Should BioWare/Blur Studios make a full length movie?

[AceMcVeer]

So you have to admit: Return, Deceived, and Hope were amazing trailers. They contained some of the, if not the best action sequences in Star Wars media. They captured the "lived in" feeling the Star Wars universe is supposed to have. The characters even had great personalities and I loved seeing the return of the smuggler type.

 

Do you think BioWare should look into making a full length movie set in The Old Republic? Do you think it could be profitable? The Clone Wars movie made almost $100 million in box office and DVD sales. Depending on how much it cost to make the 20 minutes they have so far it could be very profitable.

 

Would you pay $10 to see it in theaters if one was made? Would you pay $13 for 3D?

 

 

Edited to indicate that Blur Studios, the ones who made the trailer, would animate the movie with collaboration from BioWare.

Edited January 19, 2012 by AceMcVeer

[AnarchyP]

I'd pay 20 dollars and my soul to see a Bioware made Star Wars-movie.

[Tsukae]

No. While for whatever reason a lot of gamers think they are brilliant writers, they really aren't. I would, however, like to see a movie done by someone else during the time of the old republic.

[TItanten]

No, because it would take them 15 years and cost more to make than this game did.

 

The quality of animation in those trailers is extremely expensive and time consuming.

[AceMcVeer]

No. While for whatever reason a lot of gamers think they are brilliant writers, they really aren't. I would, however, like to see a movie done by someone else during the time of the old republic.

 

Who said ordinary gamers would write it? BioWare has some prenty talented staff that are just dedicated to writing, not programming at all. I'm sure they could hire a good screen play writer to flesh out the script. They could even bring on some of the great Star Wars novel authors to make a great script.

[MorleyInsane]

...No. It's like the whole Cartoon Network fad. The movies are done (At least, in relation to the original trilogy and the three sequels).

 

I don't want any more movies about the same thing! When that happens, it makes me feel like they want to recreate their success with the same material. A movie would be cool, but not on the same stuff.

 

In regards to BioWare doing this... Please no. They make greate games, but if EA got in to movies... O.O We'd be running Origin on our computers just to watch movies.

 

No, thanks.

[MorleyInsane]

Who said ordinary gamers would write it? BioWare has some prenty talented staff that are just dedicated to writing, not programming at all. I'm sure they could hire a good screen play writer to flesh out the script. They could even bring on some of the great Star Wars novel authors to make a great script.

 

No one isn't saying they can't. I believe their time is better spent making games and learning how to handle an MMO.

[PraetorTru]

Technically Blur Studios made the cinematics, not Bioware. They also did the cinematics for Arkham Aslyum, DC Online and the Force Unleashed only to name a few. Google them to see the rest of what they've made. I'd love to see someone contract them to do a full movie.

[Tsukae]

Who said ordinary gamers would write it? BioWare has some prenty talented staff that are just dedicated to writing, not programming at all. I'm sure they could hire a good screen play writer to flesh out the script. They could even bring on some of the great Star Wars novel authors to make a great script.

 

What I'm saying is that gamers think Bioware has brilliant writers while in reality they are mediocre. If they had a good Star Wars novelist doing the writing then that would be different. Even bad writing can make for a good movie though.. look at all the Star Wars movies released! lol

[AceMcVeer]

No, because it would take them 15 years and cost more to make than this game did.

 

The quality of animation in those trailers is extremely expensive and time consuming.

 

 

15 years? Get real. There have been other full length CGI films that have been profitable and done for less. Look at Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. These films USED to cost a huge fortune to make, but technology has advanced quite a lot.

[AceMcVeer]

Technically Blur Studios made the cinematics, not Bioware. They also did the cinematics for Arkham Aslyum, DC Online and the Force Unleashed only to name a few. Google them to see the rest of what they've made. I'd love to see someone contract them to do a full movie.

