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Re: Mmm Marathon movie
Posted By: Rick BlaineDate: 5/20/02 5:13 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Mmm Marathon movie (Mark Levin)

[snip]

: Too bad everyone who wants this made has no money and everyone who has the
: money doesn't care.

Here's the conflict. How can this paradox be resolved?

: Please explain why you think Bungie would prefer to make a movie than a game,
: if money was no object.

Money *is* the object here. There's definitely something to be said for the 'cachet' of being a leader in an emerging industry (computer games). Unfortunately, you can't pay your bills in 'cachet'. Rational economic self-interest is the whole reason why the Marathon story is a game instead of a novel. The story works just as well, if not better as a novel than it does as a game. Jason & Alex, et al, do know how to type. The payoff from a bestseller is lower than a hit game. Making a hit movie has a much higher payoff than making a hit computer game, even after factoring in the lower probability of success. Not everyone owns a computer, but most everyone has eyes & a mind, plus the $6-8 ticket price. Unfortunately, the only way for a group of outsiders to make a movie like Marathon would be to fund it themselves.

There is a hit movie on those 4 floppies. SFX has advanced to the point where the effects are finally doable, but still expensive. Films with stiffer requirements have been greenlighted. So why hasn't the Marathon movie been made?

: Except maybe putting the cart before the horse. Even if we were discussing a
: movie that stood a chance of being made, it would be insane to be talking
: about a shooting script and merchandising at this point.

The whole point of this discussion has been (for me, anyway) to find a better answer to the question 'When's the Marathon movie coming out?' than 'Never. 'Everyone' says it's impossible, so we should all just [bleeping] shut up.'.

If we couldn't talk about 'impossible' things, nobody would have ever brought fire into a cave. Discussion about a 'shooting script' was needed to show that there's nothing impossible wrt converting the game into a film. Yes, some subplots do have to be left out, but even after that's done there's still more than enough real ideas left to make a darned good movie. Especially with all that wild action (thanks, Shotgun Pete). The budget would be _huge_ today, but still possible for a major studio. Especially if the project had the backing of a major director/producer.

So why hasn't Hollywood made this movie? Is it because the payoff isn't big enough? Talking about tie-ins was just a way to expand the pool of money & raise the size of the payday for whoever makes this movie. All that did was make the problem worse.

BeerCan shows us the way out. The reason this movie hasn't been made isn't because there's no money in it, it's because the whole Hollywood system discourages wildcatting. If somebody ever made a similar movie, Hollywood would be scrambling to find a similar 'product' they could clone. Again & again until the market was sick of such stories. Then they would move on to something else.

The Marathon feature film probably will never be made. There's no incentive to perform the work required to set up a deal if you're just talking about an 8 year old computer game that only a handfull of people have ever heard of. Halo is another story. With over 1M copies sold, it's not too hard to find people who've heard of it, or even played it at a friend's house. Unfortunately, the same argument applies to Halo as it does to Marathon, but to a lesser degree. Is there any hope?

Not today, but perhaps tomorrow. Production costs of CGI are dropping following a rough approximation of Moore's Law. Every 1.5 to 3 years, the cost of a given SFX sequence should drop by about half as computers get cheaper & more common in the industry.

The answer to the question 'When's the Marathon movie coming out?' is 'We'll probably never see it as a major theatrical release, unless Halo comes out first, and this is still a pretty chancy thing. But when (not if) the production cost of a Marathon Movie (at a 2002 theatrical release quality level) ever drops below 1M$/hr of finished, edited tape, look out. At that pricepoint TNT, SciFi, or even UPN could easily fund a Marathon Movie without blinking an eye.'.

[snip]

