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I think it should be about a normal, regular guy (or girl - that would be cool) from a little village who gets caught up in a conflict (maybe between the Coalition and Tolkeen) and rises to the occasion by picking up a class, maybe Glitter Boy for the mega-WOW!!! whammy of it, but could be a Juicer for the tragedy of it. That way, the protagonist can explore the world with those in the audience who don't know much about Rifts, which is important for the first movie and would be a great introduction to any sequels. Once the first movie explains most of the setting, the sequels can get on to exploring more of its depth.

Erin Tarn should be the narrorator, hands down.

A TV series should have main characters as defined by show but all be players of a bigger story.

A movie should mainly be about Dunscon and Prosek.

In my honest opinion think about it Rifts came into being with multiple things that happened all over the world at precise moments in time all in sync .. Let the comming of the rifts itself be the Very star of the movie first an formost like the storm in day after tomarrow .. only instead of rescueing peeps after its burned out simply bring on the various demons show for instance HOW splynncryth took over atlantis hell show how atlantis came back lol how sweet would that be not to mention the complete reshaping of the entire world new coastlines all across the world the huge rift that bonded with the St. Louis Gate ? Show the comming of the /xitixic beings .. this would open a whole new side story lol just my two Cp's .
-Lenwen.

Omhwtfbbq i love you so much for that. but better, christopher walken as emporer prosek

Does the star matter? I think not I just want to see the mix. There has been future movie base on magic, or psionic, or great technology, but there has never been a movie that mixes them all. Not like the game does. No matter who is the star it will be something to see. That for sure.

Christopher Walken ALWAYS matters...

I think the star should never be seen. Erin Tarn

Walken for Prosek

Opening scene of the movie...

The HUD displays its target. The silvery arm of a robot reaches back. A slow motion scene plays out as pylons spike into the ground, and retro jets fire. The Glitter Boy levels his cannon at the enemy, and with a thunderous blast the "BOOM!" echoes throughout the movie theatre. There is no doubt the star of the movie should be the Glitter Boy.

...with a Crazy for comic relief.

Hmmm I think the Hero should be a CS Soldier, left for dead on his or her first mission, rescued by a DBee/Cyber Knight/Glitterboy Pilot/etc...

trying to reach Chi-town...

Reminds me of one of the 1st short stories in the Rifter...

Well, let's see here. Character wise: Definantly our Favorite woman of all Rift time, Erin Tarn (played by the actress that played the elemental woman in Chronicles of Riddick). Or for a male: Victor Lazlo played by Tom Hanks.

Signed,
Rathorc Lemenger.

Main Character OCC:
Human (so the audience can relate) Vagabond who is caught up in the intensity of the environment. Wanderer who lives life one second at a time, as the threats about them are so INSANE that even witnessing them slowly drives them insane.

The key factor here imo is FEAR. We should FEEL for this vagabond and follow their path until eventually their mind snaps: then, 'IT' breaks free from their consciousness to take command. 'IT' alters our Vagabond into a being of immense power that unleashes vengence upon the world. Retribution for the atrocities witnessed.

Juicers are over-rated, you need a Crazy like Delwin Moonbeam from the novels, and still only as a secondary. But, i do like the idea of a Cyber-knight, or Glitterboy. True Atlantean T-man could be interesting... Definitly at least need to have a cameo of all 4 heh...

I would actually make the various events leading up to the actual tearing of the space/time continuem happen in the first several minutes of the movie an then show the actual rifts Flaring from one of the orbiting space stations an then show it as it is just as the world book 1 begins . The Slow rise of humans out of the darkness an then Show CS Chi Town , as a backdrop with some words.. couple hundred years later ... some dramatic way/fashion to show that magic an psionic's are now very much REAL in this world with out givin to much away . Perhaps like a CS squad fighting a tolkeen grp (remember this is before the Siege on Tolkeen) I wouldent show the stars of the show untill like a solid 15 to 20 minutes into the show . I personally would make the Splugorthian Slavers the first arch enemy simply because when you think of rifts .. the VERY first thing you ever seen from thier books was exactly that . A Splugorthian Slaver . I would also make the Lead Good guy either a Rogue Scholar OR a Rogue Scientist . Juicer should definatly be a supporting Class as well as a Line Walker introduced later , and heh well lets just say I have a whole slew of idea's about the rifts movie . I just hope that this is an actually something that comes to fruition .

-Lenwen.

There are too many great characters in rifts to pick just one!

I say go for an adventuring group that represents some of the best. Like this sort of thing...

Opening scene...

An attractive woman wearing dirty travellers clothes and a communications headband is anxiously and frantically hiding behind rocks/bushes etc in a wilderness type setting. In the back ground you hear a very subltle whooshing/whirring type sound. All of a sudden a big floating eyelor eye appears and stops, just above where the woman is hiding, it looks back and forth, then rushes back out of sight.

Then the slave barge enters the scene, complete with it's complement of warrior women, and stops.

Suddenly another eye of eyelor rushes past and catches sight of the woman hiding, and of course the barge springs into action!

The woman runs toward it, dodging magic and lasers blasts, and says into the the com-band "Now."

Just as she gets to the barge she metamorphs into a large fire dragon hatchling, takes a couple of direct laser blasts/tentacle strikes and attacks, one claw swipe sending an altara woman flying!

We switch to a scene of a full conversion borg complete with arm mounted mini-gun etc. running full speed through the woods/terrain, ignoring and smashing through whatever is in his way! He gets to the scene and comes to a stop from a 50mph run, tearing up terrain etc. and opens fire on the sploogie big time!!

Add 1 or 2 more characters into the scene, a magic user, and some kind of techie like a robot pilot ( show inside cockpit to differentiate from the cyborg) and you should have a good idea of what rifts is all about!

