Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: CT27 on July 08, 2015, 03:58:25 pm
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If there ever was a live action movie about the Metroid universe, who would you like to see play Samus Aran? Who do you think could pull off the role?
I think Emily Blunt (Edge Of Tomorrow) could do a decent job personality wise, but I don't know if she's tall enough (it varies, but I've seen a number of sites put Samus at over 6' and Blunt's only 5'7'').
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Depends on what the movie would be like, I suppose.
When I think of Samus and famous actresses, considering that I have almost no personal experience with the franchise past Super Metroid, I can really clearly only see Cate Blanchett.
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Samus should never show her face (Other M was bad, Metroid: Prime was good) except at the very end so the voice should be the most important part. Jennifer Hale 100%.
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Samus should never show her face (Other M was bad, Metroid: Prime was good) except at the very end so the voice should be the most important part. Jennifer Hale 100%.
Well if she never takes her helmet off in the movie, then what's going to be in the movie aside from her just being somewhere alone and blasting aliens?
Now that I think of it, I guess something like that could work, if it was written really well and the focus of the movie was on a good story, not on schlocky videogamey blasting of aliens. You don't always need to see the protagonist's face, but neither can it just be a gimmick because videogame.
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You can still have a character talk without showing her face! Master Chief does a superb example, opinions on quality of writing aside. It could also go the routes of the Metroid: Prime games, where the story is told through the setting, not through the protagonist!
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You can still have a character talk without showing her face! Master Chief does a superb example, opinions on quality of writing aside.
Sure, I just meant that in a movie where the characters are at least occasionally out of immediate danger, it's pretty awkward to have a character not ever show their face, especially if there's no story justification for it and the impression is that they just really like to wear their helmet. It'd easily come off as a gimmick.
But as said, it can work in a certain kind of movie. Dredd is a good example; because the plot is so straightforward and compact, there's never any time or reason for Dredd to take his helmet off, it's part of his uniform.
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Have it take place on a planet with hostile atmosphere. Boom.
This is science fiction, the sky is no longer the limit.
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Hollywood will never spend big money on a gorgeous leading lady and then stick her under a mask for an entire film. Just wont happen. And if they don't hire a gorgeous leading lady, they wont be able to get the sex appeal on the posters and trailers and stuff to get bums in seats. So if a Metroid movie ever did go forwards, don't get your hopes up for a big face reveal any later than the end of the first act.
Hell, not even just that (though mostly that). Actors, male and female, have to be able to act, they have to emote. You can't do that anywhere near as effectively if people can't see your face.
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That's why the actress I suggested is a voice actress, well known for her portrayal of such characters as (female) Commander Shepard, Jedi Knight Bastila Shan, Spartan Commander Sarah Palmer and
wait for it
Samus Aran.
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What's even the point of a live-action Metroid film if it's all going to be opaque spacesuits that could be done just as well with CGI?
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What's even the point of a live-action Metroid film if it's all going to be opaque spacesuits that could be done just as well with CGI?
This is a very good question that I'm sure no one ever thought of when creating a thread that starts with the words "If there ever was"
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I guess I'm not even asking in practical terms, even artistically you have to ask: if the character's so divorced from the person playing her that you just cast a voice actress, is the film even live-action in the first place? What's the value of doing so? If you're asking the question 'who should be the on-screen face of Samus Aran' it follows that the face of Samus Aran will actually appear on screen in some capacity.
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Nah mocap acting is legit.
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I guess I'm not even asking in practical terms, even artistically you have to ask: if the character's so divorced from the person playing her that you just cast a voice actress, is the film even live-action in the first place? What's the value of doing so? If you're asking the question 'who should be the on-screen face of Samus Aran' it follows that the face of Samus Aran will actually appear on screen in some capacity.
The face of Samus Aran is the face of her powersuit; the comparisons people have made to the Master Chief are particularly apt considering his own (pretty legit) live-action outing with Forward Unto Dawn (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1670883072/tt2262308?ref_=tt_ov_i).
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Charlize Theron. A bit cliche, maybe, but she would work really well.
I've actually made a super basic outline for a live-action movie years ago. I'll put it up later.
(And no, you couldn't have a movie like the games, it doesn't work. You'd need non-shooty downtime, and dialogue, and personal interaction and other stuff)
It's later! Edit:
Act 1: Samus has been hired by the Federation to consult on a recon-in-force/raid on a Space Pirate-controlled planet. She will ride along on a dropship with 1 detachment of marines, and is not allowed to bring her own gunship (she's not happy about this, but it's a paying job).
The other two dropships are shot down immediately, and the primary one is hit and crashes. Many marines are killed or badly wounded, only about 10 marines and Samus survive.
Act 2: The marines need to find a sanctuary. So they all carry the wounded away, detonate the dropship, and hole-up in an abandoned building or something. The Squad Captain and Samus need to find a way to contact the Federation to call for rescue. They find a relay station, and learn that they can't be rescued yet, because of the defense grid. At least not without a costly full-scale assault. Samus and the Captain find the location of the Pirate's defense center, and decide that their only chance is to sabotage the defense grid to allow a rescue shuttle to land. During periods of rest, Samus and the Captain have conversations, and begin to develop a relationship. Tension!
