Wow, for being new to actually posting stuff (I'm one of those jerks who just reads a lot typically) I'm really surprised with the positive feedback. Thanks all.
I thought that up in about ten minutes, so I wasn't expecting much.
As far as the plot curve, I tried to make sure that I had both suspenseful and pure action aspects, with the dialogue and characters providing the food for thought. I also wanted to hit certain markers: Opening action sequence, to fully engross the viewer; tragedy and loss, to emotionally involve them; secondary characters developed to create a world for the viewer to become familiar with and relate to; Revelation to shock/outrage the viewer and increase scope; Action sequence to maintain atmosphere and give the viewer a sense of involvement via danger, horror, and mystery; further character/plot development sets desperate and hopeless atmosphere; new revelation to give the viewer hope, and prospects for climactic danger, final action sequence as climax, resolution to help digest the action sequence and give the audience reason to celebrate with their new silver-screen heroes as well as symbolize the profound change that has taken place because of the film.
I'm going to respond to a couple of points made so far;
For a hollywood movie, this would probably be as best as it could get.
Liked this part: "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 Galatea only a few hours earlier."
True, I was hoping more modest goals on a reasonable budget would make a good film on it's own, one that won't be a waste of 120 minutes of people's lives, and will not bludgeon the already established plot points. I wasn't trying to cover every battle and ship, just a perspective, which is what made the games so fun. You were a fly on the wall with great events unfolding around you, with opportunities to occasionally make a big contribution by your actions. I wanted to capture that aspect of the game in the film's plot.
That's actually not half bad. I would cut out the references to Alpha 1 though and just let the movie have it's own hero.
I thought that keeping references to "Alpha 1" to a minimum would be good so as to make the film able to stand on it's own, but I also was trying to satisfy the die hards who might want a film based on Alpha 1 as the main character. This would detract from the appeal of the game though, because it takes away from the feeling that Alpha one is YOU, and detracting from the game's appeal is the LAST thing I would want to do. I thought it made sense to include Alpha at least in a cameo-esque manner, only actually being part of the main focus of the film for a few lines of dialogue. This would also serve to maintain true to the story so far, as we already know who took out the Lucifer... we just don't know the other guys in the battle, which is what gives the film room to breathe and work it's cinematic magic.
If it's done, it should be BSG-style. FreeSpace was the first thing I thought about when watching nBSG for the first time.
Only less PERSONAL DRRRAAAMMAAA and more delicious fleet action.
BSG was rather light on personal drama given the setting.
I liked some of the drama on BSG, but the whole cult vision religion thing bored the crap out of me. Now, assassination attempts, bar fights, personal grudges, mutinies, that sort of thing is much more grounded in reality as far as stressed out combat pilots are concerned, which is what a Freespace film would be all about; combat pilots. Love stories between military officers in the middle of a war are lame. Officers worth their salt are more professional than that. Love triangles have no business in a film like Freespace. Drama would be base around the pilots' stress levels, and the inter-species relationships. That is plenty to work with. That is what most successful war dramas work with. Besides, Freespace was originally intended to have more personal dramatic involvement (more cinematics), and I a large portion of my ideas from those unmade clips.
As far as the BSG style, I did like the alternating views of battle between the Command center and the pilots, and the physics looked great too when the fighters maneuvered.
As far as directors are concerned, I too have little confidence in the current generation. You would need a director with artistic insight and understanding of good action cinematography. Like Ridley Scott or James Cameron. As far as good film shots, the Wachowski brothers know where to put the camera. Producer malingering would be a nightmare for and Freespace project. I think it it would be conceivable to CG it ourselves, since we know the story and events better than any hollywood jerk.
Poll