The coalition characters come in later in the movie, and of course interact with this first group to create the storyline.

Oh for the love of MDC, NO! She has got to have the weakest ME ever. I hate the opening of the Coalition War Campaign book where she's actually whining about the Coalition's planned war!

Nice idea btw, jackycale. I'm rather of inclined towards the movie being centered around a small group of mercenaries: An elven LLW support caster, a Juicer front-liner, a borg support-combatant, a body fixer (= comic relief, "HOW DO I FIX THAT!?" ), a burster, a wilderness scout (= more comic relief, has a drinking problem and is caught spying/scouting frequently ), and an actual mercenary soldier in command.

Erin Tarn does seem a bit cliche' as a lead role. I would prefer to see her subtly referenced by the lead role finding a copy of Traversing Our Modern World and perhaps earning the enmity of the Coalition upon its discovery in his or her possession.

Personally I think it would be great to see Anthony Hopkins in the role of a fallen cyber-knight who has managed to secure a small feudal kingdom in North America. Alignment? Aberrant. Master psionic. It would be great to have him narrating stories from his past which draw from various world books that play into his current situation.

I think it would go against the spirit of creativity and progressive thinking in this game to rehash a story about an established NPC as the backdrop for the course of the movie. It would be ideal for the writers and producers to examine their options in selecting actors before committing anything to script; fishing around for sub-par acting to fill in rigid roles of a story we've all read before would be a disservice to Palladium's fan base.

Naturally, you'd want to keep the villains. The Coalition States seems like an obvious choice, but I would even like to see Splynncryth make an appearance.

Also, whoever suggested Christopher Walken for Prosek is a genius.

I like the ideal. A nice diverse group of people, and any charactors they do have should stick to the main book just to keep things simple.

If you want to follow the standard fantasy formula, you need someone that knows very little of the outside world, so that the characters can explain to him (and through him, the audience) what is going on, who's who, ect. That's basically what they did with Luke Skywalker, and pretty much every successful fantasy/sci-fi. I suggest a city rat type of character. most of his or her skills would be easily decyphered by people now a days and he'd need things like magic and what not explained to him

Ya. That person, a mind melder or something along those lines, and the group above. That would make 6, and maybe a techno wizerd, for 7.

I still maintain that Rifts will not work very well as a single film. Too much backstory to be delivered correctly and still maintain a good flow. Even as a trilogy, Rifts is more diverse and character dense than LotR, and even as a classic of fantasy literature LotR took forever to get made correctly and budgeted right. Simply put: It's too damn big!

Now as a regular television series, Rifts has far more hope. The introduction of material can be metered, with recurring characters and story arcs that link whoever becomes the "main character" throughout the gaming world and eventually offworld and out of the dimension (if need be). In this concept, you can even take the direction that Heroes is heading in: series regulars that may indeed be killed in just about any episode, recurring guests (good and bad) that can act as both story protagonists/antagonists and sages, and the "library" of information that a viewership would need to appreciate a feature film a few seasons in.

The best analogy I can make is Star Trek: TNG. That product would never have worked with a single film start. Too many characters, too many new aliens, too much new technology, and to say nothing of backstory, even with just what connected TNG to the older series.

Now after 5 seasons of the show (or whatever it was) the audience was ready for a bigscreen adaptation, and as a result, the films (with the exception of Nemesis, I think) were fairly well received.

Similarly, if Rifts is first presented as a regular serial (TV show), then all of the backstory and characterization can be established early, and so when the product moves to the big screen (which I think it eventually should, don't get me wrong here) the audience has a lot more to work with, and perhaps characters that are developed enough to be delivered in a fluid and familiar way.

In the event it was played out more sensibly, with this type of a time frame and story evolution, then the main character could be anyone, but definitely a lesser powered being (A rogue scholoar is an obvious choice, but better still (IMHO) either an extradimensional human or very humanoid D-Bee, or someone time shifted in from our own time (Victor Lazlo, maybe?) traveling with a group of adventurers as they make their way through Rifts Earth, in search of wealth, glory, freedom, or simple survival or any combination thereof.

I especially like the idea of throwing in the group from Machinations of Doom as the companions of the main character, since they were so well put together in the first place (Kudos to Ramon Perez). Maybe an eventual guest shot of Caleb Vulcan from the Hammer of the Forge serial in the Rifter.

Oh, and while we're at it, set it about 3-4 years after the Seige on Tolkien storyline, so we can get "canon" out of the way and finally let the story of the world evolve a little more naturally [sorry KS, SoT just always felt a little "Forced" to me for a fluid gaming world, no offense...]

Scene openings could take place with a running narrative from a handheld digital copy of Erin Tarn's Guide to Planet Earth, explaining to the character (and the audience) what each new place is and what importance it has to the storyline. Then situations that arise and responses from the main characters have a context in which they can "live and breathe", as it were...

Ok, you may now burn me down with your fiery breath for my insolence.

Rolling! Sound is Up! Background! Action!

Daikuma
Filmmaker, Screenwriter, & Reluctant Actor
In the Shadow of the Writer's Strike
Los Angeles, CA




P.S.> Because Windrider asked so nicely...



From Wikipedia:

Pancakes are a type of flatbread prepared from a sweet batter that is cooked on a hot griddle or in a frying pan. They exist in several variations in many different local cuisines. Most pancakes are quick breads, although some are also made using a yeast-raised or fermented batter.

American or Canadian pancakes contain a raising agent, usually baking powder, and contains different proportions of eggs, flour, and milk or buttermilk, which create a thick batter. Cinnamon and sugar can be added. This batter is either ladled or poured onto a hot surface, and spreads to form a circle about ¼ or ⅓ inch (1 cm) thick. The raising agent causes bubbles to rise to the uncooked side of the pancake, at which point the pancake is ready to be flipped. These pancakes, very light in texture, are often served at breakfast topped with maple syrup, butter, peanut butter, jelly, jam, or fruit. In England pancakes are usually made differently, and those made as described here are called American pancakes.

