Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Leeko on June 14, 2009, 07:17:52 pm
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If only. Think Top Gun in space, only without the homosexual overtones. Two foreseeable problems would be giving Alpha 1 an identity and getting Robert Loggia to play Admiral Petrarch, if it were set in the FS2 era (which, personally, I would prefer over FS1). Though a way around these would be setting it after FS2, which would also facilitate a more story-oriented experience a la Blue Planet.
Opinions? Ideas?
Edit: I suppose it wouldn't necessarily need to even have Alpha 1 as the protagonist, which would also allow for fan service in the form of some mention of a certain heroic pilot who made the way out of Capella safe. A newscast in the background or something. ;)
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Condensing FS into a movie sounds very hard to do, what with all the world building necessary. As a TV-Series (whether as a miniseries, a regular one, or anime), it would be much easier to do.
Hell, as long as it doesn't turn out like the Wing Commander movie or BattleTech animated, I'm all for it.
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That could work too, I never got into Battlestar Galactica or Stargate, so ever since Star Trek petered out I've been lacking a good sci-fi show to become obsessed with. :P
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That would be the other thing to address. What would the angle be? Personally, I would play up the cosmic horror aspects of the FS setting, because just doing Top Gun IN SPAAACE probably isn't such a good idea.
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Well an interesting angle that was never explored in FreeSpace would be the crew of a capital ship. Part of that is my inner Trekkie speaking, but I've always wondered what goes on in there. I mean, how would you react if your beams were disabled? :P
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Well an interesting angle that was never explored in FreeSpace would be the crew of a capital ship. Part of that is my inner Trekkie speaking, but I've always wondered what goes on in there.
*Cough* ST:TNG "Lower Decks" called, it wants its plot back.
My question here is, what can you (or a TV/Movie producer) do with an IP as unknown as FreeSpace? What are the unique aspects of FS that could potentially make good TV/good movies?
I mean, how would you react if your beams were disabled? :P
Me, I would jump out.
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after FS2, which would also facilitate a more story-oriented experience a la Blue Planet.
I personally felt when I was playing BP I was basically playing a movie, the way, as you said, it was a story oriented experience.
Hell, I'd watch it even if it was recreating the FS2 campaign in movie form.
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Actually Star Trek TNG is exactly what I had in mind. :D
But as I am not a writer or producer I can't really say. Would be nice to get a creative mind in here for some input on that... but I do agree with Sarge, I would watch a recreation of FS2 in movie form. I'd love to see a roomful of pilots' jaws dropping when Admiral Petrarch gives the announcement about the Sathanas fleet...
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An animated series would almost be the best way. Because otherwise they'd break a budget on special effects or have no space scenes, making it Star Trek.
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Yeah an animated version would probably be best. Even if only to start with - if became successful it might make enough money to warrant a live action version with CG space sequences, which I'd much prefer and would probably garner a wider audience. Maybe that's just me, but it seems like a lot of animated series end up as cult classics rather than huge titles. But I suppose all FS has right now is a cult following anyway.
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What's wrong with cult classic?
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Nothing is wrong with cult classics themselves, only the fact that they don't get sequels. Why do you think there's no FS3? :(
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We got FS2 so they must make some sequels
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FS2 sold considerably less well than FS1, mostly due to a lack of marketing. Sadly, they rarely do. You never know though - Firefly did get a sequel in movie form after all.
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Let's do FS2 a favor and NOT embarass it. A noble idea indeed but let's face it - 99.99% of all video game adaptations turn out like complete pieces of &$%#. Take one look at Max Payne...
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Sadly, video games rarely translate into other forms of media intact. However when they do they're usually great - the Resident Evil movies and books based on Halo and Warcraft are shining examples.
Edit: I guess the problem is that video games are the only form of media which requires the participant to actually see things through the eyes of the protagonist, which is why the aforementioned problem exists.
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Mostly because they AREN'T cult classics. They water them down to make them blockbusters and shoe horn them into formulaic plots.
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The Resident Evil movies yes, I won't argue with you on that. But the Halo books are great ones and, I might add, not widely known or critically acclaimed.
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I thought about this idea for some time myself, and my solution would be a movie playing during the time of FS2, focussing on different protagonists than alpha 1. You still can show important and spectacular battles like bearbaiting from the outside (or a switching pov of different pilotes), get a lot of relevant information while the people/pilots talk on their ship, and explore a different aspect of the war without being hindered with (little) plotholes that are in the game for the sake of playability.
Of course if you think about how you would make it, everything sounds so good, but in reality it sucks in most cases ;)
Well, I think a good FS movie, one that's interesting for fans as well as others can be made.
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I wouldn't mind a FS2 movie, just so long as it wouldn't be dumbed-down so it could "appeal to a larger audience". If there is a Freespace movie, I want beams, I want massive capital ships, and I want a protagonist besides an invincible Alpha One.
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I wouldn't mind a FS2 movie, just so long as it wouldn't be dumbed-down so it could "appeal to a larger audience". If there is a Freespace movie, I want beams, I want massive capital ships, and I want a protagonist besides an invincible Alpha One.
Or at least give him a name, and possibly some halfway intelligent wingmates? Maybe from a POV of one of his wingmen?
Oh wait, they're all dead.
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I would prefer not following around Alpha 1. We already know what happens, so tell some new stories.
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A story that follows one of Bosch's subordinates would work...
