Mass Effect director says a movie or TV series is ‘a matter of when, not if’
Actor Henry Cavill appeared to tease a live-action adaptation earlier this year
The creative director and writer behind the Mass Effect series has said that a movie or television adaptation is “not a matter of if, but when”.
Speaking to Business Insider, Mac Walters – who was creative director for Legendary Edition and Andromeda, and the narrative lead for 3 and 2 – claimed that BioWare had received significant interest from Hollywood on adapting the series.
“It’s such an expansive world, and so many people I know in the TV and film industry have reached out to ask me when we’re going to do it and saying we’ve got to do it,” he said.
A Mass Effect movie was once in development at Warner Bros.’ Legendary Pictures, but like so many proposed game tie-ins it never materialised.
“It felt like we were always fighting the IP,” Walters said. “What story are we going to tell in 90 to 120 minutes? Are we going to do it justice?”
Earlier this year, actor Henry Cavill appeared to tease a potential live-action Mass Effect project. The Superman and The Witcher star posted a blurred image of what appeared to be a script page, which fans later modified to reveal a synopsis for the first Mass Effect game.
According to BioWare’s Walters, a television-style series could be a better fit for the Mass Effect series. “If you’re going to tell a story that’s as fleshed out as ‘Mass Effect,’ TV is the way to do it. There’s a natural way it fits well with episodic content,” he explained.
“When we build out a ‘Mass Effect’ game, we have a backbone, or an overall story that we want to tell, but each level or mission is like its own TV episode.
“It doesn’t get written ahead of time. It gets written at the time that we get to it. So it gets added to the main story and sometimes the main story gets adjusted because we did something really cool in that ‘episode.’ So long-from storytelling is a great place for game franchises.”
further reading
Henry Cavill is teasing a Mass Effect project
Video game adaptations have become a hot item in the movie and television world in recent years. Following the recent wave of successful video game movies, including Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu, more projects are in development including Uncharted and Dreamworks’ Super Mario movie.
Sony is reportedly developing three movies and seven TV shows based on PlayStation games, as part of its new PlayStation Productions business.
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