It was revealed more than a year ago that there were plans for a "Mass Effect" movie, after Legendary Pictures got the rights to BioWare's sci-fi epic. Of course, there's a big difference between getting the rights and actually making the thing. For all the "Tomb Raiders" and "Mortal Kombats," there have been plenty of "Halos" and "BioShocks" that never made it to the big screen...at least not yet. A "Mass Effect" movie is looking slightly more promising, though, as Legendary has revealed that they're bringing key team members to this year's Comic-Con.
Casey Hudson, the executive producer of the "Mass Effect" franchise at BioWare, and Mark Protosevich, the screenwriter of the film, will be hosting a panel at San Diego's Comic-Con, which kicks off on July 21. The focus will be on the movie's progress, which should be interesting given that no one has any concrete details about story or plot points at the moment. Will it follow the events of Commander Sheppard's battles against the Reavers, or will it examine a different part of the universe?
I think "Mass Effect 2" would probably make for the best movie fodder, if only because it has a definite "Dirty Dozen" in space vibe and is a tighter story than the original game, but they could just as easily bring it back to the beginning and focus on Saren, the rogue Spectre agent, with the intention of making it into a movie trilogy if the first is successful.
The real sticking point is the cost of such a film. Money brought down both the "Halo" movie and the "BioShock" movie, as each would easily require hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. Sci-fi movies with big special effects budgets are notoriously pricey, so it'll be interesting to see whether Legendary is willing to go whole-hog with this one.
We'll be reporting live from this year's Comic-Con, so you can be sure we'll have the very latest on the film.