 

Ah, makes sense that they contracted that out. If they were hired by BioWare and/or LucasFilm and created an original movie about the Old Republic I think it could do quite well.

[PraetorTru]

Ah, makes sense that they contracted that out. If they were hired by BioWare and/or LucasFilm and created an original movie about the Old Republic I think it could do quite well.

 

It would have to be lucas arts since Bioware obviously only has rights to produce this one game. Sorta like Turbine/Warner Brothers doing Lord of the Rings. Turbine could never do movies on their own without contacting Tolkien for more rights. Anyway, I agree and have been wondering for quite a while why no one has made a serious, animated prequel or sequel to the original movies using this quality animation being done by Blur Stuios. I mean just look at the quality stuff they'v done and I can guarantee you that while it probably took at least several months to make these 1-3 minute trialers, they could pop out a movie in under 2 years with additional dedicated staff. It takes not much less than that to do big budget live action movies with CGI

.

http://vz3.blur.com/work

Edited January 19, 2012 by PraetorTru

[AceMcVeer]

It would have to be lucas arts since Bioware obviously only has rights to produce this one game. Sorta like Turbine/Warner Brothers doing Lord of the Rings. Turbine could never do movies on their own without contacting Tolkien for more rights. Anyway, I agree and have been wondering for quite a while why no one has made a serious, animated prequel or sequel to the original movies using this quality animation being done by Blur Stuios. I mean just look at the quality stuff they'v done and I can guarantee you that while it probably took at least several months to make these 1-3 minute trialers, they could pop out a movie in under 2 years with additional dedicated staff. It takes not much less than that to do big budget live action movies with CGI

.

http://vz3.blur.com/work

 

Agreed, it would take less than a few years to get a quality movie between 90 and 120min in length. I wasn't sure who owns rights specifically with the Old Republic. I know LucasFilm would have to be involved, but I wasn't sure if LucasFilm would be able to make a game about the Old Republic characters and setting without BioWare being involved as well. With the way LucasFilm keeps everything pretty close I'm guessing they pretty much have full control over everything.

[Astralll]

I would love to see this made by the company they work with for the trailers.

[sol_]

15 years? Get real. There have been other full length CGI films that have been profitable and done for less. Look at Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. These films USED to cost a huge fortune to make, but technology has advanced quite a lot.

 

Indeed, look at the latest seasons of Clone Wars, it looks amazing and they pump out a 22 episode season a year.

Edited January 19, 2012 by sol_

[PraetorTru]

Indeed, look at the latest seasons of Clone Wars, it looks amazing and they pump out a 22 episode season a year.

 

True. While Clone Wars looks a little more "Cartooney" it still is pretty impressive animation, fully of fighting...and they pump out 20+ 22 minute episodes a year. That's more than 7 hours of animation. Cut that by a 1/4th to increase the quality of the work and BAMO! Old Republic Movie! There's so much material out there for them to work with both pre and post original trilogy. Who wouldn't love to see a Vong Wars Trilogy!

[Luckmann]

I would like to see a full reboot of the continuity, spanning 9 full-length feature Episodes of at least 3 hour each, encompassing the establishment of the Empire (Episodes 1-3), the Civil War (Episodes 4-6) and the Aftermath (Episodes 7-9), with three distinct character galleries and about 20 years between each setting.

 

All done in CGI akin to the one seen in SWTOR.

[Midasear]

What I'm saying is that gamers think Bioware has brilliant writers while in reality they are mediocre.

 

Mediocre compared to what?

 

The set of Native English speakers includes roughly 400 million people.

 

Of that, only a few thousand actually make a living writing narrative fiction, and most of them are working for TV shows like "2 & 1/2 Men", "Cougar Town" or in the film industry collaborating on stuff like "Mars Needs Moms" or "Madea Goes to Jail".

