Source: MechWarrior movie 'in development' at Eisner's Tornante
by Christopher Grant 
{ Sep 29th 2009 at 2:23PM }
Eisner owned the rights to the franchise through a series of acquisitions, series creator Jordan Weisman told Gamasutra last month: "WizKids bought FASA, and then Topps bought WizKids, and then [Michael] Eisner bought Topps." Perhaps seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the upcoming video game, our source tells us that a movie is "in development" and that the writer is one Mr. Michael Gordon, credited with screenplays for 300, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and an "in development" EverQuest movie.
As great as that sounds, a potential cloud may be looming over the production, with Robotech co-owners Harmony Gold sending cease-and-desist letters to outlets hosting the teaser trailer for the latest MechWarrior game, claiming some of the 'bots are a little too similar to Robotech's own. It remains to be seen if Harmony Gold will extend its claim to any film adaptation.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gamer4Life @ Sep 29th 2009 2:27PM
My only concern with this is movies never do games justice, you can't cram all the content of a game into a two hour movie (this is the same reason the book is always better then the movie, if you are will to spend the effort to actually read the book).
Erluti @ Sep 29th 2009 3:10PM
Personally, I think "the book is better than the movie" because books and movies are different. Trying to do what a book does in a movie is a formula for failure. That's also why books of movies aren't as good as the movie. And that's also why video game movies fail, because video games aren't movies.
Battletech is a huge universe with lots of stuff going on. If they just approach it like any other war movie, but realize this war is played out by 100-ton, death machines, it has plenty of potential. But if it tries to just copy a plot from the video games or a scenario from the (AMAZING) board game, then it will suck.
RudyHuxtable @ Sep 29th 2009 4:13PM
The common mistake is to make an epic, well, epic. Take Saving Private Ryan, for example. We can argue the merits of whether the movie is good or not in another post, but there was one thing that it did right: it took a very big topic and made it about a very small unit. Millions of men fighting, and we just followed what? Six? Seven? That's a good microcosm that says, "Stories like this happened all along the front."
There's two decades of fluff surrounding BTech. There's no way you can cram all that info into 2 hours, so they should just not try. "Five nation-states vie for control of the galaxy, and this one man plays a major role." Done. Any more than that and the non-fanboys are going to find it laughable like "Wing Commander."
I've heard that some of the early ideas call for a 10 minute "refresher" ala Galadriel's prologue. Could work, maybe, especially if they go a route like Starship Troopers did with the propaganda stuff.
Please, just make it simple. I promise. Simple works. Take a clue from "District 9." And for heaven's sake, make it about the people and not the 'mechs.
rubaiyat @ Sep 30th 2009 4:25PM
I think that's doubly true with the Battletech universe. The Mechs are great, and following a small unit would be alright as a movie, but the WHY's the battles are fought are equally interesting. As would be the pilots or royalty getting jumped by a commando raid of ISF, Fox, Death Commandos, and having it be a spy thriller more than just a war movie.
gagarin1985 @ Sep 29th 2009 2:36PM
[spam! i'm banned!]
HippoHero @ Sep 29th 2009 3:12PM
I voted you up for being banned.
Marco le Polo @ Sep 29th 2009 2:37PM
CRASH AND BURN!
Jyro @ Sep 29th 2009 3:03PM
I knew i wasnt the only one who new what movie they got that pic from, LOL Robot Jox was my favorite movie as a kid.
Stevetrop @ Sep 29th 2009 8:01PM
I loved Robot Jox. It was a regular rental for me on my watch a movie after cartoons saturdays. My one wish for the movie as a kid was them putting on it on MST3K. That would be just Epic.
Marco le Polo @ Sep 29th 2009 8:10PM
With both you guys, Robot Jox was my favorite movie as a kid. My pa got it for a birthday on DVD. Now to find it on Blu Ray...
ZeroK2 @ Sep 29th 2009 2:40PM
Harmony Golds dispute claims only apply to the old very first mechs which the new Mechwarrior game is based in - they thought they had a new agreement which is why some of the lost mechs appeared again only they didn't have the right agreement.
The actual Battletech/mechwarrior universe timeline is far past such events to the point were this new Mech game is ancient history so a movie could be made from any time period avoding any legal issues.
However a mechwarrior movie would suck, as a fan I know it is not suited and would be really, really bad.
obo @ Sep 29th 2009 2:46PM
Do not want. GJ letting this asshole get rights to your franchises, Weisman.
Can't wait for the Shadowrun movie to follow, starring Robert Pattison and Miley Cyrus.
