23rd January 2003, 1:35 AM
The only person I would trust with the Metroid franchise in a movie is good old James Cameron (Director) working with Jerry Bruckhiemer (Producer) and the guy who directed Twister.... what's his name... well he'd do the camera shots and cinematography. The script and screenplay would be written by the guys who gave us Romeo and Juliet in the theaters. Then i'd have it scored by Hans Zimmer (assistant writer) and James Horner (musical director, conductor). Then have ILM's prettiness pepper the film but not over do it. We dont want a popcorn movie, we want to recreate the experience of Metroid in a film.
The hardest part would be convincing the audience that Samus is a real person, flesh and blood. She's a bounty hunter of course but not some Terminator-esque Robocop type. She has a heart, she gets scared, and she has a soul. The best way to do that would be to have the opening scenes having to do with her child hood and upbringing, closing on the Space Pirate attacks and opening with her again as a teenager pulling heists and sniping off targets... make her a bad guy. That way, her character is never established as a 'good' or 'bad' character, she simply is.
As with the Space Pirates... well. All you can do with them is show that the Space Pirates we saw in Metroid Games were Drones, aggressors. And the Pirates who command these legions are much more intellectual and completely void of emotion or even Braun. They would be something of a vague expression and not exactly a character. After all, these people did create the Mother Brain.
As for her suit, let's just assume that her suit is made up of modules. It could be something she's always had. She could recall it as "Something my father gave me.” It could be a visor and some model of armor for her body but not the full Samus Aran design. She gains that during the adventures in Zebes, finding gifts from the long-dead Chozo. Her arm mounted cannon can be something like this: During one of the invasions, she killed a Pirate and burned his body. She kept all of his armor and gear (now we see where she got her initial armor and how she became such a good bounty hunter working for various syndicates) and created the arm cannon using that technology. But at this point, when Samus fights, she fights as if a well trained marine were fighting, no stunt flipping or wire-fighting. As she becomes more upgraded, the fighting becomes much more dramatic and intense. Wall-jumping, quadruple summersaults, firing semi-atomic blasts, running at nearly the speed of light to smash through atoms and break through solid rock. Make her a modern day Superman over the course of the film.
The story would have to be a collection of the games to create one fluid story. The MOST important part of that story is what happens before leading up to the point where the Space Federation OWNS her and sends her to Zebes. I'm thinking more along the lines of a simple love story where Samus gains the trust of a male figure in her teenage years (while on an earth colony), one who had found this orb which he believes contains technology of the Chozo but was never able to open it or use it. He talks about Zebes as if it's heaven (and at one point in time it was), and tells Samus of one day living there. As they grow closer his vision changes, he wants to have a family with her, marry her and spend his life with her and for her. Samus eats it up and goes lovey dovey.
For now, Zebes will be thought of as a place of unimaginable beauty by the people of the Earth Colony (we wont get in to what happened to Earth in the film, maybe vaguely) and a discovery will be made by the Space Federation. Zebes is believed to be the main center of attention for Space Pirates. Sense war has been declared on them, this was the first time we knew where to fight them and hit them hard. Samus and her lover join the Federation in hopes of fighting the Space Pirates.
During a raid on the Earth colony (during training maybe), he's killed by the Pirates. Samus goes nuts and steals one of the Federation ships and heads for Zebes without the Federation's permission. They send some men after her (now we have the whole "Man Vs Woman" thing going on). Later in the story, they can appear as an aggressor force that will need Samus's help to survive. You cant do this movie with one character... she could possibly fall in love with one of these soldiers, then of course learn of the Federation's deeply rooted corruption. He gets orders to kill her blah blah love goes down the toilet and her humanity dies. Her exboyfriend can now hunt Samus during the second half of the movie with those lovely cross-fires/conversations ala John Woo.
