Why there will never be a Battletech-movie (or series)

[AngeliDiAvanti]

If you want a Battletech-movie, you have to take a number of things into account:

* Movie-companies nowadays love franchises, because franchises are safer economically, because they guarantee long-term viewership. The Battletech-movie won't get made unless it works both as a standalone AND as an opener for a franchise.

* Plus, the director makes or breaks the movie. You can either have a whole [mod edit: language] franchise of Transformers-movies, or you can have one good Bumblebee-movie made with love and respect for the source-material.
However, love and respect for the source-material is not enough. Iron Sky is a gorgeous low-budget sci-fi comedy about Space-Nazis. Iron Sky 2 is a hot mess of plotholes, bad pacing and forced, cringy jokes. Why did Iron Sky 2 fail? Because while everybody on the team obviously loved the Iron Sky universe and did their best, they still had NO TALENT.

* If the producers start meddling with the project because they don't trust it (like they did with Suicide Squad and that new Hellboy-movie), it will turn to shit. The team of director, writers and actors must be good enough to carry this on their own and they must have the opportunity to do so. (Like Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. did with Iron Man.)

* Seriously. How many people have heard about Battletech. And how many of those people care enough about it to actually pay for a cinema-ticket?

* You have to find a story that works. A good story that opens the door to the Battletech-universe but doesn't choke the movie by foreshadowing stuff that might happen 3 movies from now, like Alita Battle-Angel did or like Batman vs Superman did or like Justice League did or like The Mummy did.
For example, consider the movie Chaos Walking, with Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. It is currently being shot and the script is such a mess, it's effectively 4 MOVIE-PLOTS FORCED INTO ONE MOVIE. The producers have already declared the movie unreleasable.

* China. A Battletech-movie WILL NOT make enough money domestically for a profit. That means, the Battletech-movie MUST be released in China.
The chinese government has strict censorship laws against positive depictions of feudal societies... like the Houses of the Inner Sphere.
The Battletech-movie will NEVER get into chinese cinemas if the hero is a noble from one of the Houses of the Inner Sphere.
Plus, the ConCap St Ives conflict is basically PRC vs Taiwan.
The Battletech-movie will NEVER get into chinese cinemas if it mentions either the Capellan Confederation or the St Ives Compact.



I want you to try something I was told in script-writing workshop:
Imagine a Battletech-movie, the Battletech-movie you want to see and you want to get made. Now, summarize the whole plot into one sentence.

What do you get?



Oh, then what about a Battletech-series you say?

A Battletech-series would need a Game of Thrones level budget for the special effects, beginning straight in Episode 1 of Season 1. You can't just have people walking around in castles. You need elaborate sets and CGI-Mechs, CGI-tanks, CGI-cities, CGI-spaceships... That's serious money.

Serious money for a series that has no reputation and no big names.




EDIT:
My apologies for the profanity.

 

[Timaeus]

* Seriously. How many people have heard about Battletech. And how many of those people care enough about it to actually pay for a cinema-ticket?

The Coldest City
Oblivion
Red
Nimona
Stories that would be considered, not well known, but have had, or will have, movies made out of them. Small properties get optioned all the time, though I will admit it is uncommon.

Really it's more likely for it to be an animated show than anything.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

With how well the new Voltron series turned out on Netflix, I would be perfectly happy with a new BattleTech animated series if it was treated with that much care and attention to quality.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

A few quick thoughts on this one.

More people may have heard of Battletech than you think. Just among gamers, and never enderestimate our capacity, because we are legion, you may not have played Battletech, but at least heard of it.

Battletech is its own franchise, and a producer with some brains in their head could market Battletech into a series of movies, which we all know we'd want.

There is enough lore for much script ideas. They just to keep the material away from corporate goon squad directors with no real skill or talent that ruin existing franchises. AKA...JJ Abrams and Michael Bay.


I'd really prefer that Hollywood doesn't touch a BT movie at all, because these days they basically ruin most of what they touch.

I'd rather see an indy studio do it, or an international studio; particularly something Asian especially Japan, because Battletech is mecha, and if anyone is really into mecha, it's that part of the world.

If you can sell Pacific Rim, you can sell Battletech.

To a certain degree, everyone needs to say "mod edit: language, no shorthand of bad language either], China!" Companies want in their big market for obvious reasons, but on company or personal creative levels, we need to make it plain to them.

Socially, China is dead weight dragging behind the rest of the world. A mech movie WOULD go over in Japan and Korea, and instead of kowtowing to the suits in China and lowering your bar for them, you need to make it plain to them that they need to catch up with everyone else. As a filmmaker outside China, you can't let them define your craft.