North American pancakes can be made sweet or savory by adding ingredients such as blueberries, strawberries, cheese, bacon, bananas or chocolate chips to the batter. In addition, some recipes call for the addition of spices such as nutmeg or cinnamon, or flavoring agents such as vanilla extract. In the U.S. pancakes are also called hotcakes, griddlecakes, or flapjacks. A "silver dollar" pancake refers to a pancake about 3 inches (7 cm) in diameter - these are usually served in portions of five or ten.

Respectfully, I disagree. I'd rather see a movie trilogy.



Yes, because great science fiction/fantasy series are always exceedingly popular, and never get cancelled prematurely. Especially the ones with extraordinary settings and terminology with which the audience is unfamiliar. Without taking the time here to count up which shows were "hits" and which were "misses," I would definately say that half of (probably less) scifi/fantasy TV shows which get made are good.



Heroes is a great TV show, but most of the main characters in Heroes aren't really 'together.' They don't live in the same areas and they hardly know eachother. Their stories intwine every so often, but it would be a stretch to even consider them friends. I'd rather see a Rifts TV show that looks more like Firefly. Lastly, Heores and Rifts are pretty much on opposite ends of the scifi/fantasy scale, with Rifts being extremely fantastic and Heores being more moderately so.



All the more reason for a movie as opposed to a TV show. Plus, there's no amount of backstory that can't be eliminated by a sufficiently breif and dramatic monologue or montage. Star Wars wasn't too big to be made as a movie trilogy. Neither was LotR. Plus, I don't think "budgeted right" would be a problem with a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

In other words, I expect a Rifts film trilogy to be nothing less than Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribbean, Star Wars, Spiderman, and the Matrix all combined. Anything less is a failure.

I never said that TV shows don't get cancelled regardless of their popularity. I said it has more hope to succeed because there is more time to inform the audience of the "way of the world" then is provided in one of those cheesy voiceovers they add to films to make up for being poorly made film.


Umm...actually Rifts and Heroes have way more similarities than differences. You have super powered characters in both works, most of whom do NOT know each other (they've repeatedly said on this very board that player characters are supposed to be RARE, not run of the mill as many players have interpreted the world to be) but come together as the storyline builds.

I think that Firefly is an excellent example of the direction a Rifts TV show would go (hell, Firefly is mostly Rifts: New West combined with Mutants in Orbit and a dash of Aliens Unlimited for flavor), but it also proves my point: Serenity only got made because the fan base for Firefly were so die hard about seeing it go further (it had awesome fan response as a show, and only got cancelled because the folks at Fox had no idea what to do with it - trust me when I tell you that the marketing folks in my industry by and large got their jobs through nepotism, not training).

And actually, Serenity failed, not because it wasn't a good film, but because there was just not enough of a pre-established fan base to make up for the poor marketing. Rifts fan bas is TINY on the big time scale of media - it needs to be in folks ears before it is released as a film, or it will flop. Too much, Too Fast, for your average movie viewer.



Actually, it is that MELOdramatic monologue that tends to choke a film's momentum. There is way too much material in Rifts to do it that way. We're not just talking about a film covering North America (frankly the CS vs. everyone storyline is stale by itself, I don't think any Rifts group i have ever played with actually plays North America with the exception of New West - we don't play in Nazi America, thanks) we're talking (or at least should be) about film or films that covers Rifts across the planet, because it is such an expansive amount of content, that to ignore it is to make a film that will let down a good portion of the fans. To do that you need story development, and two hours cannot do that well without some sort of preamble on a scale such as this fictional product.

Understand the amount of material we are talking about here. More writing exists covering Rifts storyline and background than covers all of Star Wars, all of Firefly, all of Mad Max, etc. etc. The amount of info on Rifts Earth is as encompasing as an abridged version of the Encyclopedia Britanica.

Look at films that tried to encompass so much in so little time (and failed): Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - colorful and pretty much lacking 90% of the storyline or interesting background; Most films by Marvel (did you know that one of the characters killed in the third X-Men movie was supposed to be Psylocke?? A major character through most of the 80's storylines and she is eliminated as an afterthought, running next to Archlight and Quill - two characters with next to no coverage in the comics), and what the heck was that attempt at the Hulk?

If you try too hard to shoehorn too much story into to small a time frame, you then have Hollywood re-writing your material, and the people out here are by and large wage slave writers who often do NOT understand the material, or have their own take on it that is not very inspired.

As far as budgeting, JB can get boatloads of dough for whatever he wants to work on, but the material has to be there to warrant it (remember, this is also the guy who did Kangaroo Jack - everybody gets a lemon and nobody wants more than one). None of his films are "Dramatic Monologue" fare, but are in fact action flying at your face from the word go. Storyline is explained en route, and as such needs to maintain a fast pace and usually explodes with revelation as it progresses.

Now, have him take the option and develop it as television: PERFECTO! He's responsible for Without a Trace, Cold Case, and all the CSIs for Pete's sake! He knows how to make successful dramatic television with powerful storylines and great production values. If anyone could take this as, let's say, a three season starter package, and then move it to the big screen successfully, he can, and the material would be an all around win, vs. the very high risk of a relatively unknown product like Rifts, especially after such big wins like the Pirates films. Hollywood doesn't take risks, it makes investments.

Oh, and Star Wars (in the vein of the original series) would never get made or if it did go nowhere in today's film market. It was so well received because it was groundbreaking, and the second trilogy only got made because such groundbreaking material stays in our collective consciousness and because Lucas would have put up his own dough (and did) even if Fox didn't want to do it. Look how poorly the second trilogy has been received if you need proof of that.



