I wrote that about something like Casablanca - the war is very definitely the setting and the setup, but the film is about the war's effect on the characters, rather than the characters' effects on the war.

Oh yes - and when I wrote my comment I hadn't really thought of a dozen examples, but now I realise Catch 22 and M*A*S*H fit right in with this. Is ST:TNG M*A*S*H in space? Basically yes.

 

[aRJay]

Oh yes - and when I wrote my comment I hadn't really thought of a dozen examples, but now I realise Catch 22 and M*A*S*H fit right in with this. Is ST:TNG M*A*S*H in space? Basically yes.

I am not sure I see how ST:TNG is M*A*S*H.
But most of Rogue 1 fits the peripheral activities to the mostly off stage main event theme.

The trouble with all this is if it happened we could end up with a director who wanted to deal with issues from their childhood far more than use any verisimilitude to ED except some names.

The animated film idea sounded good, look at Love, Death + Robots, however I remember someone did an Anime of Doc Smith’s Lensman books once.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I would imagine there are some pretty horrifying rights issues lurking too, given that the original Elite, as someone just mentioned, borrows from all over the place and 90% of what we treat as lore now was made up on the spot by two guys larking about writing a game for fun, before games were even taken seriously as IP.

I don't think that's so much of an issue for IP rights complexity as such, as for it just not being a particularly useful IP to anyone except Frontier.

The Elite setting (especially FE2 onwards) is basically "generic military/corporate sci-fi". There are no particularly recognisable characters to sell. "Octagonal" is not a major point of distinction for the "mysterious alien threat". The technology is basically just space magic which can't support any "and what would that imply?" style of sci-fi speculation without breaking entirely.

So it's really difficult to think of a story which needs the Elite setting which couldn't be told more easily - on a commercial basis, that is - without it.

 

[Cosmo]

The Elite setting (especially FE2 onwards) is basically "generic military/corporate sci-fi". There are no particularly recognisable characters to sell. "Octagonal" is not a major point of distinction for the "mysterious alien threat". The technology is basically just space magic which can't support any "and what would that imply?" style of sci-fi speculation without breaking entirely.

I wouldn't call it generic, because Elite has distinct features that make it stand out, factions, technology, aliens etc. Some timeline events I haven't seen in any movie or series yet.

Cyberpunk 2077 could be described as a quite generic, depressing, dystopian setting with megacorps. However, the anime-adaption Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) turned out well.

The point was they don't have clearly identifiable IP in this area, and it is a LOT of work to put that together (it does not take long to spend £100m on IPR lawyers). So there's no licence to sell. Assets are not licences. So there's nothing to sell to a partner and they can't do it without a partner.

Disagree completely. Elite is the longest running space game series and distinct enough to stand on its own. Lots of epic events happened in the timelines. There's more than enough lore that is ready to use and adapt to other entertainment types. There's lots of characters, the Powers and factions have sufficient background info.

Could someone do this by themselves? Yes, but it's easier to adapt an existing franchise with premade material.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

As enticing the Elite lore is for us players, one should take the perspective of a non-player and look at it: "There's a galaxy with lots of people flying around and there's a couple of super powers struggling for dominance. There's also an alien invasion and some relics of another alien race." That story sounds a bit worn off. The Raxxla story may be something to tell but then we can close that chapter in-game and I believe this would do more damage than it helps.

Now, let's try it with "There's a rag-tag group of pilots doing all their shady stuff and we tell you a story about them". Sounds better but with a few exceptions ('Firefly'), that isn't exactly new, either and let's be fair: Firefly wasn't a huge success at start. The die-hard fans made a cult series out of it (and I am grateful for that!). Even movies like 'Blade Runner' bombed. ST:TOS? Got its success through syndication. Can/do we want to wait a decade after release until an ED movie or series would start becoming a success? These days, a studio won't take such a risk.

More successful movies like 'Solo', 'Mario', 'Tomb Raider" worked more or less because their lore is a cultural phenomenon. In the 90s, most people already knew who Mario and Lara Croft are. Even without ever playing their games. But for those successes one can think of the many failed movies ('Doom', 'Wing Commander', 'Borderlands', etc.).

 

[Cosmo]

As enticing the Elite lore is for us players, one should take the perspective of a non-player and look at it: "There's a galaxy with lots of people flying around and there's a couple of super powers struggling for dominance. There's also an alien invasion and some relics of another alien race." That story sounds a bit worn off. The Raxxla story may be something to tell but then we can close that chapter in-game and I believe this would do more damage than it helps.

If you think that's all the Elite Dangerous timeline is about then you should read it again lol. There's so much material that could be used for all kinds of different types of entertainment.

More successful movies like 'Solo', 'Mario', 'Tomb Raider" worked more or less because their lore is a cultural phenomenon.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), they casted the wrong actor as Han Solo and it has an illogical story. Disney has milked dry the Star Wars franchise such as the bad trilogy (episode 7, 8, 9) plus too many spin-off movies and series that try to re-imagine Star Wars into something else.

Well Tomb Raider was not famous in the mainstream before the movies. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) was a success, because it's a good, faithful adaptation. Super Mario Bros. (1993) flopped because they changed too many things + mediocre acting. So any decent franchise in the right hands can be properly adapted.

 

[Markov Chaney]

I wouldn't call it generic. Elite has distinct features that make it stand out, factions, technology, aliens etc.

Cyberpunk could also be described as a quite generic, depressing, dystopian setting with megacorps. However, the anime-adaption Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) turned out well.

OK that's interesting, I will have a look at that. Doubly interesting given CDPR have had some... issues... as a studio themselves even though they had a success early on. Lots of parallels there.

