Waiting for "Elite Dangerous - The Movie"

[metatheurgist]

Starship Troopers is a fantastic military parody. I can't think of another movie like it. There's nothing generic about it.

No one is looking to license this IP, which says a lot about how 'successful' it is. This game could've been a breakout hit, but it isn't.

Square, a game studio renowned for its stories is the only game studio I know of that actually paid for their own movie, that movie failed so hard it killed their fledgling movie division.

Here's a timely article

Helldivers 2 Developers 'Don't, and Shouldn't, Have Final Say' on the Upcoming Movie - IGN

Arrowhead will be involved with the Helldivers 2 movie, but with one caveat.

www.ign.com

A space game where they actually made it about the players on the ground and not boring empire building.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

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.

Not my point at all. My point is about the risk vs reward potential for a film in the Elite universe to even be considered by FD - which you seemingly were critical of them not doing.

Perhaps, one day, some fan of the franchise, with power in Hollywood or other film hub would like to try and make a film (or TV series) and seeks backing for it, then approaches Frontier with the idea.

For example, we know Henry Cavill is a huge WH40k nerd and wants to make a WK40k TV series and even that remain uncertain it will ever happen, even with Cavill's star power.

 

[CMDR_LS]

share your thoughts. suggested actors/actresses? plot line? musical score?

let's be honest, it will do worse than the Warcraft movie. Elite is a VERY VERY niche game. 90% of gamers, especially people who were born in the 90s (I am an exception lol) or later never even heard of Elite Dangerous.

I personally rather FDev spend the money to build the atmospheric landing and planets expansion.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

The original Alien (1979) is a simplistic, space scifi horror movie, yet it is acclaimed. [...]

Yes - a pretty simplistic story. According to Ridley Scott, it is basically a 'haunted house in space'. The reasons why it is still so much liked are:

• that idea was new
• the execution (Scott) together with the practical effects is impeccable
• the graphic design (H.R. Giger and Moebius) were new and unique
• the actors were a fantastic choice

Therefore, that move still feels fresh. Aliens also worked because it built on the previous movie's success and fresh ideas with a new plot and setting (including another stellar director and actors).
Looking at all the other movies in the Alien franchise, they never came close to the two first movies.

Again, as much as I like the Elite games: Its ideas aren't new but around for decades. To find a director and a storywriter in the league of Scott and Bannon will be pretty hard and expensive, not to speak of the CGI. And somewhat unfortunately, the design of the game is pretty much 'locked in' (ships, stations, planets, suits, weapons). Any deviations will make us players despise the movie but also make it hard to create a kind of a fresh look in the sense of that it hasn't been seen a million times.

There are still so many unique and great sci fi stories out there (the aforementioned 'Rama' and the 'Ringworld') that deserve to be filmed.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

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.

Yes, but that's the point, isn't it. Alien gives you very little information about the setting outside the Nostromo, and what it does give is a pretty generic "unscrupulous corporations" one.

The question isn't "can you tell this story in the Elite setting" - to which the answer is often "yes, especially if you set it pre-FSD" - but "can you more easily tell this story in the Elite setting than a generic one" ... which narrows it down very substantially.

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

"No artificial gravity" is a complete killer for a movie because of the massively increased budget requirements for something as simple as "two characters have a conversation", unless it's taken about as seriously as Elite Dangerous the game takes it "So what are the implications of that?" "Absolutely none, everyone walks around normally-oriented surfaces exactly as if there was artificial gravity, and ships can make sharp turns without turning the crew to jelly. Stick a lid on their drinks and call it a day."
(It'd be inconvenient in a comic, unless the artist was already very familiar with the environment)

Ship and station designs are fine as fanservice but add absolutely no value to a wider audience.

The rest ... those are certainly things you can tell stories about, but they're all generic enough concepts that people have already made movies about the generic versions without needing to pay Frontier anything (and often, long before Elite Dangerous was released anyway). "A covert military research group sends an unwitting pilot on a suicide mission" is not a story you need to license Elite IP to tell.

It all comes down to what the audience for the fiction is, and that makes a massive difference:
- if I'm expecting the audience to primarily be people who don't know Elite already (which would be essential for commercial success!), then the Elite setting doesn't help much because I'll have to explain everything important anyway. If "INRA" is more than a passing reference (where any ominous-sounding set of initials would work just as well) there's no real gain.
- if I'm expecting the audience to primarily be people who already know the Elite setting, then it's great because I don't have to explain where Colonia is, or who Zemina Torval is, etc. and that'll save a bunch of valuable time otherwise needed for exposition. But it's going to stay as non-profit fanfic because getting a hundred people to read it would be a significant accomplishment.