What you expect, in trying to do as well or outdo the films combined, as you mentioned above, is a RECIPIE for failure if done as a single film or even film trilogy without something to establish it in the viewers mind beforehand. You know Rifts intimately, as does everyone on this board. Most people who buy (overpriced) movie tickets have no IDEA WHAT WE"RE TALKING ABOUT, and they will relegate the product to "Dragon Wars" status in a heartbeat unless you give them a reason not to.

The way to ensure failure in film is to make a product that you know will be perfect for a tiny portion of the population and confusing to everyone else, especially when it is the money of "everyone else" that you count on to judge success or failure of the product.

I think we're both wrong. The debate we're having seems to be about whether a TV show or a movie would be a better way to introduce an audience to the immensity of Rifts Earth. However, the best way to explain a world as complex and diverse as Rifts is to write 70 books about it. Movies and TV shows shouldn't be centered around settings. They should be centered around characters.

If you have real characters (even if they're cyborgs or crazies) and an interesting plot, then you don't need to explain every little detail to an audience. How much time did LotR spend explaining to its audience all of Tolkien's complex mythology and history behind Middle Earth? It really didn't. There was enough backstory about Sauron and the Ring for us to know what was going on, but the movies were about the characters and their stories.

You're right to say that a TV show has more time to explore all the details, to visit every continent on Rifts Earth, and to teach the characters (and through them, the audience) how all the magic and technology of the Rifts world works. 50 episodes of a TV show would have a MUCH longer runtime than a movie trilogy. However, what I'm saying is that we don't need to know everything's name and why it's called that and where it came from and how it works. If the Rifts movie (or TV show) exists solely for the purpose of introducing the audience to the world of Rifts, it would just be a documentary. Better yet, why not just put a camera in KS' office and have him read RUE to us? I'm just kidding, of course.

My point is this: a good story (movie or TV show) should be about characters, first and foremost. The setting is not nearly as important. An entire 2-hour-long movie could take place entirely in one single room and still be a good movie. I'll use the same example you did, the quality of the Star Wars prequals. We got to see all the cool buildings of Coruscant and walk around in the Jedi Temple and we saw the Senate chamber and travelled to interestsing places like Mustafar and Felucia, but I'll take the Original Trilogy (which showed us less of the diversity and immensity of the Star Wars galaxy) any day.

Ok on this I am in complete agreement with you. Most every good piece of AV media should be Character-centric and situationally motivated (man vs. challenge of some sort).



I also agree here, although one of the main complaints I have heard about LotR is that the short haul intro given in those films was not enough to satisfy the average (read: non-Tolkien reading) viewer. The phrase "Muddle Earth" has met my ears more than once, because a lot of my non sci-fi friends say "I liked it, but it took me while to figure out what was going on" (admittedly, not the sharpest tools in the shed, but the avg. person is who buys the most tix in our world, so...)

The other thing that concerns me here, is that JB's films usually have little to no backstory elements, except for what is revealed in the (extremely fast paced) course of the storyline. I think part of what I am afraid of is that to reveal it at that pace people will miss it and leave the theatre with a "Huh?" rather than a "wow", the opposite, and equally confusing end of that spectrum, of course, is Matrix: Reloaded, which made people want to hit themselves in the head with a shovel just to dislodge the blather spewed out by The Architect.



And I'm not saying that either. It isn't the aspect of introducing the books to the world, but the basic premise of a good action / sci-fi film covers the Who / What / When / Where / Why (and especially) "How" of the story.

Weak films in action / sci-fi have a really bad habit of "We may never know" syndrome, and if you aren't M. Night Shyamalan, that never works very well. I'd say a action content that rivals LotR with a backstory revelation that progresses like the FIRST Matrix film (the other two were just too confusing for most people) is ideal, but will be a trick to pull off.



Watch Two Girls and a Guy with Robert Downy Jr.: One Room, Two Girls, One Guy, RDJr at his acting finest (not sci-fi, but a good !@#$%^ film nonetheless).



I did compare those two it's true, but that isn't the comparison I meant, exactly. The prequals are a prefect example of what can happen when too much backstory is revealed too fast, but that is all you are focused on. There was no character development (really) to speak of in the prequels.

We all knew Anakin becomes Darth Vader (no surprise there) but we never got to like the character before he already was not very interesting (Jake Lloyd was Ok, but not "Gee that's a cool little kid") enough for the audience to feel all that bad when they fail to show any progression of him from the first to the second films.

Then they hop right to Hayden Christensen, and already you know you are not gonna care that he becomes Darth Vader because "Teen Angst Too" is more whining than most can handle.

The backstory delivery on Palpatine was far more interesting, and yet nowhere do we ever learn really anything about where he comes from. The same "I'm gonna be mysterious so you want to more about me" that Lucas tries turns into "I'm a geeky wallflower who you don't care about" because he has hidden too much.

And Obi-Wan could not have been more boring (hats off to Ewan for the performance, he did the best he could with what he was handed...)

The first trilogy was far better, again mostly, because the American viewing audience had never seen something so masterfully assmbled in a technical sense. The "old broken down" version of Sci-Fi had NEVER been seen before, and because super post modern was rendered "old hat" for the characters, it took the setting out of the forefront and let the characters shine. Films since that time that have tried it (Ice Pirates, Screamers) have not done so well (with an exception of Blade Runner, and even that bombed at the box office, but has found cult classic status over time).

I will make a caveat, however: if the setting of the film (films?) can be kept moving and still tell the backstory, then I may be proven wrong yet. I also hope that JB can acheive what he did with the PotC series (2:23, 2:30, and 2:48, Run times, respectively) and deliver good Long and Full films, with solid extended DVD editions (for those of us who like our Epic scale films to have real Epic length movies connected to them), then I will be impressed. Moreso if the development of the films leads to development of a series that takes the Rifts Megaverse and runs with it.