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I wouldn't run with the Top Gun idea...
Alpha 1: You can be my wingman anytime, Alpha 3!
--next mission passes--
Alpha 3: You can be my wingman anytime, new Alpha 3!
--next mission--
Alpha 1: You can be my wingma--
Alpha 3: Oh shutup
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IMO, not the best idea. There to much to fit into 2 hours of film.
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Am I the only one who remembers how bloody awful Wing Commander (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_(film)) was? Okay, that sets the bar pretty low, so that a FreeSpace movie wouldn't have to do much to beat expectations, but can't we take it as a lesson learned about video games and movies?
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I prefer the HLP Movie myself.
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It gives me the image of Top Gun eating Event Horizon. Then Freespace: TEH MEWVEE would be the residual feces.
I just don't think it would work. I like to kind of "Role-Play" while I play, pulling unnecessary maneuvers and even speaking out loud when I play, as if I was the main character of a movie. I just don't want it to go past that.
Unless it was something cool. Like, say, it follows the NTF Rebellion. Or a captive of the Shivans on board the Iceni. That would be interesting, and have this terrified NTF operative eventually break free from the Shivans, to find himself in the subspace tunnel en route to the Shivan homeworld. When he pops out the other side, he sees 10,000,000 Lucifers and 100,000,000 Sathanes getting ready to lolpwn the GTVA. Fade to black...
Something I WOULD LOVE to see is the journey of the Galatea or the Bastion, up to their glorious last moments. Hell, Event Horizon was all on one ship, I think that FS:TM could do it, too. As long as it was done well.
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There was some discussion regarding what we, the community, would like to see in an FS movie or TV series, about three years ago. I did a quick search and came up with the thread. I recall it specifically because I wrote up a rather in-depth idea about basing a TV series on the events of FS1, where the main characters would be part of the Ross 128 incident as part of the pilot episode. I've liked directly to my post:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39865.msg813133.html#msg813133 (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39865.msg813133.html#msg813133)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_(film)
Wing Commander was panned by critics: its 9% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes is amongst the lowest ever recorded on that site.[9] It is also considered a major box office flop: the total domestic gross of Wing Commander's theatrical run is estimated at $11,578,059, not nearly enough to recoup its $30 million budget.[10] Chris Roberts never directed another motion picture. He did, however, serve as a producer on The Punisher, The Jacket and Lord of War. A considerable amount of the gross could be attributed to the fact that a new theatrical trailer for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace premiered before this film in theaters, which would be released two months later.[11]
In 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies.[12]
Just keep in mind, what a freespace movie could turn out to be like LOL
Good games don't make good movies, but good games easily make you regret movies like these have been made LOL
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The movie could center around one Ensign Aken Bosch, GTI operative at the time of the Hades Insurrection.
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The movie could center around one Ensign Aken Bosch, GTI operative at the time of the Hades Insurrection.
T'aint been proven. If you're going to make the movie using actual game characters, you've gotta make sure you're using canon info.
Unless :v: started using the HLP forums while I was away.
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Well, the movie could make it canon by a decree from :v:. How's that?
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The movie could center around one Ensign Aken Bosch, GTI operative at the time of the Hades Insurrection.
T'aint been proven. If you're going to make the movie using actual game characters, you've gotta make sure you're using canon info.
Unless :v: started using the HLP forums while I was away.
Well... actually no if a movie was made they don't have to use anything from canon. They can rewrite whatever they like if thats there prerogative.
Just look at the *spit burp* Uwe Bowl movies that are related to games in name only.
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I actually think there isn't enough story in FS1 to make a movie. A successful movie that is. Sure you could have the Lucifer approaching the Sol and getting destroyed but that's a pretty rubbish narrative for a movie.
The Shivans in a movie sense aren't that interesting, you can't show there reasons for being uber evil, nor can they interact with the protagonists. That's a problem I believe the writers of ST: First Contact faced when bringing the Borg to the big screen and there reasons for making the Queen. Having a faceless enemy is real scary and all but it doesn't leave you a lot of character wiggle room.
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I actually think there isn't enough story in FS1 to make a movie. A successful movie that is. Sure you could have the Lucifer approaching the Sol and getting destroyed but that's a pretty rubbish narrative for a movie.
The Shivans in a movie sense aren't that interesting, you can't show there reasons for being uber evil, nor can they interact with the protagonists. That's a problem I believe the writers of ST: First Contact faced when bringing the Borg to the big screen and there reasons for making the Queen. Having a faceless enemy is real scary and all but it doesn't leave you a lot of character wiggle room.
I agree. Just look at the Halo novels, they weren't all based on the invincible Master Chief running around slaughtering aliens. I think that a movie based on the universe of Freespace would be pretty interesting, and we needn't look far for a script as I think Weatherop's fan fiction "FreeSpace: Secrets Revealed" and Trivial Psychic's idea would do well.
Although a full feature length movie would be pretty much impossible, I think a short film of about 10-15 minutes is doable. Just think of the publicity (google "Alive in Joburg" by Neill Blomkamp and see what it led to ;)) it would bring to Freespace if it was successful! :D
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I actually think there isn't enough story in FS1 to make a movie. A successful movie that is. Sure you could have the Lucifer approaching the Sol and getting destroyed but that's a pretty rubbish narrative for a movie.
