Telex on 8/11/2009 at 19:10
This is looking great :D I wasn't sure if games like Thief could be translated well into film, but what you've posted has made me think that it could be done.
Out of curiosity, you do have to obtain permission from Eidos to use the rights to Thief right? I hope that doesn't become problematic, because I think you really could do this work justice :)
The Shroud on 8/11/2009 at 20:35
Quote Posted by Telex
Out of curiosity, you do have to obtain permission from Eidos to use the rights to Thief right?
Yes. My plan is to submit the script to Eidos and see if they'd be interested in co-producing it. If so, I'll urge them to hire Terri Brosius and Laura Baldwin as editors. No matter how good a job I might do on the script, I know they'd do a far superior one. Ideally, I'd like them to involve Dan Thron as art director and Mark Lizotte as lead concept artist. And if they could get Eric Brosius for the music and Stephen Russell for voice-acting, I'd be in heaven. A lot of it will be out of my hands, of course, but I can hope.
Telex on 9/11/2009 at 04:32
Quote Posted by The Shroud
Yes. My plan is to submit the script to Eidos and see if they'd be interested in co-producing it. If so, I'll urge them to hire Terri Brosius and Laura Baldwin as editors. No matter how good a job I might do on the script, I know they'd do a far superior one. Ideally, I'd like them to involve Dan Thron as art director and Mark Lizotte as lead concept artist. And if they could get Eric Brosius for the music and Stephen Russell for voice-acting, I'd be in heaven. A lot of it will be out of my hands, of course, but I can hope.
Sounds like you've got a good plan going forward then :) Yeah, if they could get Stephen Russell to do voice acting, that would be
awesome.
Beattie on 10/11/2009 at 13:25
Quote Posted by The Shroud
Stephen Russell for voice-acting, I'd be in heaven. A lot of it will be out of my hands, of course, but I can hope.
voice acting? how does that work, unless this is an animation like the cutscenes you really cant dub over another actors performance. i would really prefer a live action film tho.
on the topic of arrows: i did think a lot about this but there is a lot of mystery lost when you change magical arrows or wateva u want to call them to scientific things which are explained in detail. i cant see a glowing water arrow peering through the darkness when its not unexplained. remember to keep the mystery in it as its a major part of thief. if you keep the elemental arrows as mysterious glowing crystals i think the movie will be much better. theres no need to be meticulous about things that should remain unexplained.
Herr_Garrett on 10/11/2009 at 17:46
Quote Posted by Beattie
on the topic of arrows: i did think a lot about this but there is a lot of mystery lost when you change magical arrows or wateva u want to call them to scientific things which are explained in detail. i cant see a glowing water arrow peering through the darkness when its not unexplained. remember to keep the mystery in it as its a major part of thief. if you keep the elemental arrows as mysterious glowing crystals i think the movie will be much better. theres no need to be meticulous about things that should remain unexplained.
Obviously you have only played DS. No arrows glow in DP and MA (apart from the fire arrow, which does due to its substance).
The Shroud on 10/11/2009 at 19:38
Quote Posted by Beattie
voice acting? how does that work, unless this is an animation like the cutscenes you really cant dub over another actors performance.
You can. It has been done in films before, and it would be easier for a movie like this one. For one thing, Garrett has relatively little dialogue. Most of the dialogue he does have is actually in his voice-overs, rather than in face to face conversations. And even when he is speaking to other characters (Cutty, Viktoria, Constantine, a few Hammerites, and a couple Keepers), he's very often being seen from the back or side, wearing his hood, sometimes completely silhouetted.
Quote Posted by Beattie
on the topic of arrows: i did think a lot about this but there is a lot of mystery lost when you change magical arrows or wateva u want to call them to scientific things which are explained in detail.
As stated before, the arrows' functions are
not actually explained in detail in the script. There is enough shown to give the audience a hint of how they work, while still leaving the fine details to the imagination. For comparison, think of how the mechanical eye is shown in the cutscene following "Ambush!" in TMA. Some things are revealed - others are left obscure.
Quote Posted by Beattie
i cant see a glowing water arrow peering through the darkness when its not unexplained.
Garrett probably wouldn't want a water-arrow that glows in the dark, for obvious reasons.
Quote Posted by Beattie
remember to keep the mystery in it as its a major part of thief. if you keep the elemental arrows as mysterious glowing crystals i think the movie will be much better. theres no need to be meticulous about things that should remain unexplained.
I listed 10 reasons why I'm not portraying the arrows as using elemental crystals. Some things can and should be left mysterious - others can't and shouldn't. The audience is going to be wondering, "Where did he get these magic crystals?", "What happens to the arrow-shafts when the crystals break - they just vanish?", and other sorts of questions that would lead to criticisms of the story.
The reason we don't tend to bother with these concerns ourselves is because Thief is a
game - and ultimately we don't care that much as long as we have fun. But a movie is subject to more rigorous examination by the audience. It's a careful balance - too much information and it becomes tedious; too little and it becomes absurd.
Beattie on 10/11/2009 at 23:26
Quote Posted by Herr_Garrett
Obviously you have only played DS. No arrows glow in DP and MA (apart from the fire arrow, which does due to its substance).
personally i think the visuals from TDS should be similar to the film but the gameplay or action should be more like TMA TDP. TDS really captured a great feel to it and the glowing magical arrows was a part of that imo. im not saying have the arrow glow like a fkn glowstick but like it does in the TDS intro movie. which myb would still be viable even if the arrow was explained a bit.
The Shroud on 10/11/2009 at 23:41
The water-crystal in the TDS intro doesn't really glow - although it does catch the light. Bear in mind that I included a reference to that very intro when first describing the water-arrow in the script, so the props designers would make it look the same.
Beattie on 11/11/2009 at 00:04
fair enough sounds good, as long as its not a glass tube with fizzy water in it :thumb:
make sure you cut back to what the keepers are doing every now and then so we can have their quotes like in the game.
The Shroud on 11/11/2009 at 00:51
Quote Posted by Beattie
fair enough sounds good, as long as its not a glass tube with fizzy water in it :thumb:
Nope - it would look basically the same as the water-arrow shown in the TDS intro (perhaps with a slightly smaller crystal - a little closer in size to a fire-arrow's arrowhead), except with a sharp point faintly visible amidst the murky solution contained within.
Quote Posted by Beattie
make sure you cut back to what the keepers are doing every now and then so we can have their quotes like in the game.
This happens once in the script - just after Garrett teams up with the Hammerites toward the end. I converted the Keeper quote from the final mission's intro into a very brief dialogue between the three leading Keepers. As for the other Keeper quotes (the ones not already shown thus far), they appear in a montage of voice-overs when Garrett is perusing the abandoned Keeper library in the Olde Quarter.