It has too many stories not to try and tell them all (sooner or later).

Hmm

Ever since I posted that opening sceene that I imagined I've been having so many idea for the rifts movie. Am almost daring to consider writing a script!

It is certainly one of the biggest and most important aspects of the movie to get the audience to understand the story of rifts earth. So that they have some kind of idea of what's going on when say, a mutant dog is fighting some orc-like d-bee(" I thought the coalition was AGAINST everything that was non-human..???"). The challenge is to keep the movie as true as possible to the rifts universe, namely, that ANYTHING is possible, without confusing the viewer.

It almost demands some sort of narration, which of course would be the perfect role for erin tarn.

I had something in mind like this:

Imagine that if my previous post was used for the opening scene (scroll down, it's a fight between a sploog slaver and a varied adventuring group.), at the end of the fight it would fade out or some such thing, then some music would start and Erin Tarn would start to do her narrative on the story of rifts earth, accompanied by visual images.

She would start at the golden age of man " Technology grew in leaps and bounds etc., etc. ( show images of M.o.M implant guy lifting objects with his mind, a juicer picking up a small car, a girl with a bionic arm, a mutant dog in a giant vat etc..), " weapons were developed that gave a single human being the power of 100 normal men ( show some researchers testing a laser pistol on an "old" M1A1 tank, splitting it clean in two, and an image of a glitter boy on a test range completely obliterating some kind of super hard targets like steel/concrete bunkers, then shifting firing position to shoot an aircraft out of the sky, make sure there is n object in the picture like a car or person so that you can see that the glitter boy is only 11 feet tall etc.)
Then have her progress into briefly explaining the distrust that grew between nations until the cataclysm happens. " Millions of lives snuffed out in an instant, each death releasing it's life force to reactivate old channels of mystic energy, long dormant... " ( show the rifts spinging to life and crisscrossing the globe...) " Portals opened to a thousand different dimensions allowing aliens of technology "( show some kind of highly advanced alien race(s) pouring from a rift(s))
" Creatures and gods of myth, long dismissed as fantasy, suddenly reappeared to feed on the now abundant magical energy, or on humans themselves" ( show dragons, vampires, some kind of mythological god that non-rifts people would recognise, like zues and his lightning bolts, or maybe the whole roman pantheon stepping through a rift!)
" Not all of these alien beings were evil, some pleged thier knowledge and power to helping humanity through this time of crisis, and humans themselves were once again able to learn and practice the long forgotten arts known as magic" (show some scenes of benevolent looking d-bees/supernatural creatures healing of working alongside humans/teaching them magic..)

" Some humans pledged themselves to dark forces, greedy for power and knowledge..." ( scene of a shifter summoning a huge Baal-rog demon etc.)

" Others, by way of their fear and distrust of the power of magic and anything not created by man... ( show sweeping scenes of Chi-town, masses of coalition troops, vehicles, robots, power armour in parade formation..) branded all things magical and alien as evil, and pledged to destroy them all, claiming that they would be the saviors of mankind. Using human psychics, and mutant creations, they sniff out and destroy all forms of magic and the supernatural, whether good or evil..." ( Show a small team of dog boys, lead by a psi stalker in armour, breaking through the door of a small wooden hovel, a small, innocent looking family of mystics (or perhaps d-bees) huddled in the corner in fear)

" Many humans trust in the security provided by this coalition, and are kept illiterate and uneducated so as to not realize the atrocities being committed in their name, others truly believe in the mission to eradicate all that is magical and non-human, regardless of the fact that it is now a part of life on earth as much as the air we breathe.. : ( camera goes back to coalition parade and focuses on a platoon sized group being lead by a lieutenant type character in full body amour, the lieutenant pauses and removes his helmet, camera focuses on the man/womans face. This will be the coalition character who will interact with the adventuring group from earlier, having his loyalties and his morals tested as part of the plot. Perhaps he would be the main character, with the adventuring group playing the co-starring roles, that way the audience would have a normal human that they could relate to. )

" It has been 300 years since the rifts first erupted, and humankind is just beginning to claw itself up out of the ashes. Contact with all space colonies has been cut off, and some mysterious force prevents spacecraft from breaching the atmosphere, satellite communication is impossible. Huge areas of land remain untamed wildernesses, during full moons and eclipses, or other times of peak energy, rifts still flare where the lines of mystic energy cross, opening gateways across space, dimension, and even time itself"

" Some humans have learned to tap these mystic gateways and lines of energy, using them as a means of communication, transportation, and tapping their energy to power entire communities! Still others use thier ability to open these gateways to make pacts with dark forces, allowing yet more supernatural evils to extend their tendrils of influence into our shattered world. Some survive through the use of high technology, powerful weapons, robot vehicles and bionics salvaged from the rubble and being manufactured in ever greater numbers..."

All accompanied by visuals, of course.

Something like that, accompanied with an introduction by tarn (..." I have chosen to travel and chronicle rapidly changing world etc etc." should help the non-rifts folks get up to speed, and might be a good setup for a scene later in the movie where our coalition protagonist gets caught with a copy of tarns " traversing our modern world", which could be the catalyst for his desertion from the coalition.

I agree that you shouldn't have to explain every little detail, as long as the characters and storyline are good, but there are a few things that I think audiences should be aware of when it comes to rifts earth.

Thoughtful1 wrote:

I totally agree. However, the difference between that and Rifts is that in LotR they were adapting a story and leaving parts and backstories out, which led to some people being confused. The difference is that Rifts isn't a novel, so even though they are both complex worlds the things being left out of the Rifts movie won't be necessary for the audience to understand what's happening or why the characters are acting the way they are.



Yes, I broke two shovels after seeing that movie.