Exboyfriend tries to get Samus to follow him and join the dark side err... Space Federation. Eventually he denounces the Federation, claims his love for Samus and dies horribly by a Metroid, cue horrific music, show the Chozo invented weapon and some nicely done suspense scenes and wham! 2001 eque opening to the living computer Mother Brain with thousands of giant neurons connecting to form three dimensional screens showing Samus and her life, as if it knew of her all along, as if it IS her. Now, instead of a kill motherbrain, escape from planet approach... let's make it more like escape Mother Brain, Samus makes traps, Mother Brain realizes you might escape, sends copies of it's data in to tiny shuttles out to space, begins to flood the corridors with acid and proceeds to beat the krap out of Samus.
Samus fights gloriously using every Samus Aran trick in the book, wounding Mother Brain (let's make her like a Blob (from the movie Blob) with a huge brain with sensors and technological doo-dads sticking out, as she becomes more pissed off she can form actual ligaments and form mandibles) something awful. Samus gets to her ship, planet is breaking down, Mother Brain in all her glory is twisting the ship like it's paper and Samus cries. She cries not only for her own death but for the man she loved and how her weak heart let her stray in to another man's arms where she even found love again and lost it again. And briefly she hears the cries for help from all the faceless people she has killed and her parent’s pleas for mercy to the Pirates right before they were executed. The ship crumbles around her, her body begins to break... and the orb that was given to her by her lover calls out her name in a barrage of voices, one of them her lover. She touches it and the orb explodes, killing Samus, killing Mother Brain, and destroying Zebes entirely.
Men are sent to explore the remnants of the planet, finding only raw materials (which could be worth something) and broken bits of mass. But among it all is that very same orb. It's taken to an Earth Colony to be studied and jumpin Jesus it activates igniting all electrical equipment in the labs and glows internally revealing that it's a womb containing the unborn Samus Aran. Then we're treated to a final scene with a little girl, about 6 maybe. Being questioned by men in lab coats.
She begs them to let her go play and they give in to her demands. The camera follows her outside to a green hillside and in the distance houses and buildings can be seen. There's a brief conversation between the lab men, maybe talking about how they'll never get any information out of her and that it's pointless to keep badgering the child. Perhaps a general walks out from behind a small room where he was watching them question little Samus and he tells him that the Chozo project is deemed useless. One of the lab men asks him "Then what do we do with these?" etc. And the camera pans to show various Samus suit parts and the orb that birthed her. To which the general replies "I like ham". I dunno, i'm not in a script writing mood, but the general idea of the story is there.
That's how i'd like to see it anyway.
The hardest part would be convincing the audience that Samus is a real person, flesh and blood. She's a bounty hunter of course but not some Terminator-esque Robocop type. She has a heart, she gets scared, and she has a soul. The best way to do that would be to have the opening scenes having to do with her child hood and upbringing, closing on the Space Pirate attacks and opening with her again as a teenager pulling heists and sniping off targets... make her a bad guy. That way, her character is never established as a 'good' or 'bad' character, she simply is.
As with the Space Pirates... well. All you can do with them is show that the Space Pirates we saw in Metroid Games were Drones, aggressors. And the Pirates who command these legions are much more intellectual and completely void of emotion or even Braun. They would be something of a vague expression and not exactly a character. After all, these people did create the Mother Brain.
As for her suit, let's just assume that her suit is made up of modules. It could be something she's always had. She could recall it as "Something my father gave me.” It could be a visor and some model of armor for her body but not the full Samus Aran design. She gains that during the adventures in Zebes, finding gifts from the long-dead Chozo. Her arm mounted cannon can be something like this: During one of the invasions, she killed a Pirate and burned his body. She kept all of his armor and gear (now we see where she got her initial armor and how she became such a good bounty hunter working for various syndicates) and created the arm cannon using that technology. But at this point, when Samus fights, she fights as if a well trained marine were fighting, no stunt flipping or wire-fighting. As she becomes more upgraded, the fighting becomes much more dramatic and intense. Wall-jumping, quadruple summersaults, firing semi-atomic blasts, running at nearly the speed of light to smash through atoms and break through solid rock. Make her a modern day Superman over the course of the film.