 

[Cosmo]

Yes - a pretty simplistic story. According to Ridley Scott, it is basically a 'haunted house in space'. The reasons why it is still so much liked are:

• that idea was new
• the execution (Scott) together with the practical effects is impeccable
• the graphic design (H.R. Giger and Moebius) were new and unique
• the actors were a fantastic choice

Right, ED has unique scary aliens: Thargoids, and abandoned Megaships. The setting in ED is suitable for such stories. It comes down to the execution.

Yes, but that's the point, isn't it. Alien gives you very little information about the setting outside the Nostromo, and what it does give is a pretty generic "unscrupulous corporations" one.

The question isn't "can you tell this story in the Elite setting" - to which the answer is often "yes, especially if you set it pre-FSD" - but "can you more easily tell this story in the Elite setting than a generic one" ... which narrows it down very substantially.

Now we know lots of stuff about these Xenomorphs, yet people still go and watch Alien sequels which recycle the haunted-house script. Prometheus had some new stuff which was interesting.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

Right, ED has unique scary aliens: Thargoids, and abandoned Megaships. The setting in ED is suitable for such stories. It comes down to the execution.

Abandoned ships which were already filmed: Event Horizon, The Black Hole
Scary aliens? Really? I haven‘t seen a Thargoid, apart from the extracted graphics.

 

[Cosmo]

Abandoned ships which were already filmed: Event Horizon, The Black Hole
Scary aliens? Really? I haven‘t seen a Thargoid, apart from the extracted graphics.

Lots of horror movies are not scary when you watch it without sound. The point is these types stories could be told in the Elite universe too. There's overlap between sci-fi universes, but Elite has a distinct grounded feel. It's a bit gritty, dystopian, in the future, but not super high tech. Star Wars and Dune are science-fantasy. Star Trek is too clean and dialogue heavy with an implausible society (United Federation of Planets). Elite has a different, more realistic take on the not too distant future.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

Lots of horror movies are not scary when you watch it without sound. The point is these types stories could be told in the Elite universe too. There's overlap between sci-fi universes, but Elite has a distinct grounded feel. It's a bit gritty, dystopian, in the future, but not super high tech.

Fully agree that those stories can be told in Elite but (unfortunately) also without it. Alien, Event Horizon, The Thing didn‘t need grounding. They work in any kind of fictional universe. Which underlines Ian‘s point above: non-players won‘t care about the grounding and we players will complain about bad grounding.

 

[Cosmo]

Fully agree that those stories can be told in Elite but (unfortunately) also without it. Alien, Event Horizon, The Thing didn‘t need grounding. They work in any kind of fictional universe. Which underlines Ian‘s point above: non-players won‘t care about the grounding and we players will complain about bad grounding.

Yes stories can be told in many different franchises, but Elite is distinct enough to stand out and appeal to lots of people who don't want: space-fantasy (Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Dune etc), the clinical Star Trek stuff, over the top action of Starship Troopers. The lore, Thargoids, Powers are sufficient for a live-action series. Elite has a bit of a 2001: A Space Odyssey style. The ships are cool enough. We just need a good screenwriter, director, producer to make it.

There's hundreds of movies about the mafia, vampires, medieval times, ancient empires, world war 2, superheroes (marvel, DC), 9 alien movies, Star Trek has 13 movies and over 800 episodes, Star Wars has 12 movies + 9 TV series, and there's remakes of existing movies yet people watch it in droves. Elite is original compared to that.

• if I'm expecting the audience to primarily be people who don't know Elite already (which would be essential for commercial success!), then the Elite setting doesn't help much because I'll have to explain everything important anyway. If "INRA" is more than a passing reference (where any ominous-sounding set of initials would work just as well) there's no real gain.
• if I'm expecting the audience to primarily be people who already know the Elite setting, then it's great because I don't have to explain where Colonia is, or who Zemina Torval is, etc. and that'll save a bunch of valuable time otherwise needed for exposition. But it's going to stay as non-profit fanfic because getting a hundred people to read it would be a significant accomplishment.

For the uninformed audience, it just has to 1. look cool, 2. good story, 3. interesting characters. It shouldn't overload the audience with exposition.

Naysayers say it shouldn't be done. I say there's a big enough audience, it can be good in the right hands. For example, if Christopher Nolan or Neill Blomkamp was tasked to make an Elite movie, it would surely be awesome. This would make the Elite franchise more popular and valuable.

 

[Jinx Chrome]

Yes stories can be told in many different franchises, but Elite is distinct enough to stand out and appeal to lots of people who don't want: space-fantasy (Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Dune etc), the clinical Star Trek stuff, over the top action of Starship Troopers. The lore, Thargoids, Powers are sufficient for a live-action series. The ships are cool enough. We just need a good screenwriter, director, producer to make it.