The Shivans in a movie sense aren't that interesting, you can't show there reasons for being uber evil, nor can they interact with the protagonists. That's a problem I believe the writers of ST: First Contact faced when bringing the Borg to the big screen and there reasons for making the Queen. Having a faceless enemy is real scary and all but it doesn't leave you a lot of character wiggle room.
Well it worked for independence day sorta. :p ID didn't show a lot more of the actual aliens than we ever saw of the Shivans in that transport cutscene heh.
Course... could an exploding Vasuda Prime beat an exploding White House ? mhhhhhh propably not :p
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Well it worked for independence day sorta. :p
If your going to aspire to something, make it a little higher then ID:4 :lol: I see your point though
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If your going to aspire to something, make it a little higher then ID:4
Wait, what's wrong with independance day.... and since when were there sequels?
Course... could an exploding Vasuda Prime beat an exploding White House ? mhhhhhh propably not
You'd have to show all the fleeing citizens as a beam lances down on the city in the background and they are overtaken by a massive wave of fire and plasma.
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I actually think there isn't enough story in FS1 to make a movie. A successful movie that is. Sure you could have the Lucifer approaching the Sol and getting destroyed but that's a pretty rubbish narrative for a movie.
The Shivans in a movie sense aren't that interesting, you can't show there reasons for being uber evil, nor can they interact with the protagonists. That's a problem I believe the writers of ST: First Contact faced when bringing the Borg to the big screen and there reasons for making the Queen. Having a faceless enemy is real scary and all but it doesn't leave you a lot of character wiggle room.
Does it matter? It doesn't have to be about the faceless enemy. The movie would be about how the pilots and officers react to this. You never even need to show a shivan at all during a movie. They are mysterious, a force of nature.
It can be done and it can be done well. A full movie. You'd just need a very good writer that can pull this off.
Frankly, methinks the community itself could write a good script if it wanted to (think the HLP movie things we've been writing, only fully in character and set in a specific point in DS timeline)
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If your going to aspire to something, make it a little higher then ID:4
Wait, what's wrong with independance day.... and since when were there sequels?
ID4 is a nickname for the film Independence Day for reasons of marketing. I think it's mainly a US thing.
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Independence Day 4: Even more Independencer
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For an FS movie to actually WORK, it would need to be either the T-V war or the Great War. Having played FS2 before FS1, i can attest that while I loved the game, until FS1 I didn't get what was so frightful about the shivans, given that except the bits with the Sath, you feel as if your fleet and your fighters are the strongest posible thing out there.
In FS1 you actually felt outgunned as well as outnumbered and the game required more skill to complete, except bombing runs of capships, they just got harder with flak and AF beams, which was good cuz FS1 capships look like big slow hunks of metal with target signs painted on em.
Story-wise it'd be much easier to make this story about the humans being at war with this other species for 14 years, nearing economic collapse because of it and then some mysterious, indestructible (at first) enemy shows up and makes short work of anything they encounter, forcing the humans to ally themselves with the Vasudans, who face the same threat.
FS2's story is basically one of an arrogant government who believes they can handle anything because they adapted 30-year old shivan tech to their ship designs...
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I tend to agree, even though I presently think that novels would be more adapted to the freespace universe...
Independence day? I remember having yearned at that movie when i was very young. watching a missile barrage set a city destroyer alight was genuinely appealing to me. And the scale...
I know that because of this (and also the add at the beginning of the film), I tracked the ID4 PC game during 4 years (I didn't know how to order on the internet at the time, not that it was as develloped as today). Easily one of my longest hunts.
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Turning either game into a movie would be, um, damn near impossible. I think I made the only serious (and complete) attempt to write FS1 into a story, and looking back on it now, it wasn't that great. Lots of issues come up when making a movie, the biggest being scale.
FS1 and FS2 are BIG. Very big. They cover a lot of ground and compressing it into a movie with a concentrated plot would be difficult to say the least. Your best bet would be to ignore most of the game's overall plot, and focus down on something small and easy to cover.
Let's start with a rescue mission gone wrong. Space battle to get to a ship, tow it back, etc, etc. A little tweaking and you go from a sci-fi space war movie into a space horror picture (imagine a Shivan chasing the cast down corridors of an Arcadia). Finally a big battle to escape, possibly with cameo's of squadrons or ships (the Bastion comes to the rescue perhaps).
That's rough and off the top of the head, but that would be my best bet on a movie: Ignore the game as anything but source material. You'll have better luck than a true game movie.
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Agreed, problem is, if you go for the small, personal level, you get a remake of Alien, if you go for the grand Space Opera scale, you get a kind of massively watered down version of Babylon 5.
You'd do better, as Eishtmo suggests, using the story as the background, oh, and it would have to have, just for the sake of continuity, at least one mid-battle collision between wingmen ;)
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Good Movie = millions of $ of profit
Bad movie = millions of $ of deficit
Therefore: Movie = millions of $ of risk
Amount it would take to bribe :v: to make FS3 = Considerably less
# of people with millions of $ who'd make FS3 = nil, or they already would have done it or have never heard of it
# of $ in the hlp < cost of a movie
Epic movie of FS = Fantastic
Low budget movie of FS = A disaster
FS Movie = low budget?
FS Movie = disaster
FS Movie = Non-existant
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We just need to hope a FAN with $ gets an idea and stays true to the story.