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Marathon Movie (Not!):: Beer Can :: 4/12/02 3:18 a.m.
     Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Daši Sveinsson 4/12/02 11:20 a.m.
           Re: Marathon Movie (Not!):: Beer Can :: 4/12/02 11:24 a.m.
     Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Ares 4/12/02 1:11 p.m.
           Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)VoodooLabRat 4/12/02 2:44 p.m.
                 Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Tru7h 4/12/02 5:50 p.m.
                       Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Pedrof 4/12/02 6:19 p.m.
                             Re: Marathon Movie (Not!):: Beer Can :: 4/12/02 7:56 p.m.
                             Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)REB 4/12/02 10:30 p.m.
                                   Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Mannon 4/13/02 6:55 a.m.
                                         Good idea! (was "Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)")Brian Dubick 4/14/02 6:05 p.m.
                       Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)[Tycho?] 4/13/02 8:22 a.m.
                             Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Steve Levinson 4/13/02 7:23 p.m.
                                   Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)VoodooLabRat 4/13/02 10:35 p.m.
                       Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Toalmaster 5/30/02 7:30 p.m.
                             Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Tru7h 5/31/02 2:51 p.m.
                 speaking of fallout...Vid Boi 4/12/02 6:38 p.m.
                       Re: speaking of fallout...Tru7h 4/12/02 7:18 p.m.
                             Mmm Marathon movieVoodooLabRat 4/12/02 8:04 p.m.
                                   Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 4/12/02 10:53 p.m.
                                         Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/14/02 11:09 p.m.
                                               Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/15/02 11:11 a.m.
                                                     Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/15/02 11:21 a.m.
                                                           Re: Mmm Marathon movieM-Class 5/15/02 3:05 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/17/02 2:30 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Mmm Marathon movieM-Class 5/17/02 6:31 p.m.
                                                                             Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/17/02 7:14 p.m.
                                                                             Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/17/02 11:12 p.m.
                                                                                   Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/18/02 12:01 a.m.
                                                           Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/15/02 4:13 p.m.
                                                     Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/15/02 4:05 p.m.
                                                           Re: Mmm, bass....Yossarian 5/15/02 4:11 p.m.
                                                           Re: Mmm Marathon movieTru7h 5/15/02 4:23 p.m.
                                                           Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/17/02 3:21 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Mmm Marathon movieYossarian 5/17/02 4:09 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/17/02 7:29 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/17/02 11:21 p.m.
                                                                             Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/18/02 12:12 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/17/02 11:56 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/18/02 12:11 a.m.
                                                                             Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/18/02 12:24 p.m.
                                                                                   Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/18/02 2:10 p.m.
                                                                                         Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/18/02 2:28 p.m.
                                                                                               Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/18/02 7:35 p.m.
                                                                                                     Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/19/02 1:58 a.m.
                                                                                         Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/18/02 7:19 p.m.
                                                                                               Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/18/02 10:23 p.m.
                                                                                                     Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/19/02 2:02 a.m.
                                                                                               Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/19/02 1:53 a.m.
                                                                             Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/18/02 9:12 p.m.
                                                                                   Re: Mmm Marathon movieMark Levin 5/18/02 10:29 p.m.
                                                                                         Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/19/02 2:12 a.m.
                                                                                         Re: Mmm Marathon movieRick Blaine 5/20/02 5:13 p.m.
                                                                                               Re: Mmm Marathon movieCount Zero 5/20/02 6:44 p.m.
                                                                                               Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/20/02 6:51 p.m.
                                                                                   Re: Mmm Marathon movie:: Beer Can :: 5/19/02 2:00 a.m.
                                                                       Re: Mmm Marathon movieTru7h 5/18/02 5:19 a.m.
                             Re: speaking of fallout...Vid Boi 4/12/02 8:23 p.m.
                                   Re: speaking of fallout...VoodooLabRat 4/12/02 8:50 p.m.
                                         Re: speaking of fallout...Daši Sveinsson 4/12/02 10:48 p.m.
                                   Re: speaking of fallout...Tru7h 4/13/02 6:35 a.m.
                                         Re: speaking of fallout...Ernie 4/13/02 8:09 a.m.
                                               Re: speaking of fallout...Tru7h 4/13/02 10:30 a.m.
     Plot lines? whaddya think?Shotgun Pete 5/14/02 12:08 a.m.
           Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Mark Levin 5/14/02 2:23 a.m.
                 Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Jonah 5/14/02 7:33 a.m.
                       Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Boomer 5/14/02 9:04 a.m.
                             Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Will 5/16/02 7:04 p.m.
                       Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Pedrof 5/14/02 9:31 a.m.
                             Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Mark Levin 5/14/02 11:10 a.m.
                                   Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Yossarian 5/14/02 1:57 p.m.
                                         Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Steve Levinson 5/15/02 11:59 a.m.
                                               Re: yeah, but...Yossarian 5/15/02 1:58 p.m.
                                                     Re: yeah, but...Boomer 5/15/02 2:15 p.m.
                                                     Re: about the intricate plot.Shotgun Pete 5/15/02 3:30 p.m.
                             Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Jonah 5/14/02 2:29 p.m.
                                   Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Shotgun Pete 5/15/02 3:34 p.m.
                             Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Rick Blaine 5/14/02 11:33 p.m.
                                   Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Mark Levin 5/15/02 1:23 a.m.
                                         Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Rick Blaine 5/15/02 11:02 a.m.
                                               Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Mark Levin 5/15/02 11:23 a.m.
                                                     Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Rick Blaine 5/15/02 5:01 p.m.
                                                           Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Mark Levin 5/16/02 2:21 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Rick Blaine 5/16/02 10:48 a.m.
                                                                       Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Tru7h 5/16/02 3:03 p.m.
                                                                             Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Lunair 5/16/02 5:28 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Shotgun Pete 5/21/02 2:35 p.m.
                                               Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Shotgun Pete 5/21/02 2:32 p.m.
                 Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Rick Blaine 5/14/02 10:06 p.m.
           Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Rick Blaine 5/16/02 5:11 p.m.
                 Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Shotgun Pete 5/20/02 8:37 a.m.
                 Re: Plot lines? whaddya think?Shotgun Pete 5/21/02 2:45 p.m.
           Re: movie plotJohn Denton 5/23/02 4:49 p.m.
                 Re: movie plotShotgun Pete 5/23/02 10:04 p.m.
                       Re: movie plotJohn Denton 5/23/02 11:06 p.m.
     Re: Marathon Movie (Not!)Mike 6/14/02 12:44 p.m.
           I Hope You're Aware Of What You Have Done...REB 6/14/02 4:30 p.m.
                 Re: I Hope You're Aware Of What You Have Done...Vid Boi 6/14/02 5:16 p.m.
                       Re: I Hope You're Aware Of What You Have Done...Boomer 6/14/02 7:07 p.m.
                             Doorindel. Durondohl. Dirandul. *NM*Agent Cletus 6/15/02 7:10 a.m.
                                   Re: Doorindel. Durondohl. Dirandul.Djof 6/15/02 11:11 a.m.
                             TRU7TH and Reconciliation! *NM*Andrew Nagy 6/16/02 3:45 p.m.
                             Re: I Hope You're Aware Of What You Have Done...Jonah 6/17/02 2:52 a.m.
                                   Re: I Hope You're Aware Of What You Have Done...Boomer 6/17/02 7:07 a.m.
                                         Re: I Hope You're Aware Of What You Have Done...Boomer 6/17/02 11:35 a.m.



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