I'm not so sure the "how" is the "especially." Granted, a good episode of Star Trek TNG was 40 min. of Data and Jordi explaining to Picard exactly what's happening and how. But I just the other day listened to Joss Whedon's audio commentary on Serenity and he said something to the extent that "the audience really wants you to give them just enough of an explaination." I think he was referring to where they discharge about 5-6 beer-keg-looking devices to throw off the Operative while they made an escape. He meant it in a slightly different way, but I think I agree with his line of thinking that you don’t always need a Trekkie-proof technobabble explanation for everything. Explain the “how” enough for the audience to not be completely lost but don’t let the story get bogged down because Data has to explain that he had to reverse the polarity of the blahblah array with the whatchamadinger.



True, but I once again worship at the altar of Whedon: It wasn’t until the beginning of Serenity that it was actually explained to us what happened to “Earth-that-was” or where exactly the show was set (or, for that matter, that it was all in one solar system as opposed to the whole galaxy or something). We didn’t need to know all of that because the story wasn’t about that. It was about Serenity and her crew. In other words, all I’m saying is that I understand how complicated Rifts is, and I think it can be made into a great movie without explaining hardly anything about the history or the details of the governments and societies our characters find themselves in. It doesn’t take much at all, just the briefest of explanations, to convince an audience to suspend their disbelief and accept that this is the way things are in this movie. And, the better the action and characters, the less turned off the audience will be even if they have questions that never get answered.



That’s why I think you’ll be disappointed. There’s no way you’re going to get a Rifts movie (or even TV episode) for every book Palladium has written. And even if they were to do that, each one would barely scratch the surface of the setting. You can’t try to incorporate too much of Rifts into a Rifts movie or TV show because there is just way too much, and you’ll only end up making a movie about a setting rather than a telling a story. That’s why I say forget about trying to explain a lot of the setting and backstory and just kind of jump right in, explaining to the audience only what’s absolutely necessary, and even then in the most brief and entertaining way possible. I don’t want the Rifts movie (or TV show) to try to show me the whole Rifts world because it will either 1)bring up too many questions it doesn’t have time to answer, or 2)answer all of the questions but sacrifice story and character development to do it.

Keep it simple, action-packed, and interesting.

To a degree I can go with that (although I was referring to those who had not read the books in my original statement). We don't need to know all of the motivators involved, but there has to be an aspect of that so the audience understands that there is an emotional undertone to the character's actions, and in Rifts Earth, some of those hatreds are older than "they killed my whole family" or some such generic answer.



I don't know about a "good" episode being 40 minutes of that, seeing as they are only about 43 minutes long after commercials are taken out. Also, it's not the technical answer I'm thinking of, so much as a societal one: how did we fall so far from such a height, even with a war and a new dark age?

I do think at some point they need to actively describe certain things, but as well timed dialogue (as we saw in PotC, with the characters of Gibbs and Tia Dalma) during the course of the movie.

In fact, as opposed to the "History Lesson Sleeper Crawl" as jackylcale described above (sorry jackylcale, but I was going out for popcorn and maybe to theatre hop on your third paragraph - tooooooo long for one sitting) they could work with that talking datapad idea I'd mentioned a few posts back, even make it an interactive copy that a lead character (or perhaps a comic relief character - that out of time personality that keeps showing it's head in the posts: Arthur Dent meets Rifts and someone gives him the interactive copy of the Erin Tarn Guide to Rifts Earth) is listening to and whatever he is learning about is punctuated with an explosion or the like.

[feel like I'm giving away the farm here for ideas - I gotta submit a sceenplay to JB's people, see if I can't hop on board - Hey, if you're reading this JB, I'm available for anything on this!!! I know the material and can work on it right now even, seeing as I'm (cough cough <nonunion> ]



Didn't say that, Didn't imply it. Don't care how the Glitterboy does what it does or why magic works the way it does, only how such things came to be. It can be delivered as simply as a line during combat, when a veteran explains (shouts) to a rookie why they have to use plasma and heavy weapons against Glitterboys, as the rookie sits their dumbfounded while the [SILENT And INVISIBLE Laser Beams!!!] merely making the incoming power armor shine really brightly ("Shiney!") and then just ignore the most of the damage they should be taking. Simple. Quick. Action Packed. Not sleepy-nighttime-story-as-the-movie-starts, but fast fast FAST!

We could even put "Little Timmy" in there, shooting a sorcerer type in the face with his wrist rocket slingshot so that the fireball fizzles, and the mage spouts as he recovers with a welt on his face "Gods, how I hate that kid" as a nod to the GMs and players who have encountered him at the most inopportune (but funny) times. Not a full explanation of distraction during magic, but an obvious one.



All hail the Whe-Don, Awesome Creator of Worlds and Saint of Mostly Unappreciated Types everywhere!!! I personally think he should've been tapped to write this anyway, as anything with both Bruckheimer and Whedon on it would be sci-fi Hollywood GOLD!



On Serenity, taken by itself for its own right, I agree wholeheartedly (though I know I'd love to see more and likely never will).



On this, as I said, I'll need to see it to be convinced. I'd like to see it go somewhere, and not just have a first film in the theatres that does so-so, and a second film that goes straight to Sci-Fi channel.

By the way, that is a halfhearted dig on Sci-fi, I admit, but I love their shows, and hate their films, and I want to say I'm a fan and I can't because of it. Sorry, enough about my own therapy...



Again, not looking for total coverage, I just want more than an Hors d'œuvre...I remember the attempt at a Dungeons and Dragons film only too well, and the aforementioned shovel was used to bury it in the deepest recesses of my mind because it sucked so very bad.



If you tell a story that properly incorporates the setting, especially if you don't dump it all on the audience at once, but spoon feed it to them, you can keep them coming back for more through long story arcs. Babylon 5 was a great example of this.