Like how Toby M. is supposedly a "Fan" of Robotech and made it his project he brought to Warner Bros.
Wing commander is a great example of how to F-up your franchise.
Chris Roberts (the CREATOR) had to bow and scrape and cave in to demands fo otehrs and is on teh record bascially saying "i didnt; want to do this". And it turned into anythign BUT a WC movie...
We all got robbed. For any IP based movie you need the the right person, at the right time, with enough $ and the POWER to make it happen and NOT take **** from others.
Any step along the way not covered by those can spell disaster...
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The story of crew trapped inside the NTF Iceni would be a good story to make the FS movie. Like from the part when they arrive in the Nebula to the part when the survivors get rescued.
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That would require a ton of backstory
"Previously on FreeSpace...."
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Or, you could just say they were simply rebels fleeing from a government force hunting them down, and that the area they fled into was inhabited by evil aliens.
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Then it's not really a FreeSpace story, simply a story based off a FreeSpace plot?
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The best story for such a movie would be the story about a group of people who were at the forefront of the Great War(s).
The story could be about the crew of the Baastion ...or the squadron serving on it.
Or about Bosch...or admiral Wolf.
You got leavy for a great story here, since FS given a great background.
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You got leavy for a great story here, since FS given a great background.
Not really, truthfully. Freespace has very, very little background stuff to play with. At the same time, there is so little that every piece is very, VERY precious and if you don't use it right, you'll trash it.
There are 4 wars (5 if you count the Ancients), a bunch of battles that are connected, sometimes loosely, sometimes really tightly. From FS1 there are two characters (Shima and Wolf) that you have any interaction with at all, the rest are wingmen screaming for help and Vasudans being jerks. The cutscenes are either text or disconnected scenes of war. FS2 has more characters, but outside of Bosch, Snipes and Peterach (sp), they have very little in terms of character. Hell, the SHIPS have more character than most of the people.
The whole thing has a very epic feel to it, but it doesn't actually have a tightly wound story, and what it does have for a story isn't enough to actually build a movie on. A TV series could work, but even that would be hard without basically rewriting a signficant chunk of FS canon.
Even writing the campaigns as a book would be and was difficult. For my Great War story, I had to basically create characters from the ground up, build relationships you never see and concive of reasons why things are the way they are. My original 14 Year War timeline was developed as background for the story because I needed something to work with. FS Vanilla just doesn't offer that.
What will end up resulting in the attempt to make a film is a rather generic space war/horror/suspense/drama movie with Apollos and Orions fighting Dragons and the Lucifer.
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Actually, if you take a campaign like homesick, you'll notice that some mission designers clearly wanted to give more thought to character devellopment.
I would clearly have seen this scenario as a novel.
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*snip*
Bollocks.
This is a writer's dream for a derivative work because there's so very little to get in the way. The setting responds very well to adaption. Look around you; this is GenFS. A thousand different views on everything you consider problematic exist already here, most of themy equally supportable. Those things that are not discussed here are, for the most part, actually irrevelant to a well-plotted story. FS is an in media res sort of world.
What you percieve as weakness is, in fact, strength. Nothing but what you choose to make of it.
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*snip*
Bollocks.
This is a writer's dream for a derivative work because there's so very little to get in the way. The setting responds very well to adaption. Look around you; this is GenFS. A thousand different views on everything you consider problematic exist already here, most of themy equally supportable. Those things that are not discussed here are, for the most part, actually irrevelant to a well-plotted story. FS is an in media res sort of world.
What you percieve as weakness is, in fact, strength. Nothing but what you choose to make of it.
I can only agree.
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NGTM-1R put it better than me.
The strength of FS background is that is it's powerful, but simple and sparse enough that you can really build a lot upon it.
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Bollocks.
This is a writer's dream for a derivative work because there's so very little to get in the way. The setting responds very well to adaption. Look around you; this is GenFS. A thousand different views on everything you consider problematic exist already here, most of themy equally supportable. Those things that are not discussed here are, for the most part, actually irrevelant to a well-plotted story. FS is an in media res sort of world.
What you percieve as weakness is, in fact, strength. Nothing but what you choose to make of it.
A writer's dream, perhaps, but a fan's nightmare. With practically nothing to build on, and what is available is rather generic, the writer gains almost TOTAL control. Their minds go wild and the result is something that says "FREESPACE" in the title, but it won't ever be Freespace.
So to my point: The canon campaigns can NEVER be made into a movie. It's impossible. Side stories within the campaign are possible, but then the writer can go completely off the tracks and create a very generic movie. Even the one I briefly described is something that would be at home as a bad SyFy (god I had that name) movie.
The FS background isn't super special, it's very basic and cliche. The only thing that really stands out are the Shivan's themselves, going by as totally unexplianed for two games and an expansion pack. Most games and movies would never let that happen, but they did it. Everything else is pretty generic. Swap out the models and the names and you could have a dozen different games/movies/TV shows. I suppose you could say that about any game, of course, and that's the point..
As another point, more freedom for a writer often is a detriment to the writer. Limiting yourself when writing, or by given constraints, allows you to fully explore those limitations and truly develop what is possible. Could this be done with Freespace? Not really, because FS has so few constraints that it's not hard at all to break them. Have you ever seen my 14 Year War timeline, the canon version? Aside from a few stated battles and dates, there's NOTHING there. The rest of FS is just as empty. Without a sturdy set of barriers in a writer's way, they'll go nuts, perhaps all over the place and we won't get a Freespace movie, if we're lucky.