I'm currently in the middle of writing an original sci-fi novel, and when it's good and complete enough to publish, I couldn't give two craps if doesn't sell in a stinking dictatorship, and I won't edit it so it will.

Politically, we're not doing very good here, in the US, but our so-called leaders aren't prima donna powder puffs that get upset over depictions of 'alternate societies'.

 

[AngeliDiAvanti]

There is enough lore for much script ideas. They just to keep the material away from corporate goon squad directors with no real skill or talent that ruin existing franchises. AKA...JJ Abrams and Michael Bay.

Script-ideas is not the problem. But how many are suitable for a movie?
- You can forget anything involving the Clans, because then you would have to explain the Star League.
- You can forget the FedCom Civil War, because that is too much material to tackle.
- You can forget the Xin Sheng-campaign, because that is too much material to tackle.
Basically forget anything about Inner Sphere politics... because that is too much material to tackle.

That means, only two kinds of stories remain:
- small group of Mechwarriors gets into trouble
- hero's journey from nobody to warrior to hero

And even then a lot can go wrong when writing the details. You need sympathetic characters, without making it as infernally cheesy as the Fast&Furious franchise. You need a credible villain with an understandable motivation. You need to explain to the audience the rules of Battlemech-combat without telling them those rules. The fights must have stakes.

Personally, I think that one of my favorite novels, "Double-blind" with Avanti's Angels, would work pretty good. It checks all the boxes.
- The story starts with them getting betrayed by an employer and forced to retreat with losses and without payment. First Mech-fight. (Opportunity to portray them as the good guys? Check. Multi-ethnic crew? Check.)
- They take a job in the Periphery. Space-travel. (Story-exposition? Check.)
- Hired by the Magistracy Canopus. Politics. (Strong women? Check.)
- Ambushed on Marantha. Villain wants to kill them to rise in the ranks of WoB. Second Mech-fight. (Show that they are good at their job? Check. Introducing villain? Check. Villain has a motivation? Check.)
- Arrival on Astrokazy, meeting local warlord and Word of Blake.
- Ambushed on Astrokazy. Forced to flee. Third Mech-fight. (Heroes at their lowest point? Check.)
- Ally with Desertwind Tribe. Send jumpship away to get help.
- Attack on local warlord/Word of Blake as distraction for prison-break. Fourth Mech-fight. (Grand finale with high stakes? Check. Some hand-to-hand brawl? Check.)
- Saved at last second by ConCap/Magistracy-reinforcements. (Hinting at the bigger world out there? Check.)
- Establishing Word of Blake as the baddies for future movies. (Keeping door open for sequel? Check.)

 

[Timaeus]

Script-ideas is not the problem. But how many are suitable for a movie?
- You can forget anything involving the Clans, because then you would have to explain the Star League.

Not that I would necessarily want a movie to start with Clans, but as an example, this game explained everything the player needed about Humanity and the Star League with a 3 minute opening cinematic. A similar thing happened with the Lord of the Rings explaining Sauron and the One Ring background in about 10-15 minutes. Intros are not unheard of to set the stage of a movie.

 

[Apocal]

I'm currently in the middle of writing an original sci-fi novel, and when it's good and complete enough to publish, I couldn't give two craps if doesn't sell in a stinking dictatorship, and I won't edit it so it will.

Uh, writing a novel has a minuscule cost compared to making a movie that'll make it into theaters.

 

[Nichino]

As long as they included saying "MechWarriors" in their promo marketing, there are a lot more people who know BattleTech/MechWarrior than there were people who heard of A Song of Ice and Fire before the Game of Thrones TV series. I don't think a movie is a good idea, but I think a live-action TV series would be a good idea. Right now high-production TV series are hot. I see HBO, AMC and Netflix as top of the heap, but all the others are trying to up their game too, even SYFY channel (who has held a stereotype of b-rated productions).

Heavy CGI can be avoided if they focus on the "game of thrones" aspects of the BattleTech universe. There will of course need to be CGI cityscapes, battles, etc, but they can run secondary to plot, acting, setting, etc. Although we die-hard fans might love to see tons of CGI, most people watch TV series for the story. At least in my opinion. And yea, they would need to grab the mainstream audience like Game of Thrones did if they want to avoid getting cancelled early.

So if Netflix, HBO or AMC tapped some good writers, directors and actors for a BattleTech TV series, I think it could be as much of a homerun as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, etc.