If they go the route of television, it won't do either of those things IF they approach it with the right balance: Long story arcs, with a gem or two of backstory in each episode, and plenty of well created action and obvious character development. This kept the Stargate programs on the air for 14 SEASONS now (including the spinoff overlap), with only a few speedbumps (the network hop). Look how well CSI has done.

Now apply simple math: {[(Stargate Formula) + (Bruckheimer Production Value)] x Reams Upon Reams of Pre-Established Storyline & Characterization; aka Reference Material} = Potential Decade Long Run and Revitalization of the Tabletop RPG industry as well as MMORPG Tie ins and massive spin-off / merchandising campaigns.

Rifts Immortality Assured!

That would rock.

PUH-LEEEZ!!! Let the main hero be a Cyber-Knight! They represent everything heroic, noble, and just plain awesome that are the "good guys," in Rifts Earth! Erin Tarn would be good for off-screen narratives as well!

And then Gorge would complain that it's too close to being a Jedi. Lawsuits would happen which would delay the movie.

Yeah, because the Cyber Knights weren't so blatantly based on them...

Besides, while I like cyber-knights, I don't really think they're representative enough of the Rifts environment. They're too black and white, and will make Rifts seem like an epic "good vs. evil" type of world, like star wars. Rifts isn't really that way though, it's more gritty, and most of the characters can have any alignment. It's the kind of world where two characters who are basically good may end up doing evil without knowing it, or working at cross purposes. The kind of world where the most good may often be done by evil self-serving characters, who have simply been hired as mercenaries for a noble cause that they care nothing about.

I'd like to see people get to expirience the awesome variety of characters and abilities/technology. That's why I say focus on a small adventuring type group, who gets caught up in something big, and a coalition officer/spec4, who is forced to face the reality of the true nature of his nation. Maybe it seems a little formulaic, but I think it could be made good. Rifts is a lot to shove down an un-initiated audiences throat. Everything will have to be explained somehow, otherwise they'll be like " what the ****?".

That's why I think a small adventuring group would be good. They can have conversations that will help to explain their abilities and natures, as well as they nature of things they encounter.

There would be good opportunities to inject a little humor here and there as well, like say a bar scene (as a nod to all the Rifts players out there, who will get it of course). You could have the dragon character (a hot girl), drink a whole keg of beer in front of a couple of leering patrons, watch her belly distend, have her do a huge long burp. When the bar fight starts, have the full conv. throw someone clean through the wall and onto the street outside, when he goes out to continue the fight, the guy grabs the borg by the throat and lifts him up with one arm as he transforms into his true demonic form, then the dragon/girl leaps clean through the roof, transforming as she rockets up to 1 or 2 hundred feet in the air to swoop down on the enemy etc.

Have the borg try on a leather jacket and shades in the marketplace and ask " what about this look?" to his comrades as he twirls a lever action rifle in one hand, cocking it in a single movement (nod to terminator).

Have the borg play pre-rifts music at high volume from his chassis. Heavy stuff for combat, other stuff for other scenes. Maybe he always listens to cheesy/wimpy girl pop music/singers...

The mage or psychic could ride the dragon into combat.

The power armour pilot could give the dragon a jet assited boost.

The dragon could use her shape changing abilities for several humourous effects.

The borg could use his voice mimicking software for humorous effects.

I just don't think it'd be as good if it only focuses on a single human character. It will make Rifts seem like a "people vs. monsters" type thing, even if there are a couple of good non-human characters on the sidelines.

It's important in Rifts to see how the various non-humans can have personalities and interact with humans as actual people, not just used as cannon fodder, or a living weapon. That's one of the coolest parts about Rifts, that you can be having a game of chess with a mutant dog, or be discussing the finer points of robot mounted heavy weaponry with a dragon, arguing the ethics of discreet psionics usage with a full-conversion cyborg from a paralell universe, repairing a 300 year old nuclear warhead with an alien jet pilot, arguing that you need a bigger share of the ration money because you happen to be a giant and you need a lot to eat, but really you're looking for extra beer money....

plus you have the advantage of taking the "time honored traditions" (read: movie stereotypes) and turning thme on their heads. dragons, aliens, cyborgs, ect as the hero's and not to villans.

which is one reason to include both a ley Line walker and a technowizard. the LLW will be familiar enough to "movie style wizard" to most movie goers to go "look, a wizard", even when you add the whole gasmask and robes thing.

but then you have the guy in the leather flight helmet, flight goggles, leather jacket and white scarf. who is also slinging spells, albiet by whipping out odd mixes of circit boards and crystals.

The best way to get the "feel for Rifts" is get the Rule Book. Pick out characters from that book only and use them as the main characters of the movie. Just like when the game first came out and you had your 1st characters...

That's was what Rifts was all about....


The main villians would be the CS. You could also have other villians have cameos that would start up future subplots (future movies..TV shows etc..)

And then when you get more movies, used the World books, in order that they came out. This way the build up of the Rifts world on screen can slowly be built the same way it was built to us gamers when we first started with the game. This way it won't be overwelming to the movie watchers and it might become the next movie blockbuster series (like Star Wars was..).

The MAIN enemy of Rifts is TERROR!

Let's have a look...

Terror keeps the populace of the coalition held in check. Fear of the unknown is ignorance. All the basics have been stripped away from the common folk so they have to rely upon their 'heroes' - the coalition armed forces to protect them.

What substance does an individual have when they give away their personal power?

None. Zip. Ziltch...

The same is said of the masses of the coalition. In reality, the masses only have the power of revolt. They are not the masters of their universe! Those that control them are...

The seat of power rests in the hands of the megalomaniacs that seek total destruction - the same as real life.

Cyber-Knight

Done...

