Capcom didn’t mention Resident Evil 5 or Street Fighter IV a single time at their press conference. Instead, the only announcement was the development of Lost Planet: The Movie. As soon as it was announced, there was an audible gasp from the packed meeting room. A number of people involved in the movie and game took the stage to speak about the upcoming film. The most notable were Avi Arad and David Hayter.
Avi Arad, the renowned producer behind just about every Marvel-based movie said that Lost Planet "has every ingredient that makes a good movie.” Avi talked about the development of video games from simplistic diversions to epic stories that can be very human. “Lost Planet is dealing in an imaginative way with an issue that is close to our hearts: energy.”
David Hayter, the screenwriter of X-Men and the voice behind Solid Snake addressed the crowd next. He got the loudest applause out of anyone. One of the perks of David’s job is that he always gets free video games from publishers trying to sell him on adapting them into a movie. “What I look for in video games to make into movies are a big canvas and a big story.” The snow-covered ruins of Lost Planet provide all of that. “I was always a big fan of John Carpenter’s The Thing,” David said. “Now, with today’s technology, you can do things on such a beautiful scale.”
A couple executives from Capcom and more people involved in the film then took turns expressing confidence that Lost Planet will make a great movie. Keiji Inafune, the global head of research and development at Capcom, was looking to make Lost Planet into a movie ever since its development. “You need to have the right elements in the game for it to make the transition to the silver silver screen,” he said. These elements, according to Keiji, include a love story, intrigue and robots.
No questions were taken from the crowd, but Avi Arad said that a 2011 release is expected with Warner Bros. distributing. The budget wasn’t revealed, which is what I think would best determine the scope of the film. At this point in preproduction there was also no footage or even a cast.
The real fun began after the conference was over. We went over to get a picture with David Hayter. He may be a B-list celebrity (possibly C), but in the video game world he is an A-lister. He was talking to fans about his work adapting The Watchmen comic series into film. When we got up, we expected to take a fairly vanilla photo. When I mentioned how this was going to be on the Web site, he instantly went into CQC (close quarters combat) on Deputy Editor Matt Wadleigh and said a few lines as Solid Snake.
We were certainly star struck.
Comments
Tel Gage on Sunday 3rd August 2008
Lost Planet: The Movie sounds like an awful idea. Still, David Hayter is awesome, and getting CQC'd by him is surely many a fanboy's dream.
Bart on Wednesday 16th July 2008
you got CQC'd by David Hayter? Oh my god, never shower again you lucky dog.
Add your own +