 

[starscream]

I would prefer a battletech series if done right but as mentionedabove
but hollyweird would probably with out a doubt completely screw it up
just look at what they did with the transformer movies

 

[The Shadowhawke]

I would prefer a battletech series if done right but as mentionedabove
but hollyweird would probably with out a doubt completely screw it up
just look at what they did with the transformer movies

Specifically why I invoked Michael Bay as a primary franchise-destroyer.

He's strong evidence that there probably really is a devil, who actually does set up contracts in blood for fame and fortune.

 

[Timaeus]

I would prefer a battletech series if done right but as mentionedabove
but hollyweird would probably with out a doubt completely screw it up
just look at what they did with the transformer movies

Bay doesn't direct TV series'. Only produce. It's probably safe from transformers treatment.

 

[Apocal]

Heavy CGI can be avoided if they focus on the "game of thrones" aspects of the BattleTech universe. There will of course need to be CGI cityscapes, battles, etc, but they can run secondary to plot, acting, setting, etc. Although we die-hard fans might love to see tons of CGI, most people watch TV series for the story. At least in my opinion. And yea, they would need to grab the mainstream audience like Game of Thrones did if they want to avoid getting cancelled early.

The "Game of Thrones" aspects are some of the weakest planks of the BT universe though, with metaplots and individual stories that are pretty firmly in the realm what is called pulp fiction.

 

[Nichino]

The "Game of Thrones" aspects are some of the weakest planks of the BT universe though, with metaplots and individual stories that are pretty firmly in the realm what is called pulp fiction.

Maybe the stories told so far, but not the lore itself. Felt very deep rereading the old sourcebooks. Sure the novels might not be, but they can tell new stories.

 

[Apocal]

Maybe the stories told so far, but not the lore itself. Felt very deep rereading the old sourcebooks. Sure the novels might not be, but they can tell new stories.

Even in the sourcebooks, the political intrigue is not particularly deep, unless you count lingering plot hooks. But if we're talking about a major TV producer picking up the license, they'll be looking at the existing novels and storylines. I mean, it's a game universe at its core, and a game universe primarily about a particular form of warfare, which means certain things for the storytelling.

 

[Hoi Neuling]

That´s easy to answer.

1st: You need Animations from all Battle-Mechs you place on the Field. Each Animation will cost about 1 Million per Mech only. And you have minimum 4 Mechs in a Lance and you need about 12 Lances for a real fightanimation (if each Lance has 4 Mechs), esp. for the Movies from the 1st to 4th Succession war and against the Clans.

2nd: Where you will beginn the Storyline? If you make normal Storys from the beginning Books and get them into Cinematics you have to make about 30 to 40 Movies. And that Movies will show only 1/3 of the full books.

3rd: You need very good writers for the Scripts and they all have to read all 60 or more books for the full Cinematic storyline. I have personaly read about 30 Books and wasn´t by the Mechwarrior 3 / MechCommander 1-Game yet from the Storyline.

4th: Then you need Sponsors for the Cinematic which will pay you that Money. Only for the Mech-Animations in Point 1 you need about 48.000.000 Millions without moving and fighting sceens. With that you are about with easy 3D fights up to 500.000.000 Millions or more. Then the Actors, Equipment, Translations in other Languages and so on. If you save or scrap money you have only production costs from about 2 Milliards per Movie. And that´s only an cautios estimate.

5th: I have shown many Series with production Cost from 1 Million a sequence. Such as the good old Battlestar Galactica from 1978 / 1980´s, Viper from the 1990 and and other Series from the 1990´s. They all were good, but that money you have to bring back.

6th: An other Example for a Movie which is getting a 3rd Rework is Dune: The Desert Planet. And there is the Question which Book the new Movie-Maker use first. Because this Universe has 2 Movies too.

- The first one is from the Year 1984 from David Lynch and got many things from the first Book (like the Sonic Weapons and such as well as the cool End from Feyd-Rautha from Paul with his Sonic Cry), but not so good Desert-Animations.

- The second one is the Year 2000 from John Harrison and got missing things from the first Movie (like more Informations from the Chars etc., better Desert-Animations), but not so good fighting Animations (like the Sonic Weapons and the cool End of Feyd-Rautha from the first movie) with an try from the follwing 2 Books in a Series from 2003 called Children of Dune from Greg Yaitanes or he is called.

What I wanna say with that are following questions every Author has to manage:
a) How good will be the Movies after the shooting?
b) What you can bring in to get a full storyline without destruction to the Bookline?
c) What is a good compromise to get a good compression in the Movies?
d) From what Book I will beginn the Storyline in the Movies?

