City of Heroes: The Motion Picture

[CursedSorcerer]

Just a random thought, if someone in Hollywood made a movie based on City of Heroes, obviously, some questions would need answering:

When would the movie take place?

Who would be the main characters be?

Who would be the featured villain(s)/villain group(s)?

Who would be the actors/actresses involved in the production?

[Redlynne]

29 minutes ago, CursedSorcerer said:

When would the movie take place?

200X

29 minutes ago, CursedSorcerer said:

Who would be the main characters be?

The PCs.

30 minutes ago, CursedSorcerer said:

Who would be the featured villain(s)/villain group(s)?

A foreign "publisher" of games who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty.

30 minutes ago, CursedSorcerer said:

Who would be the actors/actresses involved in the production?

Some of them might be human, while others would no doubt be CGI.

[Charistoph]

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When would the movie take place?

2003

 

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Who would be the main characters be?

Apex, War Witch, and Horus.

 

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Who would be the featured villain(s)/villain group(s)?

Vahzilock and the Carnival.

 

Yes, I'm saying base it off of the 2004 comic series, but it might be better to go with the Top Cow series to set up the universe.

 

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Who would be the actors/actresses involved in the production?

Difficult to say.  I'd like to see some new blood in it, but in order for it to have a good chance at working, but the new blood might not have the gravitas to pull it off.  More important is to have good writers, director, and editor, as they can doom a movie no matter how good the actors are.

[Oubliette_Red]

I can't put my finger on it, but this sounds familiar...

 

 

 

[Outrider_01]

Start with the Rikti invasion, the failure to stop their advances, the final climactic battle resulting in over 800 (837?) deaths of Alpha team in a Pyrrhic victory and the sacrifice of Omega Team. Franchise continues with interspersed bad chronological time line for TF stories only better than Star Wars.

Television:

• TV spin offs the most popular story arcs. 
• Horror movies of the Vahizlok and Banished Pantheon. 
• House flipping of Super Group Bases
• Cooking shows  of all Vegan diets ah la carte, Devouring Earth 
• Famous (Failed) Crimes: Bank Robberies and Taking Over The World
• Supernatural Haunting Cults: Cult of Thorns
• Ancient Aliens and Civilizations: Rikti vs Mu Empire
• Big Brother: Rehabilitation of the Skulls, Hellions, and Outcasts
• Organized crime series: Family and the Tsoo
• Police procedural: Lives of the PPD and the brutality of Longbow
• Medical Drama: The boring ressurection of Heroes or Villians popping out of the porter and walking out
• Legal drama : Chris Jenkins vs the heroes paying of the damages they inflict, he always wins
• Political Dramas: Malta, Knives of Artemis, and Nemesis, who takes over the world first
• Live-action unscripted: Daily life of Paragon, nothing new
• News channels: What else is happening, that we already know about? It is the fact of life in Paragon
• Educational Learning: E = mc2 and how far you can boot a Hellion in Atlas and the effects of gravity.  KB to KD proc, defying the rules of science.
• DIY series: How to craft enhancements with Bob Vila
• Work Out series: How to tune up those builds and abs
• Talk Show: Negotiators communicating with hostage takers
• Music Television: Wailing of Sonic blast and their sub genres, Heavy Thrash and Folk singing.  They sound the same, anyway.
• Infomercial: Buy the latest Back Alley Brawler official Enhancements, Blind Strike/Crippling Blow/Stunning Hit/Paralyzer.  He doesn't play fair
• Dirty Jobs: Mike Rowe unclogs the turd Hydra jamming the pipes of the Paragon Sewers and maybe, he sees a Vahzilok corpse.

 

Hmm, skies the limit in Paragon.  At least until you hit the top of a War Wall.

[FrauleinMental]

On 4/24/2020 at 10:29 PM, Redlynne said:

200X

The PCs.

A foreign "publisher" of games who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty.

Some of them might be human, while others would no doubt be CGI.

A heist movie in the real world, a la "Leverage" or "Now You See Me", perhaps coupled with in-game action around shutdown and rebirth in the spirit of Dead Gentlemen's "Gamers" series.  (My main's bio is strongly tied to the shutdown/rebirth, and it's as much a part of the meta for me as anything else in the game.)

[EyeLuvBooks]

I have NO idea what animation costs these days, what with all of the computer advances, but if it isn't too expensive I could see this working. Good anime makes good money and in recent years there have been several very successful animated t.v. series. We have at least a quarter of a million fans that would pay to see it or even own it if it went straight to DVD.

 

The sad part is the licensing. NCSoft still holds primary rights and the SCORE team is jumping through some very small hoops to keep the servers out of legal trouble. I sincerely doubt that they'd allow a movie unless they got a BIG chunk of the profits.

 

Considering the current mood (more people at home with the virus etc) a t.v. series, if it were well-done, could be very successful IMHO.

[ArchVileTerror]

I very much doubt that the majority of City players would reject an animated movie automatically under the presumption that it's "for kids," frankly.  I think an animated City movie is exactly on brand for the kinds of people who play this game.

[Charistoph]

4 hours ago, RialVestro said:

A literally example of the exact same scene being done in live action vs. animation... Barbara Gordon having her spine severed paralyzing her and putting her in a wheelchair. This was shown in flash backs in the original Birds of Prey TV series... there's no blood... you can't really see much of what's happening, you can't even really make out who the Joker is. In the animated adaptation of that same scene there's clearly blood splatter and she looks like she's going to die rather than only being paralyzed. I would honestly argue that the action seems more toned down for kids in the live action version.

And another side we have Battle Angel which was  copying from two different mediums, both the original graphic novels as well as the cell animations.

