We all know the words to the song: movies that are based on video games and video games that are based on movies are almost always terrible. It’s just how things are. Even though the chances are rare, we still get excited about the prospect of our favorite titles being made into games and movie — the thought of playing in a world we love or watching a world we’ve played in be brought to life is just too irresistible — and so we will always hope for those few and far between times that the adaptation will work beautifully.
One fantastic sign for a fan is when the makers of their favorite game or movie are open to the possibilities, but also very adamant about the effort being put in to make something great. This is the way things are when it comes to BioWare’s brilliant Mass Effect franchise.
While speaking to MTV recently, Mass Effect 2 (which hits this Tuesday…finally) Project Director Casey Hudson had this to say about the interest there is to make a movie:
Obviously we have a tremendous amount of interest from people in Hollywood to make a major motion picture about Mass Effect. The most important thing for us is, we don’t just want to see a movie get made. We want to see a great movie get made, if it’s going to get done at all.
It is yet to be seen how good Mass Effect 2 will be, but all signs point to it becoming another instant classic. The first game was so good, and so much better than a lot of movies that you’ll see, that making an actual movie would be really tough. But if BioWare is strict about who makes it and how, and they do it properly using the fantastic storylines that already exist and are perfect, then a movie franchise could be amazing.
Mass Effect is using the Star Wars format: a trilogy always planned, this dark new second chapter, and a full story outline previously structured to ensure a clean, composed final product. And personally, I can’t think of a better game franchise to build a parallel movie franchise on.
Again, so long as they stay the course and remain faithful, it could be one of the most exciting titles for us to witness being given the breath of life.
One last thing for those who are interested: you can head to BioWare’s Ustream.TV page right now to ask questions and learn lots and lots about ME2.. It has been going for a while and I’m not sure how long it runs for, but as I just discovered it, here it is!