The story would have to be a collection of the games to create one fluid story. The MOST important part of that story is what happens before leading up to the point where the Space Federation OWNS her and sends her to Zebes. I'm thinking more along the lines of a simple love story where Samus gains the trust of a male figure in her teenage years (while on an earth colony), one who had found this orb which he believes contains technology of the Chozo but was never able to open it or use it. He talks about Zebes as if it's heaven (and at one point in time it was), and tells Samus of one day living there. As they grow closer his vision changes, he wants to have a family with her, marry her and spend his life with her and for her. Samus eats it up and goes lovey dovey.
For now, Zebes will be thought of as a place of unimaginable beauty by the people of the Earth Colony (we wont get in to what happened to Earth in the film, maybe vaguely) and a discovery will be made by the Space Federation. Zebes is believed to be the main center of attention for Space Pirates. Sense war has been declared on them, this was the first time we knew where to fight them and hit them hard. Samus and her lover join the Federation in hopes of fighting the Space Pirates.
During a raid on the Earth colony (during training maybe), he's killed by the Pirates. Samus goes nuts and steals one of the Federation ships and heads for Zebes without the Federation's permission. They send some men after her (now we have the whole "Man Vs Woman" thing going on). Later in the story, they can appear as an aggressor force that will need Samus's help to survive. You cant do this movie with one character... she could possibly fall in love with one of these soldiers, then of course learn of the Federation's deeply rooted corruption. He gets orders to kill her blah blah love goes down the toilet and her humanity dies. Her exboyfriend can now hunt Samus during the second half of the movie with those lovely cross-fires/conversations ala John Woo.
Exboyfriend tries to get Samus to follow him and join the dark side err... Space Federation. Eventually he denounces the Federation, claims his love for Samus and dies horribly by a Metroid, cue horrific music, show the Chozo invented weapon and some nicely done suspense scenes and wham! 2001 eque opening to the living computer Mother Brain with thousands of giant neurons connecting to form three dimensional screens showing Samus and her life, as if it knew of her all along, as if it IS her. Now, instead of a kill motherbrain, escape from planet approach... let's make it more like escape Mother Brain, Samus makes traps, Mother Brain realizes you might escape, sends copies of it's data in to tiny shuttles out to space, begins to flood the corridors with acid and proceeds to beat the krap out of Samus.
Samus fights gloriously using every Samus Aran trick in the book, wounding Mother Brain (let's make her like a Blob (from the movie Blob) with a huge brain with sensors and technological doo-dads sticking out, as she becomes more pissed off she can form actual ligaments and form mandibles) something awful. Samus gets to her ship, planet is breaking down, Mother Brain in all her glory is twisting the ship like it's paper and Samus cries. She cries not only for her own death but for the man she loved and how her weak heart let her stray in to another man's arms where she even found love again and lost it again. And briefly she hears the cries for help from all the faceless people she has killed and her parent’s pleas for mercy to the Pirates right before they were executed. The ship crumbles around her, her body begins to break... and the orb that was given to her by her lover calls out her name in a barrage of voices, one of them her lover. She touches it and the orb explodes, killing Samus, killing Mother Brain, and destroying Zebes entirely.
Men are sent to explore the remnants of the planet, finding only raw materials (which could be worth something) and broken bits of mass. But among it all is that very same orb. It's taken to an Earth Colony to be studied and jumpin Jesus it activates igniting all electrical equipment in the labs and glows internally revealing that it's a womb containing the unborn Samus Aran. Then we're treated to a final scene with a little girl, about 6 maybe. Being questioned by men in lab coats.
She begs them to let her go play and they give in to her demands. The camera follows her outside to a green hillside and in the distance houses and buildings can be seen. There's a brief conversation between the lab men, maybe talking about how they'll never get any information out of her and that it's pointless to keep badgering the child. Perhaps a general walks out from behind a small room where he was watching them question little Samus and he tells him that the Chozo project is deemed useless. One of the lab men asks him "Then what do we do with these?" etc. And the camera pans to show various Samus suit parts and the orb that birthed her. To which the general replies "I like ham". I dunno, i'm not in a script writing mood, but the general idea of the story is there.
That's how i'd like to see it anyway.