Could it be done? Maybe, but damn would it be hard. I'm not hopeful about it. Hell, I wouldn't even attempt it myself.
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*snip*
Could it be done? Maybe, but damn would it be hard. I'm not hopeful about it. Hell, I wouldn't even attempt it myself.
Soo..... Because there is so much unexplored/explained, it would be harder for a writer to write a good story :wtf:? The lack of a great deal of characters is actually a boon in this instance, because the writers can make up ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about those people, where they came from, why they came from there, why they got to where they are now, etc., etc., ad inifnitum. It's a blank canvas only limited by the three canon campaigns. Campaigns that do absolutely nothing but give people an idea of how nasty the Shivans are, and how idiotic some people can be.
but then the writer can go completely off the tracks and create a very generic movie.
I'm sorry, but this phrase taken out of context just made me laugh for some reason.
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To be blunt: I'm afraid an FS movie is going to suck balls. Given the track record of game movies, I can only see it being bad to begin with. Then you look at stuff like Wing Commander, which probably has more in one game than FS has period, and then look at the movie they produced, and I get sick.
That said, I did come up with a rough plot for a movie that MIGHT work, but I'd still be hesitant to give it to the movie industry.
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To be blunt: I'm afraid an FS movie is going to suck balls. Given the track record of game movies, I can only see it being bad to begin with. Then you look at stuff like Wing Commander, which probably has more in one game than FS has period, and then look at the movie they produced, and I get sick.
That said, I did come up with a rough plot for a movie that MIGHT work, but I'd still be hesitant to give it to the movie industry.
From the logic you've been using in all of your posts, you make it sound like you believe that anything that is both FreeSpace and fanmade is a bad thing. Honestly, I agree that a FreeSpace movie can never be completely "true to the story." That's why when watching the movie (if one is ever made) you should take it with a grain of salt, just like you would with any fanmade campaign, because neither of them will ever be canon.
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Then you look at stuff like Wing Commander, which probably has more in one game than FS has period, and then look at the movie they produced, and I get sick.
While I must agree that the wing commander movie sucked massively, they made a few more games than the duo of FS games. Silent Threat and Op Templar are expansions and thus cannot count as full games.
wing commander game list
Wing Commander
both Secret Missions expansions and the 3do Super Wing Commander
Wing Commander II:Vengeance of the Kilrathi
2 Special Ops expansions
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
Wing Commander IV:The Price of Freedom
Wing Commander: Prophecy
Wing Commander: Secret Ops
This does not count the spinoffs either...(including Privateer)
As the FreeSpace Universe only includes 2 games and their respective expansions, wing commander had a bit more public knowledge to make it into a movie.
An FS movie wouldnt be great, but as they make everything into trilogies these days, they COULD technically cover all the important aspects of The Great War...
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I'd rather keep FreeSpace as brilliant games and avoid an embarrasing stain of a FreeSpace movie.
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The only way I can see to make this maybe work would be to do it as a miniseries, something of a cross between Babylon 5 and BSG. Focus on a small group of people aboard the Galatea (and later, critical plot characters moved to the Bastion).
If you take enough liberties with the Freespace story, I'm sure you could eventually make something like that work. The question is, by the time you were done, what would you have left? Something unique and interesting, or a washed-out "B5 clone?"
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Something unique and interesting, or a washed-out "B5 clone?"
Or a story that looks like Space: Above and Beyond which KINDA had a similar feel to FS with ground troops instead of space fighters, but there was some space combat as well. Story was basically that of Terrans at war with a mysterious enemy that just attacked them out of nowhere and their desperate retaliation.
Problem is, that series suffered from low budget and subpar acting and was cut after 24 episodes and no clear ending...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_Above_And_Beyond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_Above_And_Beyond)
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To be blunt: I'm afraid an FS movie is going to suck balls. Given the track record of game movies, I can only see it being bad to begin with. Then you look at stuff like Wing Commander, which probably has more in one game than FS has period, and then look at the movie they produced, and I get sick.
That said, I did come up with a rough plot for a movie that MIGHT work, but I'd still be hesitant to give it to the movie industry.
From the logic you've been using in all of your posts, you make it sound like you believe that anything that is both FreeSpace and fanmade is a bad thing. Honestly, I agree that a FreeSpace movie can never be completely "true to the story." That's why when watching the movie (if one is ever made) you should take it with a grain of salt, just like you would with any fanmade campaign, because neither of them will ever be canon.
:lol:
You clearly don't know who you're talking to here.
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While I must agree that the wing commander movie sucked massively, they made a few more games than the duo of FS games. Silent Threat and Op Templar are expansions and thus cannot count as full games.
wing commander game list
Wing Commander
both Secret Missions expansions and the 3do Super Wing Commander
Wing Commander II:Vengeance of the Kilrathi
2 Special Ops expansions
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
Wing Commander IV:The Price of Freedom
Wing Commander: Prophecy
Wing Commander: Secret Ops
WC started earlier, in the golden age of space sims/shooters...so more sequels is just logical.
