BioWare's Casey Hudson, project director on Mass Effect 2, recently commented that there's been "a tremendous amount of interest from people in Hollywood to make a major motion picture about Mass Effect." We've always thought that the unique sci-fi universe of Mass Effect would be perfectly suited for a movie - or even multiple movies. The rich world, characters and plot developments have already been extended to books and comic books, so why not film?
Apparently, Hollywood.com is on the same wavelength, as writer Peter Hall stated his case for why a Hollywood studio would do very well by picking up the rights to Mass Effect. BioWare will have to retain creative control, however. If that happens, we could witness a very lucrative sci-fi film franchise.
"There's a studio out there that needs Mass Effect. This is the single most robust, easily adaptable game property to come along in years; that it happens to be sci-fi is merely a bonus for us," Hall said. "Avatar has given Fox unprecedented grosses at the box office around the planet, proving that there is not only a desire but a need for new, big-budget, high-concept sci-fi movies with big splashes of action and side-dashes of sensuality. ... Avatar, for better or worse, proved a lot of things. Perhaps most relevant to this article is the fact that people are eager to see non-humans on the big screen. Audiences may still need an Earthly proxy for the story, but there is an appetite for alien species that aren't people-eating monsters that a smart studio should capitalize on. And it doesn't get any more multi-species-friendly than Mass Effect, whose universe is populated with a variety of non-human races, all integral to the story. Not only that, but they're humanoid enough that they won't look too goofy whether they're live-action prosthetics or CGI creations, yet they're unique enough to be as iconic as any of the denizens found in Star Wars or Star Trek."
He concludes, "...given the post-Avatar climate in which the industry now finds itself and the fact that Disney is probably going to have the first genuine blockbuster based on a video game this summer with Prince of Persia, now is the right time for a studio to pick up a multi-film franchise that practically delivers itself on a silver platter. I guarantee that if Prince of Persia is a hit, Hollywood will scour the game world for its own properties; whoever gets Mass Effect is going to have a big advantage over the competition. If they buy it now they may even look like geniuses."
Let's go Hollywood, make this happen. We think Chris Evans could work as Commander Shepard. What do you think?