But I think you missed Ian's point which is that "a cyberpunk setting" in 2025 is a generic setting. Cyberpunk the game is effectively a genre movie and they really leaned into that by using Keanu and whatnot, so the way the studio built that game - presumably with an expectation of a franchise - is substantially different again to where FDev are.

Disagree completely. Elite is the longest running space game series and distinct enough to stand on its own.

Agreed.

Lots of epic events happened in the timelines.

Agreed.

There's more than enough lore

Agreed.

that is ready to use and adapt to other entertainment types.

Don't agree. That was my point. I don't know why you're inventing all these points above, I don't disagree with any of that. And since then Ian has made the point in detail that even the in-game universe isn't particularly distinguished anyway. There is certainly no Sonic or Mario.

There's lots of characters, the Powers and factions have sufficient background info.

I was thinking about this when walking the dog just now. We've already discussed on this forum how there are several examples where Powers have characteristics that don't follow their own ethos. That would all need fixing. Someone also made the good point upthread that 12 Powers is too many in general for a movie. Most of what I know about the characters has come from immersing myself in the fandom on this forum, not from the storytelling in the original materials - though you could argue RTD and Chibnall and Moffatt had that issue with the Dr Who reboot, so it is doable.

Could someone do this by themselves? Yes, but it's easier to adapt an existing franchise with premade material.

Right, but it isn't a franchise, it's a collection of stuff that just got there, which was my original point. You could turn it into a ready-to-go franchise but that is a LOT of work from a studio that at the moment will happily release a broken piece of storytelling and then not even communicate anywhere about it further for two months because there was a different story around they had to manage which they thought of two years earlier.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

If you think that's all the Elite Dangerous timeline is about then you should read it again lol. There's so much material that could be used for all kinds of different types of entertainment.

I know the time line and also read most of the books because I like the RP aspect of Elite. The timeline isn't really carrying any 'original' ideas (apart from Raxxla) which would require a movie to be set in the background of the Elite universe. We neither have a 'proto-molecule', nor 'the Alien' from the franchise, nor 'the monolith' (2001) nor 'the Force' from SW nor 'the Enterprise'. The Elite universe is a pretty grounded universe in a positive way (ok, some aspects are handwavium but most sci fi has them.

 

[Yure]

Please no.
Hollywood havent got a clue anymore.

However..
Bollywood!!
Lots of dancing and musical numbers.
Campy costumes and chew the scenery acting.


अभिजात वर्ग खतरनाक

I wouldn't mind seeing "Out of Darkness" in movie. Or.... it already has an ending that is ready for a movie follow-up. That would be pretty amazing. Bollywood movies actually have some of the best story-telling lately. But if I were to make one of the Elite Dangerous books into a Bollywood movie.... "Docking is Difficult". For sure... amazing story and the space comic-con fight scene would be hilarious to watch.

 

[Markov Chaney]

It does have the Thargoids and you can do things with a characteristic like "everything happens in eights" - as we write, Villeneuve is working on the Ramans doing everything in threes. But that's another example of how you would need a Clarke and a Villeneuve involved, which is not where we are at now.

There are also the Guardians and they feel under-used in the game as it is. I'd be interested to know what some of the Ringworld treatments so far have looked like in terms of Tnuctipun and Puppeteers because the ED Guardians appear to be a crossbreed of these.

 

[Cosmo]

And since then Ian has made the point in detail that even the in-game universe isn't particularly distinguished anyway.

Disagree. It is definitely distinguishing enough. Maybe not for you.

Many space-franchises have similarities, Elite has plenty of things that make it stand out. For example: the Thargoids, Coriolis stations, there's no anti-gravity, CMDR John Jameson, Guardians (although we know little about them), the Powers in Powerplay, The Club, The Dark Wheel, INRA, ships have distinct designs. The factions (Alliance, Empire, Federation) are not wholly original, but they don't have to be. They do have enough fleshed out background lore. All this is sufficient to create interesting movies, novels, series, comics.

There is certainly no Sonic or Mario.

ED is not about a few protagonists with superpowers, but there are key characters in the lore.

 

[aRJay]

…

Now, let's try it with "There's a rag-tag group of pilots doing all their shady stuff and we tell you a story about them". Sounds better but with a few exceptions ('Firefly'), that isn't exactly new, either and let's be fair: Firefly wasn't a huge success at start. The die-hard fans made a cult series out of it (and I am grateful for that!). Even movies like 'Blade Runner' bombed. ST:TOS? Got its success through syndication. Can/do we want to wait a decade after release until an ED movie or series would start becoming a success? These days, a studio won't take such a risk.

…

One of the main reasons for Firefly’s lack of success was the broadcaster showing the episodes in random order, while each episode had a mostly single episode story there was also a story arc and continuity between each episode.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Big franchises such as: Super Mario, Sonic, Assassin's Creed, Cyberpunk, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, Resident Evil, Castlevania, The Witcher, Gran Turismo, Mortal Kombat did that and some had great success. It could also increase interest and the player-base.

Elite simply isn't in that league, even with its vintage history.

Comics maybe, but film, not a chance.

 

[Cosmo]

Elite simply isn't in that league, even with its vintage history.

The original Alien (1979) is a simplistic, space scifi horror movie, yet it is acclaimed. Starship Troopers (1997) is generic, yet also a good sci-fi, action movie. Elite has more content than both of these franchises. The Elite universe is a great franchise with enough depth where such stories could be told.

 

[Leadfoot]

Alec Turner for stunt driver!

Elite:Fast and Furious