 

Its not like there are a whole lot of "brilliant" writers floating around. I joked in a different thread that Drew Karpyshyn is not about to replace Tolstoy or Shakespeare. But the man has published several novels, none of which are total snoozefests or incomprehensible gibberish, which makes him better than one in a million as a far as literary talent is distributed among people generally- roughly a 5 sigma case on the bell curve. Even compared to other authors it marks him as pretty $%^&-ing talented.

 

As a writer of video game RPG material.....well he's more like a 6 or 7 sigma case. As far as Computer RPG writing goes, he might as well be considered Shakespeare or Tolstoy.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Midasear

[TItanten]

15 years? Get real. There have been other full length CGI films that have been profitable and done for less. Look at Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. These films USED to cost a huge fortune to make, but technology has advanced quite a lot.

 

Advent children isn't even on par with The Spirits Within and that was 2001.

 

If you want a full length film equaling the trailers it will take quite a few years.

 

It took them 4 years for Avatar and that wasn't even fully CGI. Plus they had the advantage of having motion capture and makeup.

 

That one alone cost $237 million.

 

 

 

Now if you're okay with it only looking as good as Toy Story 3 then you're talking $200 million and 3 years.

[AceMcVeer]

Advent children isn't even on par with The Spirits Within and that was 2001.

 

If you want a full length film equaling the trailers it will take quite a few years.

 

It took them 4 years for Avatar and that wasn't even fully CGI. Plus they had the advantage of having motion capture and makeup.

 

That one alone cost $237 million.

 

 

 

Now if you're okay with it only looking as good as Toy Story 3 then you're talking $200 million and 3 years.

 

 

So since Toy Story 3 cost $200 million and was 90 minutes long then by your logic BioWare spent $35 million to produce the 16 minutes of trailers. You can also probably increase that since the price per minute would decrease the longer the movie is since a lot of it is creating backgrounds, models, etc. So let's the final price is around $40 million or so.

 

I highly doubt this is the case. Your analogies are completely off. I bet the production costs on those three trailers was only a few million. Multiply this to get to the full length of a movie and you have a budget that leaves a lot of room for profit. Not to mention additional profit from merchandise.

 

The quality of the trailers was perfectly fine for me for a full length feature.

[adamqd]

@ OP: 100% yes

[TItanten]

So since Toy Story 3 cost $200 million and was 90 minutes long then by your logic BioWare spent $35 million to produce the 16 minutes of trailers. You can also probably increase that since the price per minute would decrease the longer the movie is since a lot of it is creating backgrounds, models, etc. So let's the final price is around $40 million or so.

 

I highly doubt this is the case. Your analogies are completely off. I bet the production costs on those three trailers was only a few million. Multiply this to get to the full length of a movie and you have a budget that leaves a lot of room for profit. Not to mention additional profit from merchandise.

 

The quality of the trailers was perfectly fine for me for a full length feature.

 

You're missing the point here.

 

The quality of animation in the trailers was BETTER than in Pixar movies.

 

Better = More expensive.

 

Sure, the Pixar films use a lot of budget on actors and marketing, but a film based on this would have to do the exact same thing. So the budgets for those aspects would be similar. So what's left in the pricing would be the quality of the animation, which is far better than Toy Story 3.

 

That's not even mentioning the script development costs, rewrites from Lucas, an actual director, recording much, much more dialogue than the trailers, and the misc. fees from producing a movie.

 

$40 million for a high quality all-cgi feature film? You're out of your mind.

 

Fly Me to the Moon was $25 million and that was created in Belgium.

The Incredibles was $92 million. (Funny thing about Pixar, all their films get more expensive, not less, as time progresses. Seems your idea that CGI = cheap is wrong)

 

Granted The Clone Wars film was only $8.5 million, but the CGI is downright simplistic compared to the TOR trailers. (Plus it utterly failed as a movie)

 

 

Look, I would go see a movie in the vein of the trailers like 4 times, but it wouldn't come fast, cheap, and it would be hard to do well (as a movie, not just visually).