Not to mention that all the WC's combined don't hold a candle to FS
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Problem is, that series suffered from low budget and subpar acting and was cut after 24 episodes and no clear ending...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_Above_And_Beyond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_Above_And_Beyond)
I have it on DVD. It has it's moments (Angriest Angel), but it isn't great. It had some potential, and if it was made 10 years later and given another season (it was on Fox, so fat chance of that), maybe it could have been something pretty damn good.
At the same time, it also reveals why FS wouldn't work as a TV show: Space fighter battles are interesting once in a while, but you can't make EVERY episode about it. SAaB did this by making the main characters Marines, so they could do ground pounder episodes, and some were actually pretty good. But it was jarring, so much so they actually had McQueen talk about it in one episode. FS is almost universally a space battle, so doing an entire series like that would stall it out quick. Can only do so many escort, attack, defend episodes after all.
A movie would work BETTER, but would suffer from the same problems Wing Commander had. So there you have it.
I would rather leave them as games with a bit of fanfiction running around. It's better that way.
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At the same time, it also reveals why FS wouldn't work as a TV show: Space fighter battles are interesting once in a while, but you can't make EVERY episode about it. SAaB did this by making the main characters Marines, so they could do ground pounder episodes, and some were actually pretty good. But it was jarring, so much so they actually had McQueen talk about it in one episode.
FS is almost universally a space battle, so doing an entire series like that would stall it out quick. Can only do so many escort, attack, defend episodes after all.
That's why you don't follow alpha 1 in your freespace movie/series, but tell the story of other people. Here, because you have the freedom to do nearly anything you like with a paralell story (because the fs universe is so "incomplete", you have a very low chance in conflicting with canon), you can focus more on relationship and the persons, not the space battles. BSG somehow worked like this, too, though I wouldn't think of a BSG rip-off. Just an example that it CAN work.
You can transport the feeling of despair present in the fs games very well with actors instead of fighting and fighting enemies you obviously can't defeat (ingame).
Battle scenes I would include for a movie:
1.) An intro battle, introducing the shivans
2.) Probably a battle relevant for the story itself - it is mentioned that others than alpha 1 have located other sathanas, this could be the inspiration for the main story. But this is maybe not necessary.
3.) The destruction of the first Sathanas (either bearbaiting only or bearbaiting and high noon (both very shortened))
4.) A final battle before/during the evacuation, maybe hindering a Sathanas to do an attack run against the Bastion
4.b) Escaping the Supernova (doesn't need to be with a fight, just watching the outside fight as passengers of a medic ship will be enough :) )
If you give each 4-5 minutes, that would mean 20-25 minutes of the movie would be action/space battle, but 1.) and 2.) can probably shortened to 1-2 minutes of battle each. The Rest of the 70 minutes: Characters+character interaction.
This 70 minutes might consist of arguing about politics (the NTF rebellion), talking about history(T-V war), a love story (plz, calm down everyone, i had to mention this :> ), a story of friendship, a tragedy or whatever you would like to fill it with (as long as it fits the general tone of the game)
But I'm sure you could even do a good movie in the universe without any battles, though it might be missing a good opportunity for some eye candy. :)
What I wouldn't include:
a)The NTF rebellion as a major plot point - too much for only 1 movie imho, but i can be proven wrong.
b)A part of the story on a vasudan ship: Design of the interiour will be complicated, and as long as the Vasudans are not a main part of the story, the viewer will have difficulties feeling comfortable "there".
After all, it's all about the shivans kicking our ass. :>
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I'd say the "pilots who are also marines, and commandos and diplomats and whatever the episode needs them to be" is the product of BAD WRITING. Simple as that.
It's never about just what you do, it's also how you do it. Something that might seem boring can be done to be fresh and interesting - if that wasn't the case, nobody would ever play any of the many custom FS campaign - I mean, we all flew escorts a million times, right?
The trick is not to have a cast of multi-role characters, but a cast of different characters that each do his part. Have a few marines, a few pilots, some officers, etc... and have each do his own thing. Like I said, everything an be done good,m if done properly.
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I hate it when an idea gets into my head. Here, now I'm done with this discussion.
Freespace: The Last Immortal
Movie Summary
We open on Tombaugh Station in the Ribos system. Below sits Ribos (#), a blue green world much like Earth. Through a subspace portal, a pair of Elysium transports tow the crippled SC Taranis to the station. From the windows, on lookers watch as the GTA captures its first Shivan warship.
Our Hero (O.H.) is a pilot of one of the fighters sent to escort the cruiser. Background information is filled in as they near the station.
Warnings go off in the CIC of the GTD Reliant, stationed to guard Tombaugh. A massive subspace portal opens near the station and the SD Lucifer appears. Reliant’s Admiral orders all fighters scrambled. Fighters pour out of the hanger bay, and as they do, the Lucifer responds in kind. Laser blasts light up the sky and O.H. asks if he should stay on post. He’s told to forget the cruiser, get into the fight.
Fighters explode around him, ships are going down, pilots are screaming over the comms. Even as he gets yet another kill, he is hailed by the Reliant. The great ship is taking a pounding from the Lucifer. Tombaugh is as well, and it’s only because both are there that they’ve lasted this long. Civilians are trying to get away, but there are so many Shivan fighters, it seems none can get through. O.H. is ordered to take data logs from the station, Reliant and anything else with sensors and bug out. O.H. protests, but the Admiral orders him more forcefully.
With the data uploaded to his fighter, O.H. looks back on the battle. The Reliant explodes as the Lucifer hits it with a beam weapon. With a slam, he activates his jump drive and disappears into a portal. . .
