Someone have the link ? i've looked throughout their website and didn't find it !

Thanks !

Unless I've been living under a rock, no such thing has been announced.

There's a BattleTech movie in the works, but no Shadowrun one. I'm sure WizKids is pimping the idea pretty hard with the burgeoning neo-cyberpunk and fantasy movements in film (spurred on by The Matrix and Lord of the Rings respectively), but no one's greenlit a Shadowrun movie yet.

The Abstruse One

They was searching for a producer, that was on the old forum ! I'm not crazy... no I'm not ! Maybe... yes but... no !

If Palladium can broker a Rifts movie with Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, then getting a Shadowrun movie should be feasible.

isn't that Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney?

I'll look forward to watching WizKid movies as long as they dont do what Wizards of the Coast did. "This is no game!" Sad sad sad.

Needless to say, the advertising tactics that they used for Dungeons and Dragons was enough for me to decide never to watch that movie.

I think they need a script. Think we could get Kevin Smith to do it and Ridley Scott to direct?

I say take a good shadowrun novel and turn it into a movie.

Ah, c'mon. His dialogue's great. We can keep the author nearby to beat him on the head with a bat if he tries to put in any dick and fart jokes.

Food Fight: The Movie!
Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring -
Dante as the dwarven manager ("I wasn't supposed to be here today!")
Chasing Amy as the hot elven checkout girl
Randal as the annoying kid in the arcade
Jay and Silent Bob as the loud-mouthed mother and son
The Skaters from Hell as the gangers
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as themselves

(If you don't know any Kevin Smith films, don't worry. It wouldn't make this post funny, either )

How about turning Sam Verner's first novel into a movie? It can be easily adapted (IMHO, at least compared to other novels) and would serve as a primer to the SR universe (sequels! sequels!).

Why do I think that animated movie would make more money than a live action movie? The special effects needed for a Shadowrun movie would be cost prohibitive considering the market audience. I think that something more along the lines of Animatrix would be a more feasible option.

Animation ain't exactly cheap, either. And American movie-goers tend to think of animated films as kiddie flicks, so there goes your mainstream appeal. Without that, the big production houses won't touch it, for fear of losing their shirts (like Squaresoft did with Final Fantasy: The Movie).

Interesting sidenote: Did the figures in the Animatrix episode "Last Flight fo the Osiris" look familiar to anyone? They should. To cut costs and speed up production, the producers decided to re-use the character models they'd already built for the Final Fantasy movie.

Now, if someone got the bright idea to re-re-use those models for a SR movie, or if SR suddenly became big in Japan, we might have something....

Speaking of which: what the status of SR in Japan? I heard there was a Japanese edition of the BBB, and I always thought that this particular combination of hi-tech and fantasy would make it a big hit there.

I thjink he was talking about a traditional animated movie, rather than computer generated graphics.

I'd love a Shadowrun Anime (please? pretty please?)

I believe Shadowrun is out of print in Japan; I think only a translation of 2nd Edition was released.

What about a new SR3 japanese release? Not for me, obviously, but I'd bet there is a market, especially if FanPro releases Shadows of Asia.

Just as a somewhat related example: I remember Alex Shvartsman (well known Magic: the Gathering Pro-Tour player and card dealer) told us over a dinner in Curitiba (that's in Brazil, near Sao Paulo and Florianopolis) that Japan was THE MtG market, and then went on and on about that. Another big dealer (José something) told us the same in Buenos Aires.

Maybe there is a Shadowrun market waiting for it.

The D&D movie would have been good if they had spent some time on the script. what they should have done from the begining is had Bob Salvatore pen a story about Drizz't, and turn that into a movie.

I think Wizkids should do the same for SR. I think Headhunters would be the best choice since it offers a diverse cast, an excellent sampling of the SR universe, as well as being well written.

I find myself thinking more along the lines of Lisa Smedman's Tails You Lose novel. Of course, since I'd just seen something recently that dealt with the main plot "twist", I guessed at what the major revelation was going to be fairly early on.

Hmmm... you know, that gives me a nice idea. I think I know what I'll put on my "wants" list for my birthday this year... Flash MX 2004!

Roleplaying in general is not as "big" in Japan as it is in the States and Europe. Many of the games are very narrative or based on licensed products (World of Darkness, GURPS). The fact that Shadowrun Japan is a fascist hellhole probably doesn't do a whole lot to whip up the hometown crowd either

Hmm... there was that Shadowrun manga though.

Cage Fight!

It has everything from gritty street level to high magic and excellent dialogue - plus interesting, funny and likeable characters to boot!

It'd make shadowrun players 'in-the-know' choke on their candy and sodas with laughter and surprise, and it would (if things go where they seem to be going...) be a great introduction to non players.

(Of course - finding actors for the cast might be a trick...)

Then, if that goes well, you can follow up with the first Harlequin adventures (make those into a trilogy, maybe) giving a wider intoduction to the shadowrun world, on all levels...

Alternatively...make it an SR horror movie and do the Renraku shutdown/Brainscan. Follow the main resistance cell inside the arcology. That might be better as a mini-series though...