[AceMcVeer]

You're missing the point here.

 

The quality of animation in the trailers was BETTER than in Pixar movies.

 

Better = More expensive.

 

Sure, the Pixar films use a lot of budget on actors and marketing, but a film based on this would have to do the exact same thing. So the budgets for those aspects would be similar. So what's left in the pricing would be the quality of the animation, which is far better than Toy Story 3.

 

That's not even mentioning the script development costs, rewrites from Lucas, an actual director, recording much, much more dialogue than the trailers, and the misc. fees from producing a movie.

 

$40 million for a high quality all-cgi feature film? You're out of your mind.

 

Fly Me to the Moon was $25 million and that was created in Belgium.

The Incredibles was $92 million. (Funny thing about Pixar, all their films get more expensive, not less, as time progresses. Seems your idea that CGI = cheap is wrong)

 

Granted The Clone Wars film was only $8.5 million, but the CGI is downright simplistic compared to the TOR trailers. (Plus it utterly failed as a movie)

 

 

Look, I would go see a movie in the vein of the trailers like 4 times, but it wouldn't come fast, cheap, and it would be hard to do well (as a movie, not just visually).

 

 

Script development is one of the cheapest elements of a movie, barely breaking the six figure mark and only occassionaly. Voice actors also get paid squat. A lead actor for a full length animated movie would be lucky to break six figures and that's only for A list actors. These gigs only require a day in the studio.

 

Yes, the cost has gone down. Pixar's cost of movies went up simply because their available budget went up. Pixar spends a lot on extreme polish and detail. Do you think it would cost the same as they spent to make Toy Story again? No, not even close. Computers are more powerful, more has been learned, and software is better. Look at video game cinematic scenes from big budget games 10 years ago.

 

You failed to even tackle my question: If you think expanding the trailers into a full length movie using the SAME quality as the trailers then by your estimates the trailer cost $40 million to make. Do you think that's accurate?

[TItanten]

You failed to even tackle my question: If you think expanding the trailers into a full length movie using the SAME quality as the trailers then by your estimates the trailer cost $40 million to make. Do you think that's accurate?

 

No.

 

But I'm also not naive enough to believe that creation of three small trailers has the same costs as a full-length movie.

 

They don't have to pay a distributor, marketing (this budget would be spread throughout the game's budget), actors, numerous more characters conceptualized, designed, animated, and rendered. Also unless you want the team working for years upon years you'll need additional animators, equipment, support staff, etc.

 

Lets say each one of these trailers took about 4 months to make. (Probably an underestimate)

 

You're looking at 80 months for a 2 hour film. That doesn't count new backdrops, characters, etc.

 

They'd be forced to hire more people to complete it in any sort of relevant time.

 

And your voice acting being a "one day job" doesn't count rewrites, direction, etc.

[AceMcVeer]

No.

 

But I'm also not naive enough to believe that creation of three small trailers has the same costs as a full-length movie.

 

They don't have to pay a distributor, marketing (this budget would be spread throughout the game's budget), actors, numerous more characters conceptualized, designed, animated, and rendered. Also unless you want the team working for years upon years you'll need additional animators, equipment, support staff, etc.

 

Lets say each one of these trailers took about 4 months to make. (Probably an underestimate)

 

You're looking at 80 months for a 2 hour film. That doesn't count new backdrops, characters, etc.

 

They'd be forced to hire more people to complete it in any sort of relevant time.

 

And your voice acting being a "one day job" doesn't count rewrites, direction, etc.

 

 

What does it matter for new backdrops/new characters? The cost would go down as you are using the same characters for the whole movie instead of just 4 min. Your 80 month estimate is ridiculous. You do it concurrently, not consecutively. It would take 3 years tops. Yeah, they might have to hire more people, so what? What's the difference between paying 3 people $50,000 a year for three years and paying one person $50,000 a year for nine years? (I don't know what animators get paid, just chose a number) There is none!