Bonus Act 2 Subplot! The rest of the marine squad left at the hideout engage in a tense game of cat-and-injured-mouse with a patrol squad of pirates. They must prepare a defense against an attack, while trying to stay as hidden as possible.
Act 3: Samus and Captain infiltrate the Space Pirate defense center, managing to stay hidden most of the way in. As they approach the center, they are finally spotted, and need to fight the rest of the way in. They encounter lots of increasingly well-equipped pirates, defense turrets, and aggressive pirate-trained creatures.
Meanwhile, the marine squad begins the battle with the pirate patrol, guerrilla style. IEDs, snipers, electronic warfare, and even some melee combat; think Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down style.
Samus and Captain arrive at the command room, locking the door behind them; they're battered and bruised but alive. There, they meet the Pirate Base Commander. He's big. He has a pet: A Metroid! *shock!*
Cut back to the marine squad: They've taken casualties, but won the engagement. They're taking care of their dead and wounded, and taking a brief rest, when they realize that there are pirate reiforcements coming. The able marines go back to prepare for the next probably dooooomed battle.
Meawhile, there's a fierce battle in the command room. The marine captain is mortally wounded, and Samus gets steely and angry. She kills the Metroid and the Commander, and holds the Marine Captain in her arms as he dies. It's very sad. Then she sabotages the defense grid, and uses the comm system to call for rescue... and something else.
Cut to a Federation dropship flanked by two Federation gunships, streaking down toward the city/base/whatever it is. Pan up, Samus' gunship is heading straight for the command center. The Fed gunships engage Space Pirate aircraft, while the dropship moves to rescue the marine squad. There's a battle as they move their wounded into the ship under heavy fire. Rockets are hitting the side of the dropship and alarms are blaring, and then Samus in her gunship rush in and strafe the living **** out of the pirates on the ground. Then they all flee back to orbit.
Samus is debriefed by the Federation Admiral or something. It's revealed that she downloaded a bunch of data from the Pirate mainframe, and she tells them about the pet Metroid. The Admiral looks shocked for a moment, then you can see he's made a decision. Next scene is Samus walking out through the door, she grins as she puts her helmet back on. Roll Credits.
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Act 1: Samus has been hired by the Federation to consult on a recon-in-force/raid on a Space Pirate-controlled planet. She will ride along on a dropship with 1 detachment of marines, and is not allowed to bring her own gunship (she's not happy about this, but it's a paying job).
The other two dropships are shot down immediately, and the primary one is hit and crashes. Many marines are killed or badly wounded, only about 6 marines and Samus survive.
Act 2: The marines need to find a sanctuary, so they all carry the wounded away, detonate the dropship, and hole-up in an abandoned structure or something. The squad Captain and Samus need to find a way to contact the Federation to call for rescue. They find a relay station, and learn that they can't be rescued yet, because of the defense grid. At least not without a costly full-scale assault. Samus and the Captain find the location of the Pirate's defense center, and decide that their only chance is to sabotage the defense grid to allow a rescue shuttle to land. During periods of rest, Samus and the Captain have conversations, and begin to develop a relationship. Tension!
Bonus Act 2 Subplot! The rest of the marine squad left at the hideout engage in a tense game of cat-and-injured-mouse with a patrol squad of pirates. They must prepare a defense against an attack, while trying to stay as hidden as possible.
Act 3: Samus and Captain infiltrate the Space Pirate defense center, managing to stay hidden most of the way in. As they approach the center, they are finally spotted, and need to fight the rest of the way in. They encounter lots of increasingly well-equipped pirates, defense turrets, and aggressive pirate-trained creatures.
Meanwhile, the marine squad begins the battle with the pirate patrol, guerrilla style. IEDs, snipers, electronic warfare, and even some melee combat; think Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down style.
Samus and Captain arrive at the command room, locking the door behind them; they're battered and bruised but alive. There, they meet the Pirate Base Commander. He's big. He has a pet: A Metroid! *shock!*
Cut back to the marine squad: They've taken casualties, but won the engagement. They're taking care of their dead and wounded, and taking a brief rest, when they realize that there are pirate reiforcements coming. The able marines go back to prepare for the next probably dooooomed battle.
Meawhile, there's a fierce battle in the command room. The marine captain is mortally wounded, and Samus gets steely and angry. She kills the Metroid and the Commander, and holds the Marine Captain in her arms as he dies. It's very sad. Then she sabotages the defense grid, and uses the comm system to call for rescue... and something else.
Cut to a dropship flanked by two Federation gunships, streaking down toward the city/base/whatever it is. Pan up, Samus' gunship is heading straight for the command center. The Fed gunships engage Space Pirate aircraft, while the dropship moves to rescue the marine squad. There's a battle as they move their wounded into the ship under heavy fire. Rockets are hitting the side of the dropship and alarms are blaring, and then Samus in her gunship rushes in and strafes the living **** out of the pirates on the ground. Then they all flee back to orbit.