The Dark Wayne [Planeteer: Power of the Batusi] @ Sep 29th 2009 2:53PM
this is the same kind of ridiculous attitude people had when Disney bought Marvel. Disney is a business, not a church group to protect kids. Most of their films aren't kid oriented at all, they have a shitload of subsidiaries that do some graphic things. For example, from just two subsidiaries in the past two years films released include: Surrogates, The Proposal, Miracle at St Anna, Smart People, Doubt, Adventureland, Extract, and for further emphasis both There Will be Blood and No Country For Old Men were made by Disney. So QQ
joshua.nash @ Sep 29th 2009 3:29PM
the horror, the horror, such thoughts and ideas about how to fuck up a shadow run movie should never be spoken or written anywhere cause the evil and vile UWE BOLL might see it and actually turn it into a movie
Breakerchase @ Sep 29th 2009 2:51PM
A "MechWarrior" movie would be good if it was a good original story set in the Battletech universe.
kevin @ Sep 29th 2009 8:55PM
Must be a slow news day ...
You should really know what you're talking about BEFORE you make posts about companies suing each other.
as zerok2 said, the harmony gold vs fasa case was about 16 or so mechs that robotech and battletech shared. If my memory serves me right, the artists who drew the mechs sold the artwork to both TCI and HG, giving neither exclusivity rights. Fasa bought the rights from TCI to use those designs. by the time HG sued fasa, TCI was long gone, and FASA had trouble coming up with documents saying they bought rights.
Recently catalyst game labs bought the rights to battletech, and started to sort through the legal nonsense that was this lawsuit. they talked to some lawyers and thought they had it all sorted out; they prepped to make an unveiling of the 'unseen' mechs for the 25th anniversary. Right after, HG put a cease-and-desist out, and catalyst canned its plans to bring them back.
Now some of those mechs made it into the trailer, due to the fact what a better way to celebrate a reboot and the 25th anniversary than with some of the most famous designs. after the threat of legal action, they dropped it, it's over and done with.
Now why would they put a cease and desist out for a movie that hasn't even been shot yet? Why would they put the designs in they know they can't use? I don't see your logic other than to stir the pot.
To be honest though? I'd love to see HG take on battletech now. They are a much larger company than when this lawsuit happened, and im pretty sure they didn't have a legal leg to stand on, just bullied FASA around because they were so small. IF it's true that this movie is in the works, HG would have a bitch of a time getting past dreamworks lawyers.
Wormdundee @ Sep 29th 2009 3:30PM
Good lord, I wasn't aware Michael Eisner had made a new production company. It's going to be terrible no doubt. Eisner screwed Disney pretty good.
Bradwart @ Sep 29th 2009 4:53PM
It's more like Disney screwed Eisner. Notice how he managed to turn the company around and make it profitable? Then he gets canned. How nice of them.
simblor @ Sep 29th 2009 3:42PM
They already made the movie. It's called Robot Jox! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102800/
Ahhh the 90s, how I miss you.
rubaiyat @ Sep 30th 2009 4:20PM
No way, Battletech is worlds deeper than that flick. I liked the Mechs, but frankly the universe is strong enough to have a good flick that has no Mechs in it at all. Certainly watching DCMS troops armed with invisible camo and vibrokatanas hunting down our intrepid action heroes would be great.
Invincible Warrior dammit!
Whitedragon101 @ Sep 29th 2009 6:41PM
Screw the petty squables of the Inner Sphere, the clan invasion is where it is at. But really, a movie, as much as I would love to see one would likely be absolutely terrible, quiaff?
skyrous @ Sep 29th 2009 8:19PM
Yes Battletech has a vast and rich source material behind the IP, but this is hollywood It's almost a given they're chuck it all in Garbage and make about some alien invasion set in the year 2012.
I'm more hopeful about the new ultramarine movie just announced. It doesn't look like it's gonna be a major studio release, You can say a lot about GW but they will make sure they stay true to the fluff. And the all CGI aspect means they'll be able to do the truly epic battles you expect from the warhammer universe. A movie about the Tyranid invasion of Macragge would easily best all the Alien movies put together
HauptmannFrost @ Oct 13th 2009 6:22PM
When I first saw this story on Machinima's "Inside Gaming" (or was it IGN's "Daily Fix"?), my first thought was "OMFGYAEYMYLIFEHASMEANING!"
...Then they mentioned the bit about the dude who wrote the scripts for "G.I. Joe" would also write the scripts for the MechWarrior movie, that happiness turned to sorrow VERY fast. I haven't seen the "G.I. Joe" movie, but I've heard great reviews...about the SFX, NOT the dialogue or the plot-line.
Add to this the Harmony Gold ruckus, and we have literally a very fragile undertaking, where either move to please one side (BattleTech fans or HG's legal army) risks retaliation from the other.
IF, somehow, the producers for this movie wise up and make SURE they get their facts right the FIRST TIME (and try to be cheeky devils by finding clever ways to circumvent HG's legal roadblocks in the process), I will certainly eat my hat.
I'll even devour my neighbor's hat if the movie actually gets EXCELLENT reviews.