The best novel to turn into a movie, hands down, is Burning Bright. Hell, you can even do a two movie series (run the first one up to the intermission in the book, where everything goes to hell, then run the second from Kyle waking up to the end). I haven't seen any Shadowrun book since that came even close to being as well-written. It's got plenty of action, and even some drama, if you can get someone decent to play Teller.

But dear god, don't make a crappy movie just to make some cash. If WizKids makes a Shadowrun or Battletech movie that is as bad as the Dungeons and Dragons movie, I will have to go to their offices and complain in person. That is just wrong. Do it right or don't do it at all. I'm still a bit miffed at the Heavy Gear animated series that should have been more like the Roughnecks and ended up being....well, not. But at least DP9 had the sense to say "this is not canon, it's just a TV show IN the Heavy Gear universe too, for kiddies." I can forgive that. A movie is a bigger deal.

Does anyone else have the problem of posts 'disappearing' only to reappear at a later date?

The sad but safe bet is any Shadowrun movie would suck because it would be conformed to the 'Rated PG' nurf setting to generate ticket sales from the kiddie masses.

A Shadowrun movie without blood just wouldn't work.

A Battletech movie however could be done with a PG rating and still be entertaining, since reactor explosions could incinerate the blood in the cockpit.

Btw: Did anyone else notice George Lucus ripping off the starship design from Battletech dropships?

My vote would be for the first Verner novel too.

Speaking of Bob Salvator and a movie...

http://www.motionzoo.com/animation/mithril.mov

I'm kinda scared to say this (ducks in anticipation of flaming) since everyone seems to hate them, but I reckon the Sargent/Gascgoine books would make great movies.

NO! Hear me out...

They have precisely what is required for mass appeal.

1: Characters. Who have you got? Serrin - reclusive, insular mage, wounded and scarred (in more ways than one) with a lot of dark history. Also an elf to make him more interesting and help the public along. Geraint - classy, richer than god, got TONS of style (theoretically) and brings a touch of politics to the story. Ideal candidate for actors such as Jude Law. Or me (hehe). Francesca - Beautiful, intelligent and hard as nails, shows her sensitive side in teh first book as she is emotionally distraught at her friend's murder. American female, must be cute and blonde. Those are ten a penny. Lastly, as a central character is Rani, teh female punjabi ork. Strong woman, epitomising all the racial conflicts in one body, real "author's message" material. Can't think who would play her, but it's an ideal character given the "Girl Power" rush of the nineties.

2: Location. Beautiful Britain for the most part with bits of Manhattan, but in the second it's back to UCAS, over to Germany and Africa - all over. Doesn't slow down for the third either, with jaunts to various countries including England, Italy and (I think) Iraq - or some such hot clime.

3: Familiar baddies. In the first its Jack the Ripper. In the second its a Vampire. In the third, it's the Inquisition. What more can a trilogy want? What, fame? Okay, how about another faction in the form of Leonardo daVinci and his little friand Salai?

There's heaps more reasons I'm sure - not least because there's a great mix of magic, muscle and matrix - but I'm too tired to put them down. It's the end of my shift (at 9.45AM) and I need sleep.

I'd like an original story personally. Not to knock the novels, but almost all of them were written for players, not for a general audience. Plus novels tend to get ruined when translated to film anyway.

Anyway, I think a limited run TV series would work better for Shadowrun than a film. The film would have a limited audience (anyone who hates sci-fi will be put off as well as anyone who hates fantasy). A TV series would be better anyway because you could slowly introduce the elements of the game world a little at a time. Plus this also gives you the ability to do things such as have Season 1 about one SR team and villian, Season 2 about another, and so on. Like season 1 can follow a group hunting insects with the Universal Brotherhood, season 2 could be Dunkelzahn's election and assassination. Season 3 can be the corp wars and the fall of Fuchi (even more dramatic if Fuchi plays a big roll in Season 1), Season 4 the Archology Shutdown, etc.

Animated is the best way to go IMHO for Shadowrun though. Fantasy and sci-fi have been blended together in anime for years (DBZ, Akira, Galaxy Express 999, Outlaw Star, Exploding Campus Guardess, etc.), plus the market for adult-targetted animation is rising with Adult Swim and Toonami on Cartoon Network getting solid ratings. Also, the budget for even an animated series would be lower than for a live-action feature. A feature would run at least $50 million to make it decent, and probably $125 million or more, while an animated series or film could be done for $10 million or so.

However, I do like to fancy myself a screenwriter and my genre of choice is contemporary fantasy (magic in a modern day world), so if someone wants to give me a plot idea, I'll write up a script No way in hell my script will ever get made being that I'm not an established filmmaker or writer (I'm shooting my first short film in Houston this fall/winter), but it'd be something to do to kill an afternoon or three and might just be entertaining.

The Abstruse One

I think if it was done as anime, then it would appear to be 'just another anime movie' to a lot of people, whereas if it was filmed as a real movie (with appropriate computer graphics) it would stand more of a chance at a wider audience.

I think Peter Chung should do it.