 

Of course, we also have Ben Affleck's Daredevil, too.

3 hours ago, ArchVileTerror said:

I very much doubt that the majority of City players would reject an animated movie automatically under the presumption that it's "for kids," frankly.  I think an animated City movie is exactly on brand for the kinds of people who play this game.

They wouldn't, but a lot would depend on how far you expect this to go.  If you really want something like this to grow beyond just a one shot, it needs to be developed with that in mind.  If you want to bring in blockbuster numbers, you're going to have to go Avengers more than Into the Spider-verse.  Miles could get away with it because of the 6-7 other live spider-man movies and the two Avenger tie-ins that had already come out, but Paragon City lacks that development.  If one goes animated and expecting it to be sold to adults, it may be seen more as Wizards than Lionsgate Avengers.

 

If one was to take City of Heroes animated, I would either go with the OVA or televised/stream presentation route much like the Justice League cartoon provided as a continuation of the Batman and Superman animated shoes.  If the response goes well, then start looking at an eventual live movie.

 

Getting the rights away from the Korean owner would be almost as hard as finding a good actor to play BAB live.

[Charistoph]

1 hour ago, RialVestro said:

Not sure what your response to me had to do with anything I said but judging from your other response to someone else it seems like we mostly agree.

 

And yeah there is no one who could play Back Ally Brawler in live action since that "Huge" body type doesn't really exist. I mean there are some pretty big people I would describe as huge but not in the same way as the "huge" gender in the game. (also was never quite clear how "huge" is even a gender in the first place but that's how it was classified in the game.)

 

We're more than likely going to end up with a situation like the Thing from the first two Fantastic Four movies where they cast someone big and buff who's about as close to it as realistically possible. As long as they get his gloves right, since the rest of his "costume" is just normal street cloths so those gloves are the main things that makes the character instantly recognizable, as long as they get that right it won't matter that much what he looks like.

It was in getting CoH fans to attend.  Getting them to show up wouldn't be the problem, but getting anyone unfamiliar with Paragon City to be invested would be more of a challenge.  An animated movie with no history and trying to be as "adult" as the MCU would lead to a box office failure.  So it depends on how far you want it to go, a one shot or being able to do more?

 

I think we could rather easily find people to play the size of BAB.  Just review some of the linemen of an American football team and you'll find some good candidates.  However, they'd probably act like most of them dance on Dancing with the Stars, not well.  Finding a young Ving Rhames or Michael Clarke Duncan, though, would be a challenge, but I'd be more than happy to give one a go if one could be found as they would be a treasure.

 

The Thing from either FF series would be easier than doing BAB CGI.  Just remember how much lip the resurrected Superman got in Justice League, to say nothing of Tarkin and Leia in Rogue One.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Charistoph

[KelvinKole]

Executive Producer: Nemesis

[Charistoph]

17 hours ago, RialVestro said:

Two things wrong with that. 1. Football players aren't actually that big. The protective gear they wear under their uniforms just makes them look that way. Considering Back Ally Brawler just wears a tank top there's no way to hide that stuff under his costume. 2. I seriously doubt you'll find a football player who can act.

 

The Thing in the first two Fantastic Four movies wasn't CGI, that was just a dude in make up. They had originally intended to do CGI however the first attempt at a Hulk film had just recently bombed and the actor playing the Thing who was a fan of the comics himself insisted on using practical effects/make up for his character. Only the reboot was CGI. Anyway... that guy from the original film is about as close to a "huge" body type as you can realistically get and he's still not big enough cause literally no one looks like that. Anyway... it's usually more important that they just be big strong dudes not so much that they perfectly match a body type that doesn't even really exist. I mean essentially as long as they find someone who looks like an MMA boxer that's essentially Back Ally Brawler.

Yeah, as I said, finding the size isn't as hard as finding someone of the size AND can act.  If you can find them, grab them and get them going as they'll be a treasure.

 

However there is another way to address it.  Do you remember the Lord of the Rings?  There is this character named Gimli played by John Rhys-Davies.  This guy is pretty big and 6'1".  If you remember Indiana Jones, he played Sallah in the first and third films.  Yet in LotR he's shorter than everyone but the hobbits, including Olando Bloom's and Viggo Mortensen's 5'11".  A lot of perspective editing can handle the situation without relying on "realistic CGI".

 

Of course, if they can get CGI to tie in as well as Battle Angel, it might work.  Each success (and failure) will improve the system, but I think a "live" Paragon City will still require perspective shots ala LotR to incorporate certain Huge characters.  The actual hard part is getting a certain Korean copyright holder to allow it and be hands off at the same time.

[Charistoph]

22 hours ago, RialVestro said:

Um… "Huge" doesn't just mean tall. In fact it is possible to have a normal male body type be taller than a "Huge" character. I've seen a few 4' tall Huge characters running around... like that ugly baby...

 

"Huge" is a body type like Male and Female that has unrealistic proportions no real person actually possesses. I mean guys like Arnold Terminator I'm not even going to try to spell his last name as even the credits on his own movies can't seem to figure out how to spell it correctly, are the closest we can possibly get to the huge body type. The main problem with that body type is if anyone actually looked like that they wouldn't be able to walk cause huge upper body with small legs. Even Andrea the Giant didn't look like that. Real people are usually more evenly proportioned or suffer some sort of sever disability. Camera tricks can make a short man look tall and a tall man look short but can't make a real person with normal human proportions look like a body type that only exists in comic books.

Yeah, there's a difference between BAB and Dillo.  BAB's big problem is how tall and muscular he is.  Muscularity is possible, but to get someone that has the Proportion slider all the way to the right, yeah.  That dude's in CGI or a very inconvenient suit.