Samus is debriefed by the Federation Admiral or something. It's revealed that she downloaded a bunch of data from the Pirate mainframe, and she tells them about the pet Metroid. The Admiral looks shocked for a moment, then you can see he's made a decision. Next scene is Samus walking out through the door, she grins as she puts her helmet back on. Roll Credits.
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Nah mocap acting is legit.
Right but if you're just using mocap and voice acting then you're basically making a CGI movie.
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People have done that with real top-flight talent, though. Angelina Jolie in Beowulf. It turned out pretty weird but it's been done.
And of course there've been a lot of good CGI character(s) in real environments, sometimes interacting with regular people cast.
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People have done that with real top-flight talent, though. Angelina Jolie in Beowulf. It turned out pretty weird but it's been done.
And of course there've been a lot of good CGI character(s) in real environments, sometimes interacting with regular people cast.
The Uncanny Valley says hi. Going full tilt CGI for non humans works but there is a reason why Pixar for example purposefully stays away hyper realism when doing human characters.
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I can't come up with a stronger argument AGAINST motion capture animation than Beowulf.
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Read the posts you're responding to :blah:
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You wouldn't be using Beowulf-style facial mocap anyway if, as people in this thread seem to think is mandatory, Samus' face isn't shown.
e: and i mean if her face was shown you'd just show the actress'
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Practical effects would look a lot cooler though.
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Honestly I think Iron Man would be the obvious example of how to handle a live-action Samus. Use a combination of a physical suit and CGI, coupled with close-ups of the actress's face inside.
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Iron Man has extensive scenes with Stark out of his armour or with his face exposed. I think if all the shots of Samus were either full armour or extreme close-ups of her face you'd have no sense of connection between the two. Plus, again, if you're going to do that then why not just actually take the helmet off for some scenes.
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Yeah I didn't mean to imply that there wouldn't be any other types of shots, only that you could follow that model in general.
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Samus Aran is a human being.
Samus Aran is not a person. Samus Aran is an implacable suit of armor with an undying hatred of Space Pirates. Expecting more than that is how you get Other M. Connecting to Samus is neither something that should be possible nor should it be attempted. The story of Samus is one best conveyed through setting and reaction to the implacable, unstoppable object that is Samus.
Samus should be the silent antagonist to a protagonist group of Space Pirates. She should kill them, destroy their work, hunt them down with a merciless, silent gaze.
A movie of Samus should be a horror movie where she is the thing that drags the main characters kicking and screaming from view.
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A movie of Samus should be a horror movie where she is the thing that drags the main characters kicking and screaming from view.
Not gonna lie, that does sound pretty cool.
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In respectful disagreement with Scotty, part of the Samus thing has always been that under it Samus is a person. So yes, Samus can speak. She can interact with others. But the face of the character isn't a blonde woman with blue eyes. The face of Samus Aran is red with a green visor. We can see her take the helmet off at the end; that would be a respectful and appropriate nod to the games. We can see her interact with other humans, either Fed troopers or people she's on contract with. We know there's a person under there.
But Samus Aran is a classical example of the question usually asked about superheroes: who's real? Clark Kent or Superman? Is Batman's face his real identity, or is it his cowl? And in her case the answer is clear: the armor is her real face.
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The very best Metroid game has exactly one line of spoken dialogue. The speaker is not Samus. Several of the other games have some minor dialogue, most of it not by Samus. The only one in which Samus actually speaks and we can hear it with another character is Other M.
Samus's speech is her actions. Her face is the visor of her suit and her voice is the cannon on her arm. There may be a (somewhat less/more than) human inside the suit, but she is juggernaut. Speech and humanity are useless liabilities and wastes of time whenever she and the Space Pirates meet.
Plus it's another very good opportunity to have a movie full of sweet explosions and not a lot of dialogue. As long as I'm being hopefully optimistic I'd really like a Space Mad Max.
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speaking of which, Charlize Theron could totally do this.
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Samus Shmamus, Mother Brain is the meaty dramatic role. I want Meryl Streep, or if we can't get her, the lady who plays the evil sorceress in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
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speaking of which, Charlize Theron could totally do this.
That makes two votes!
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Samus Shmamus, Mother Brain is the meaty dramatic role. I want Meryl Streep, or if we can't get her, the lady who plays the evil sorceress in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
that's a weird way to spell Tim Curry.
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Regardless of how Samus is going to be presented to the world, we can all at least agree that Uwe Boll should not be anywhere near this idea when it happens
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I could see an 80's helen hunt doing the role more or less just fine. WATCH TRANCERS!
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Regardless of how Samus is going to be presented to the world, we can all at least agree that Yoshio Sakamoto should not be anywhere near this idea when it happens
Fixed
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Well now I have to google something. Thanks, Omamba.
EDIT:
He also directed and wrote Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Metroid: Other M.
Is this what you're on about? The Other M thing? I suppose that's fair enough, but he did also write Super Metroid.
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He also directed and wrote Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Metroid: Other M.
Is this what you're on about? The Other M thing? I suppose that's fair enough, but he did also write Super Metroid.
With help from the late Gunpei Yokoi, whom is responsible for most of the series' greatness (not counting the Prime arc, which was done by Retro, not Nintendo).