He then wakes up in a transport. Across from him is The Chick (TC), the female protagonist (and possible love interest) of the film. They talk quietly for a bit, TC confirming that 1) she is a new pilot for Random station, 2) her original training is in psychology and 3) Odds are good everyone on Random will know he’s the last member of the 10th Immortal squadron. The last part bothers him the most.
On the station, civilian side. Lots of people, human and Vasudan wander around. OH not exactly happy to see the Vasudans, but takes interest when a human and Vasudan start getting into an argument. He and another Vasudan, Quarter Master (QM), break them up (and OH tells the human that the Vasudan will BREAK him). QM is an officer, responsible for transferring Vasudans through the station and to their various colonies after the destruction and escape from their homeworld.
One last stop at the Admiral in charge of Random. He confirms that there has still been no response from Earth since the Lucifer was destroyed, and the Shivan threat seems to be diminishing. In the meantime, OH is named squad commander (despite objections) and to get to work, now.
In the hanger we are finally introduced to The Asshole (TA) who is second in command of the squadron and doesn’t like OH coming in and taking over. He also messily hits on TC (Earth’s gone baby, we need to repopulate or something). All this ends when a Shivan Demon class destroyer appears and attacks.
OH and the rest jump in their fighters and back out into combat, but OH is having trouble concentrating. Flash backs to the Lucifer and the masacure at Tombaugh bother him throughout the fight, and eventually he’s hit enough to lose control of his fighter. He swerves off, and notices a Shivan transport bearing down on the station, but can’t do anything as he crashes into the station himself.
He wakes up a bit later and crawls out of his wrecked fighter into a now force field sealed section of the station. The space battle is apparently over, so he crawls to the hallway where he runs into a squad of Terran and Vasudan Marines. OH is told the battle is over and the Demon left, but the Shivan transport crashed into the station and Shivans are all over the place, killing people and sabatoching equipment. Oh, and the Admiral and the rest of the command staff were killed by errant missiles or something.
Together they start making their way back through the station. At one point, one of the Vasudans and one of the humans get into an argument, and the Vasudan picks him up by his neck, only for the whole group to be interrupted by a Shivan. They kill that Shivan, only there are more coming, so they run. Eventually they get to a very large door and another group of Marines. They fire into the Shivans until everyone (who is alive) gets behind the door then slam it shut. Then the automated defenses come online on the Shivan side. There was much rejoicing.
In between running and gunning Shivans, we return to TC and TA, who are panicked about the death of the Admiral. It appears QM, being the most senior military officer on the station, has taken command, and TA doesn’t like it. TC is actually worried about OH, not because she likes him (OF COURSE!), but because she had orders from Command to try to figure out why he’s not up for being made a big damn hero for Tombaugh (GTA Command, still not getting it).
Anyway, OH returns, QM admits he isn’t really command type, but OH doesn’t want to take over (despite now being senior Terran officer on the station). He finds out about TC’s extra orders, and is pissed. Lots of yelling. Also we’re told that the long range comms are down and any attempt to fly to the node and call for help has been brutally slapped down by Shivan fighters. Finally we get down to the meat of the matter: Why are they still alive?
A Demon destroyer had appeared, and had NOT destroyed the station and killed everyone there, and there’s a question about that. It’s concluded that they don’t have the firepower to do it. What’s more, the Shivans may not have the power to hold off an attack on the Demon itself. The allies hatch a plan to take out the Demon by baiting it’s fighters with a bunch of civilian transports heading for a nearby planet.
Before the plan is enacted, TC and OH kind of make up. Then they find out that OH’s Apollo from the Tombaugh mission is on the station (got to love Command for that). After a lot of yelling, and realizing they need every fighter that can fly (extra pilots from the Vasudans on the station), OH takes the Apollo.
So OH leads the group against the Demon (TC on the squad) and TA leads the group defending the transports. Things work well, at first, and the Demon takes hits, but then more Shivan fighters show up and OH and his group are fighting for their lives. OH then starts having his flashbacks again, but this time TC notices and talks him through it. Eventually he snaps back to reality and lays down the hammer. The Demon is destroyed, the Shivans are on the run and everyone is happy.
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... talking about history(T-V war), a love story (plz, calm down everyone, i had to mention this :> ), a story of friendship, a tragedy...
(http://s285.photobucket.com/albums/ll43/myknsj/th_d34fc96f.gif)
*snip*
:yes2: Nice work :yes:
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... talking about history(T-V war), a love story (plz, calm down everyone, i had to mention this :> ), a story of friendship, a tragedy...
(http://s285.photobucket.com/albums/ll43/myknsj/th_d34fc96f.gif)
You were supposed to calm down. :p
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How did you use that smiley? :confused:
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I was thinking of something along the lines of a story told almost entirely through interviews, and the scenes of the movie are separated by different interviews. The action in the movie itself is presented through full-color "flashbacks" where the action itself takes place.
Hell, I could do that myself if I wanted to. :drevil:
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I don't particularly like interview stories with flashbacks. They seem not to have that suspense and the action doesn't seem real. Personally.
I got that smilie by google imaging "suicide smiley".
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I was thinking of something along the lines of a story told almost entirely through interviews, and the scenes of the movie are separated by different interviews. The action in the movie itself is presented through full-color "flashbacks" where the action itself takes place.
