MechWarrior Movie

This comes straight from their website.

DEVLIN LEADS MECH INTO MOVIE BATTLE
Dean Devlin will produce a movie based o­n the best-selling “Mech Warrior” video games. Paramount Pictures is in negotiations to option the property from Wiz Kids, a Seattle-based game company, for Devlins Electric Entertainment, which will develop a screenplay that Devlin will produce.

“Whether I write the script or help write the script or direct, I’m crazy about the material and this is a real passion project for me,” Devlin said. He said “Eight Legged Freaks,” which he produced for $30 million last year, was an experiment in putting almost all of a films budget into special effects Similarly, he said his intention with “Mech Warrior” is to make it look like a $150 million movie while spending less than $100 million. “The type of CG we’d use for this movie in which warriors battle in giant mechanized suits of armor, would be easier to create than spiders,” he said. “We had 200 CG shots in Freaks, and I think we could get a lot more out of this film.” Devlin said he’d like to get the film into theaters within 24 months. “The material is a franchise already,” he said. Jordan Weisman, who created “Mech Warrior” 20 years ago, will play a creative role in making the film. In addition to the games, more than 60 novels have been published. Weisman said the movie will focus o­n the Republic, a melting pot of people similar to the United States, and how factions in the Republic and forces outside of it are hoping to restart the Mech Wars of old. “The film is in many ways a coming-of-age story,” said Weisman, CEO of Wiz Kids. “It’s set 40 years after the Mech Wars have ended and introduces a group of young heroes in their teens and early 20’s that have grown up in peaceful and prosperous times.”

Weisman said the sci-fi “Mech Warrior” universe he created was heavily influenced by the relationships World War II pilots developed with the fighter planes they flew. The fall of the Roman Empire and the feudal system of lords fighting over scraps of land also plays into the game universe. “This is a very gritty, grimy sci-fi universe,” “this isn’t Star Trek, where everythings shiny and new. The mechs are constantly breaking down.” Six months ago, Wiz Kids released a collectible “Mech Warrior” miniature table-top game that has sold 5 million units. Penguin Putnam will publish 18 new novels based o­n the franchise during the next three years. CAA represented Devlin and Wiz Kids in the “Mech Warrior” deal.