Yes.. let’s do it. I want a wuxia story!

 

[Fixitman]

This would have been a great idea pre-launch, or soon after. Now, it's not.

There are no movies anymore. All we get now are special effects and/or the latest agenda in exchange for money.

 

[aRJay]

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.

Starship Troopers is probably a bad example to use in this case as people probably want that has more in common with the source material than some character names and being set in space during a war. It was probably not as bad if you had never heard of the novel the names were taken from.

 

[krazmuze]

share your thoughts. suggested actors/actresses? plot line? musical score?

I think that Fallout amazon prime is the way to go - and they need a show like this after the Expanse died. Take a sampling of the different careers and profile different people and how they interact with the larger plot.

 

[metatheurgist]

Expanse may not be as dead as thought

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCyCo6xIBY&t=5s


The problem is no one outside this forum knows this property, there is no one outside this forum clamouring for media about this IP. Warhammer is insanely popular, you can't even begin to compare the 2. Even with a big name like Cavill pushing it it's taken years to get to the point that there might be media for it. The reason The Expanse got a shot is because the books are bestsellers and even then it needed the head of Amazon to give it 3 more seasons. What does ED have? Bupkis.

Elite might have had the opportunity to shift to more media in the 80s when it was more well known but it's not going to happen today. It's the best space sim around and yet more people know about Star Citizen. For Elite media to even be considered today it would have to be a breakout hit, this is not the game that was delivered.

 

[starman]

I thought I had posted something similar.. If they watched Borderlands The Movie . Its unlikely they would ever make a movie about a video game let alone any other movie. Video games are a interactive medium by nature so the narrative structure has multiple paths. I thought The last Starfighter is what I imagine Elite Dangerous actualy is,

Imagine is Et The Movie was based of ET Atari 2600 !

 

[Born Free]

i love the movie Serenity. similar setting. lots of action.

 

[OutofSpace]

It would be just another Star Trek and although another Star Trek film (a well know franchise) may do well, i don't believe Elite would.
I did, however, see an advertisement for Elite Dangerous at the cinema once and it was great seeing the game on a big screen!
Elite Odyssey should stick to what it is good at, being the GOAT game ever made, imo.

 

[SergMx]

I thought a year ago that this wasn't relevant to the game and posted it there.

General / Off-Topic - Elite Series Movie

Now there is a Fallout series, will there ever be a series on Elite ?

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Yes stories can be told in many different franchises, but Elite is distinct enough to stand out and appeal to lots of people who don't want: space-fantasy (Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Dune etc), the clinical Star Trek stuff, over the top action of Starship Troopers.

Sure, I liked Blakes' Seven too. Lots of corporate/military dystopia sci-fi settings exist.

Elite is absolutely space-fantasy, though. Every single question about "and how would this new technology affect people?" is answered with "mysteriously things would work exactly as they do in the 21st century, except the things which work exactly as they did in the 17th". It's a setting designed (and this isn't a complaint!) as a flimsy excuse for having personal spaceships.

"How was an interspecies war taking place within living memory covered up so thoroughly? (And why?)"
"Has anyone ever used the ability to teleport an entire war fleet to any enemy system with 20 minutes notice?"
"Are the fantastic levels of energy generation and energy density needed to have dogfighting personal spaceships and suits which generate their own shields used for anything non-military?"
"We'd pretty much given up on crewed spaceships by the end of the 20th century, what made them make a comeback?"
"Even allowing that no-one in the Elite setting has a moral problem with it, why are people with access to efficient robotics in an apparently post-scarcity economy using slavery?"
"How exactly do those boots work, again?"
"So we kept the mechanical side of containerization, but reverted to 17th century transportation economics?"
"Space pirates?"
"How can ships which are normally so heat-sensitive that closing the vents for just a few minutes causes critical systems damage possibly survive scooping super-heated hydrogen from a star's corona?"

And that's before getting into any of the more obvious magi-tech like "mysterious audio signals which cause murderous violence" or "implants allowing a psychic hyperspatial connection with an alien hivemind".

Naysayers say it shouldn't be done. I say there's a big enough audience, it can be good in the right hands. For example, if Christopher Nolan or Neill Blomkamp was tasked to make an Elite movie, it would surely be awesome. This would make the Elite franchise more popular and valuable.

Right, but then you're running the purpose the other way round - Elite is being attached to the movie for Elite's benefit, rather than for the movie's benefit, and Frontier definitely does not have the spare cash to part-fund a big budget sci-fi movie with top name directors and writers as a publicity stunt.

(I'm not sure Frontier has the spare cash to fund a low-budget British sci-fi TV miniseries, either)