Movie Challenge - $300 Million USD = A new Epic franchise.

[Frostmarrow]

Arthurian and Robin Hood based tales both share the same real problem: they are Open Source unprotected properties - they are in the public domain.

As such, you end up having to coin a trade mark to protect your licensed version of a public domain IP; therefore, it's not a very lucrative IP.

Licensing and toys is big business for a Triple A franchise. Without that revenue, I would argue you can't hit a LOTR/ Star Wars home run.

King Arthur would end up as a Jurassic Park style brand. Great movies which sell a lot of tickets and DVD's - and whose toy licensing is mediocre because anybody can make T-Rex and Raptor dinosaur toys.

Nope. That's not the stuff that motivates a studio to open the vault.

We love knights though. Jedi knights or disguised ranger knights makes no difference. Your big project needs some. So if there is a great big property with knights in it, go for that.

I love Dune, the book and the movie (not entirely sold on the miniseries). It features knights in the form of Atreides family but seriously - Dune is not high profile enough to meet Hollywood's $tandards in this regard. I don't think we will see Dune again.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

BOLOS

Maybe it expresses my unutterable geekdom but you could make an interesting movie out of the Bolo concept. Base it around say retaking a planet from the Deng (who make suitable villians). It could be the most metal movie in history.

Start with a planetary drop, dozens of Bolos in drop pods screaming down through the atmosphere in a blazing hail of nuclear annihilation as thousands of warheads are fired back and forth covering the screen in overwhelming apocalyptic fury sped up way too fast for people to follow. With orbital suppressive fire raining down from above like an angry war god's spear. Have the action alternate between sequences where action is slowed down to Bolo scale with real-time scale for impact. The goal of the invasion could be to liberate the population held hostage in a larder camp as live fodder for the Deng. Play up the knight-like tone of the Bolos themselves. Their essential qualities as the archetypal Defender of the Weak, who just happens to be a combat machine the size of a small ship with the power to level cities. Kind of a wierd combination of The Great Raid and 300 with cyborg supertanks, as they first take the hostage camp then defend its human occupants at all costs as the Fleet is forced to turn and fight the enemy in space leaving them on their own on the ground.

 

[Mistwell]

I'll throw another one into the mix: The Marcus Didius Falco Series. OK, so it's not quite fantasy, but everyone likes a good film noir hard boiled detective movie set in ancient Rome! And it's got everything - battles, romance, intrigue, mystery, and adventure!

 

[Klaus]

I'll throw another one into the mix: The Marcus Didius Falco Series. OK, so it's not quite fantasy, but everyone likes a good film noir hard boiled detective movie set in ancient Rome! And it's got everything - battles, romance, intrigue, mystery, and adventure!

The first one was already made: Age of Deception, IIRC. Bryan Brown played Falco and Matthias Hughes (sp?) played the gladiator sidekick.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince trilogy.


300 million wouldn't be enough, but I would like to see Tad Williams' Otherland series on the big screen - or an insanely long miniseries.

 

[ShadowX]

I must disagree with many nominations in this thread on the grounds that they are too grand, epic and long to ever survive the transition to a movie. Lord of the Rings worked because the books are actually quite bloated and after removing this fat you can actually fit the story into still lengthy movies. Fortunately, while most fantasy apes Tolkien at some level, they don't imitate his writing style.

I like the suggestion of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, but I will up the ante one more: The Vlad Taltos series. Here is the fantasy James Bond. The plotlines are short, well-paced and invigorating; the main character witty, flawed and damn cool; and let us not forget some very prominent magic to take advantage of modern SFX.

 

[Insight]

Here's one thing all of you need to consider. Anything with a "wierd name" isn't going to fly. It has to be easily pronounced and recognized. Notice how the movies with strange names rarely do well.

 

[Darkwolf71]

I would then see if I could acquire the X-men license and reboot that franchise. It's not too soon for something like that as comic book movies are still huge draws. Cast younger actors for the main roles and have then sign on for 5-6 movies. Use all the X-men material as source including the Ultimate books.

begining with Iron Man, Marvel Studios is producing all Marvel movie titles themselves. Thank God. No more screw ups like The Hulk or the butchering of The Pheonix Saga. (Well, It's much less likely.)

 

[Darkwolf71]

Another vote for Shanarra. The original trilogy.

I would go for The Elinium/Tamuli rather than The Belgariad/Mallorian.

I'd like to see accurate films of REH's Conan. (Crossing my fingers for the upcoming film.)

 

[Frostmarrow]

Has Dragonlance been mentioned yet? Yeah, I know it's a cartoon but so was LoTR. Perhaps the cartoon is a harbinger? They're checking the waters and then BAM! Kiefer Sutherland voiceovers Hayden Christensen as Raistlin. -Sorry, just kidding. And it has knights. Go Dragonlance!