I think it needs to be a main book class. It needs to be someone that can identify with the audience. While I think a coalition soldier would probably identify with the audience in a kill-the-aliens/monsters kinda way, it might also limit scenery. Whereas having the main character be a ley-line walker or burster, while more exotic, will also let you see more exotic locations that will have a lot of unusual architecture, sights, creatures, etc. The kinda eye candy you see in Star Wars when they go to a new place.

Actually I think having the CS be the bad guys would identify well. Play them up like Nazis, everyone in the US loves to hate the Nazis.

glen danzig as the anti hero head hunter ,scott steiner as the juicer,arnold as the voice of the euro borg,gary sinese a mind melter,anthany hoppkins as the dimension traveling shifter and there you have a solid line up and thats a great rifts style group

So you want:
A musician with limited acting history as the anti-hero head hunter.

A pro wrestler that has pretty much zero acting history except for fake wrestling as the juicer.

The governor who I doubt will return to acting if his political career continues as a voice.

?

I have no issue with your choice of Gary Sinese or Sir Anthony Hopkins, but the first three seem like bad choices to me.

The main guy should definately be an elemental fusionist from California, and his sidekick should be an ursa warrior who dosnt like bein a CS experiment. I want to wear a bear suit and be in it.

The charecter should be a dead boy. Rifts is so bizaree and such a mismash of genres you need someone the audience can idneity with. A regualr grunt fighitng his way through the horrors of a post apoc world is a charecter they can idenify with.

My take on the classes: ((Just the ones in the Ultimate Edition Core Rules or else I would be up all night.... and I would need copies of the Rifter I don't have.))
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Men at Arms
- Borgs full and partial: Every one is going to start thinking Terminator.

- Crazy & Juicer: Not as a main. They are to disturbed to be the main.

- Cyber-Knight: Maybe but the Psi-Swords and their design will scream Jedi Knockoff

- Glitter Boy: A GB pilot doesn't seem right.... although a vagabond finding a GB and learning to pilot it might work.

- Merc Soldier: Sounds like a secondary character.

- Robot Pilot: See Glitter Boy
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Adventurers
- Body-Fixer: He is a doc so most likely someone that save the Hero.... or the women/man the main is head over heels for. ((God No more! We don't need every movie to end with a kiss.))

- City Rat: See Vagabond below

- Cyber-Doc: Bit Character or minor villain

- Operator: Secondary for he is to Technical

- Rogue Scholar: No! Just no! Don't even let one be a secondary character! If you do they will make the movie a flashback/book being read.

- Rouge Scientist: "Gordon Freeman" anyone?

- Vagabond: The most likely choice since the Main character will probably go from Zero to Hero.

- Wilderness Scout: A secondary character meant to help the the main. But not the main or else he will probably a Dark Brooding Hero that only ever shows half of their face.
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Practitioners of Magic
- Elemental Fusionist: No..... he is worthless in a city and we all know Chi Town is necessary for this movie.

- Ley Line Walker/Rifter: Could be done..... but as it was said 2 years ago... to many Harry Potter movies....

- Mystic: To difficult for non-rifts fans.

- Shifter: Only a villain (or evil main....... which won't happen)

- Techno-Wizard: Not as a main. The main could use a TW invention but a TW is more about creating things than anything else.
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Psychics
- Burster: I personally loved the Idea for this........ until I remembered the Fantastic *Gag* Four.

- Dog Boy: Not likely..... you have a better chance that the main character is a Wolfen.

- Psi-Stalker: To vampire like.....

- Mind Melter: Not enough people are into Psi powers.....
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-Dragon: No just... No....
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And an CS character would fit I guess..... although it will be a movie about his/her moral dilemma
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Here is an idea I was told by someone who wishes to remain anonymous((He said something about knowing where I sleep )). "Rifts: The rise of Prosek" -Starts with Prosek as a lowly grunt and ends with him taking power. Plus It leaves room for a "Good Guy" sequel.
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My opinion...... break out of the bloody Cliches America!

Oh and how about full CGI..... not like this new Star Wars movie but like FF7 Advent Children.

Plus, you can't identify with a full borg. And the actor will likely want his face seen.


Yeah. But they could star in a viral tie in


A merc could pull it off. Especially if someone like Statham was playing him.


He's a psychic who knows spells. Not too diffcult.

A TW could work. If they played him off as some sort of hopped up steampunk-style adventurer.


What are you basing this on?

"Prosek, you were supposed to be the chosen one!"

Ok it can be done... it just sounds more like a secondary character to me.....



Yeah but to fully understand a Mystic you have to read up on them..... besides there powers are to... intuitive.



-.- Exactly ((I loathe Steam Punk))



People picking things up with there mind and calling forth a gleaming blade of light but not using power words? It would be a split... some would like it some wouldn't. I would love it.... but there are some people that think of Magic/Psionics like people think about laser... It has to have noise.



Hehe basically.

You could say the same about ninjas or shoalin monks or Jedis.

The Jedi are very popular psionics. And people don't have a problem with them in Star Trek, Hellboy, X-Men, the Buffyverse, X-Files.
The psi-sword might be a WTH moment for some, but some quick exposition (which you'd need just as much if you're gonna have a secondary character use a psi sword) and that's handled. And as for the psi sword making noise? Why not?
Besides, tech is sci-fi. Magic is fantasy. Psi is sci-fi (psi-fi? ) or fantasy. The general audience is better geared to accept a psionic running around a post-apocalyptic world fighting giant robots and cyborgs than a mage doing that.

Since the director directed Top Gun and Pearl Harbor they should make it about an airforce. Coalition, perhaps they have cool jets and a navy. I bet Tom Cruise would act in it too but he would think Rifts was the bible if we showed it to him.

I think the main antagonist of the story should be the Federation of Magic. And the main villian should be played by Jason Isaacs (Dragoon Colonal from the Patriot). he would make the perfect bad guy for whoever the heroes are!