Hell, I could do that myself if I wanted to. :drevil:
But why would they not be full-color?
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some movies do that for flashbacks
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I would prefer not following around Alpha 1. We already know what happens, so tell some new stories.
I personally like the idea of a FreeSpace TV series or anime following a rinky-dink carrier group led by Admiral Captain Wolf sometime around 2327, trapped behind enemy lines during a major Vasudan surge into Terran space, where we can see Wolf earn command of a ship like the Galatea and the GTF Apollo actually be a desirable and glamorous fighter that everyone wants to fly.
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Yeah, a FreeSpace TV show would probably be way better than any FreeSpace movie. You'd have much more logical pauses between episodes, allowing to have each episode focus on a single mission, as opposed to a movie trying to make the entire plot cohere into a 120 minute time period.
I had a pretty good idea on how a FS movie could be done when we had that VG movie thread a while back, but naturally, I didn't write it down and I forgot it. :p
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Please, please!! Have special effects, there's a show on here (merlin) it advertised "imagine LOTR or Harry Potter as a TV series" saying it would be awesome. The thing was, it has horrible special effects, which the other's did. If someone made Freespace into a TV series, it has to have great special effects, at least the sort of the thing you see in episode 4-6 starwars. I won't settle for anything less, anything. Unfortunately, that means money, which we don't have.
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Yeah, a FreeSpace TV show would probably be way better than any FreeSpace movie. You'd have much more logical pauses between episodes, allowing to have each episode focus on a single mission, as opposed to a movie trying to make the entire plot cohere into a 120 minute time period.
QFT.
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On'y trouble with TV shows is the low-budgets and generally low quality acting, as well as constant pressure from producers to change things into cookie-cutter melodramas with retarded love triangles and sosuch nonsense not necessary in a scifi as intreguing as Freespace.
I think a movie would be cool, but they would probably select some retarded script with really cheesy dialogue and one-demensional characters. I think the best way to make an FS movie would be using the drafts from the cutscenes that were never made. I could see it being made all in CG. Instead of dumb love triangles, I'd focus on tensions and friendships between Vasudans and Terrans. I'd make it a war-buddy scifi, that emphasises the values of the peoples described in the games; civilizations with unbridled ambition (" ...with dreams of humanity everlasting") and courage in the face of annihalation. Like a more sophisticated "Independence Day", combined with "Midway" and "Tora Tora Tora".
The plot curve would go like this; Opening Credits with "14 year T-V war" 2 minute introduction narration and/or subtitles with random pictures of the conflict and bigshots like the Emperor and the GTA leaders. The main character is skirmishing with Vasudans in some out-of the way system in the breif opening scene after the intro. Upon returning to his flight deck, he is informed that his family/lover/best friend in Ross 128 disappears, he blames the Zods, starts hating them where before he just saw them as pilots just like him. Some plot/character development. Some Vasudan pilots are forced to make an emergency landing on his Destroyer, their's being taken out by the Shivans. The cease-fire is only hours old when they come aboard. Later he finds out it was the Shivans that had been responsible for Ross 128. He stops a bar brawl between some outnumbered Zods and some unruly Terran pilots. He becomes a pariah amoung his fellow humans, but the Zods approach him after he decides to duke it out with a Scorpion (it is not alone, but the rest of it's wing was busy attacking cargo containers, dodging asteroids, and blasting freighters), while the rest of his squadron had jumped away beleiving the Shivans invincible because of their sheilds. The fleet recognizes him for his valor, and states that he is only the second terran pilot ever to do so, the first being a wing commander on the Galatae only a few hours earlier. Some secondary character development (Vasudan perspective, Terran command). Good news is announced, another bar scene in the officers lounge, this time though, the main characters terran buddies come over to him in a group, and everyone expects a fight, but they sit down and have drinks and tell jokes/funny war stories for a while, and then the bad news hits while they are making merry. Tombaugh has been annihilated. After that, they fly a tense, suspensful patrol with some new ships/weapons/sheilds recently aquired, to keep the action up, and make commentary about some of the other battles in the campaign by chatter. When they return from their sortie, they hear about Vasuda being bombarded. Then another flight, this time refugee escort. It goes poorly for them, but they receive a transmission from Vasudan scientists (Hint at their discovery of the Ancients and imperrative for escort) during their battle, and relay it to command. Then some bonding, Ancients discovery announcement, and preparations before the efforts to defend Sol, and the climactic kill the Lucifer mission. Alpha 1 of the Bastion (at some point he mentions he was originally from the Galatae in chatter with other pilots before the main battle sequence, to which the main character recognizes as the pillot who downed the first Shivan) gets the Lucifer kill, which the main character had to reluctantly bail to engage enemy interceptors gunning for Alpha 1. You never see his face, but you can hear Alpha 1's voice. The main character asks over comm afte the battle to have a drink with him on Earth, because he'd like to meet the man who saved his it. The main Vasudan character chimes in saying "I've never seen Earth, may I join you?" and they all laugh, and accept him. Then the speech at the end of the game. (Alpha 1's voice? "Such, is Liberation...") End Credits.
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Just for future reference, ElMattador, it's generally considered bad forum etiquette to make a post in one thread and then make another thread fully dedicated to the same exact post. I'm going to lock this thread, since it's a bit older anyway, and any discussion can take place in your new thread.