That´s why many good Books from 30 or more are not get a Movie or Series in our time. You can see it in the Games too how difficult it is to bring in only in the Mechwarrior and MechCommander Games as well as in the newest Game called Battletech.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Script-ideas is not the problem. But how many are suitable for a movie?
- You can forget anything involving the Clans, because then you would have to explain the Star League.

....

...

???

Done in under a minute?

(About 40s if you don't count the stuff after the talking ends.)

Star Wars opening text crawl is over twice that time...

I mean, c'mon, if you can't do a better job than that, you're not even TRYING.

 

[AngeliDiAvanti]

The problem is getting a good plot with a minimum of money.

1. A written novel is enough material for 3-6 hours of movie (give or take). So the movie/series would be a rewrite of an original story anyways.

2. You can make it cheap, if your plot allows you to shoot in real-world 21st century style buildings. For example, a plotline about Solaris VII: Seedy crime-ridden streets (got it), luxurious mansions (got it), offices (got it) and CGI-stadiums (doable for cheap). That's it. That would be the locations you need.
(No palaces or battlefields or spaceships necessary.)

3. You can make it cheap, if your plot gives a good reason why there are so few Mechs on-screen at a time. Again, a Solaris VII plotline would be perfect, because most fights are 1-vs-1 and the biggest fights are lance-vs-lance.
(No companies of Mechs and tanks and helicopters and aerospace fighters and hundreds of infantry necessary.)

4. You need a human element. You need drama, stakes, contrast, conflict. A force of nature or a villain.




Tell me:

Would you watch a Battletech-series about some guy trying to make it big on Solaris VII, about trouble with his colleagues, about drama with his friends/family, about other gladiators that just want to put the noob down?

About what looks like a sport of honorable and straightforward Battlemech-duels at the beginning of the series, but the longer the series goes on, it reveals a dark and seedy underbelly of corruption, scheming, sabotage, bribery, blackmail, manipulation and performance-enhancing drugs?

For example, a friend of the protagonist gets blackmailed into a Battlemech-duel even though he's wounded, takes performance-enhancing drugs and then collapses during the battle?

 

[Apocal]

Tell me:

Would you watch a Battletech-series about some guy trying to make it big on Solaris VII, about trouble with his colleagues, about drama with his friends/family, about other gladiators that just want to put the noob down?

I personally wouldn't, but for matters of subjective taste. Firstly, like I said up the thread, the backroom politicking and stuff is the weakest plank in BT and leaning on it in terms of story doesn't do the universe many favors.

Secondly, parking the story in a Solaris setting immediately brings to the forefront one of the contradictions of BT: namely, that BattleMechs are supposed to be rare and hugely expensive. So why doesn't this guy just retire and live out the good life? Why don't the mech-strapped armies just take these things? The real answer is because gladiatorial mech combat sounds cool. In-universe, it is never addressed except to occasionally mutter something about not taking people's mechs just because.

(Meanwhile, mercenary units are said to live and die by their salvage rights, which means they definitely are taking people's mechs. Hmm...)

Finally, I wouldn't watch it because this story, this exact story, was told in the movie Robot Jox.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Yeah, Solaris is a very unrepresentative (and in my opinion, by far the least interesting) slice of BT.

Honestly? If the proposed series came out, I'd completely ignore it on the basis that is sounds really boring. Sport + crime (whcih is effectively what you're saying) combines two things I care least about in the world, especially when you add honour duels (*sigh*) into the mix. Hell, I wouldn't even watch that if it was starships, not BattleMechs, and I care about starship a frack-ton more than I do BattleMechs (by about 15:1, if you go on model count alone...)



Frankly, sod the live-action if you can't do it right and hvae to cut that many corners; there's nothing wrong with a good bit of animation. Hell, you could do a new!Thunderbirds on it and mix old-fashioned model-work with CG and call it a day. I mean, come on, you could animate a perfectly acceptable shopw, just using the assets HBS have NOW. (An order of magnitude better than the actual animated series of twenty years ago.)

 

[Hoi Neuling]

All Movies and Series which tried this and other things are badly fallen on the nose.

Best Example from the new Age-Series: the Prequels to Battlestar Galactica namly Caprica / Blood & Chrome
Best Example from new Age-Movies: Battleship, Transformers

An other Example are the Books from Stieg Larson, which are hard to compress in Movies. Same with the new try for the Dune Books.

Dune the Desert-Planed get 2 Movies and 1 Series already, which were a more bad than good balance on a knife´s edge. Now clear why no one is going to make a BT-Movie. He / She has the choise for Pestilence or Cholera.