If They Did a Baldur's Gate II Movie...

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

You raise an interesting question. We'd need to figure out what party the PC uses...

[Kestrel Daystar]

Well, personally I would choose:

PC - Male, Bard
Jaheira - Romance aspect, I dont really see the PC romance either of the other two.
Minsc - You gotta have Minsc and Boo!
Edwin - Comedy, banter with Minsc
Korgan - You need a dwarf, plus has good banter with Edwin
Yoshimo - Need a thief the twist in the storyline and you need a theif to replace with Imoen and you couldn't really kill off any of the other theives in order to replace them with her.

Thats just what I would choose. A mixture of good and evil, aswell as strength and alittle comedy.


--Kestrel--

[Kestrel Daystar]

Hmmm, I have just been babysitting for my next door neighbours kids and when I got there they were all watching a film called: 'Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas'. They had just put it on so I managed to watch it all and I rather enjoyed it (Hey, im 16, im still a kid [img]tongue.gif[/img] ). I thought that the animation was quite good also, aswell as the fight sequences. While they may appear the kind of graphics for kids they do look rather nice and with a bit more sharpening up and alittle more attention to detail it would look great.

Has anyone else seen this film?


--Kestrel--

[Kestrel Daystar]

Just been scrawling through the internet and came across this picture. Now, is this not Imoen?



Alyson Hannigan is so Imoen its untrue, heheh


--Kestrel--

[ 01-23-2005, 05:08 PM: Message edited by: Kestrel Daystar ]

[Balintherlas]

With Brad Pitt as the voice for Sinbad?
uhh, what picture?

[Kestrel Daystar]

Originally posted by Balintherlas: With Brad Pitt as the voice for Sinbad?

Yeah, that be the one. Even though I hate Brad Pitt and think he is the most wooden actor ever, I still enjoyed the movie.


--Kestrel--

[Balintherlas]

Haha, i was just watchin Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and was wonderin if theyd hav a part to play in this movie?

[Nerull]

(You may disagree with me on this, but since you are asking my opinion...)

Note--If we are aiming at an American audience:

If you really watch movies where they pull off "non-warrior" protagonists, they are almost always solo. Technically, Indiana Jones is a "thief/scoundrel" character, and though he has someone tagging along in each of the movies, it is him and him alone that pretty much pulls everything off. And backstabbing, etc. also works best with a solo protagonist. Thus, in a "group" movie, the audience would less go for a thief PC as opposed to a warrior PC.

And while magic can play a role, it is not too often that the average audience responds well to a wizard protagonist (they usually fare better as villians, advisors, or side characters). Harry Potter is an exception, but then the entire premise of the series is wizard training.

Thus, a warrior type protagonist works better. However, it does NOT have to be a "big beefy" character ala Arnold. You can have a finesse fighter; in fact, audiences tend to respond well to guys who can fight, but also do so with skill. This is where I think you can put a non-warrior character in as protagonist, by using a swashbuckler (combines the charm and stealth with skill at fighting face to face with the opponent). I would go with a blade second, but then you add the magic part in, and depending on the audience that may not fly with the protagonist.

As far as animation vs. real life:

Animation would work better. Don't forget that Middle Earth is a magic-poor world, so you really didn't see Gandalf throwing around tons of spells in the live action movie. Magic was allowed to be more subtle in the trilogy (throw opponent around, blind opponent with a bright light, summon a raging torrent of water, etc.).

However, Faerun is extremely magic rich, even by regular D&D standards. There are wizards all over the place, throwing around fireballs, etc. If you have a battle between the protagonist's group and another group, it would be spells flying back and forth, with blasts of fire, lighting bolts, magic missiles, etc. flying in both directions.

Doing all of it CGI? It would look goofy at that point. Much better (and possibly more cost effective) to do animation. Then you could take much of the same voice talent that did the game and use them as the characters' voices (they did a good job to begin with, so why tamper with something that is not broken?).

[Sir Degrader]

I agree. However, mainstream anime has yet to the have the success that regular films have. As a result, perhaps more creative license could be in line for the protagonist (putting him as a ranger) might work.

[Cerek]

Those are all good points, Nerull, but I disagree that the PC has to be a warrior type. The story of Robin Hood has been a constant favorite in Hollywood. Then again, that combines the rogue quality with the finesse fighting you mentioned.

Anyway, the leader doesn't necessarily have to be a buff fighter as long as one of his followers are. It's the typical "group buddy" picture. You have a primary protagonist who has some vital knowledge or skill to complete a certain quest, but he/she can't do it alone. So you're going to have to add the Big Warrior, the Fireball-slinging Wizard, and the thief character that can sneak ahead to scout, look for traps, and unlock doors (not to mention finding the occasional treasure chest to open).

So the PC could be a fighter, but not necessarily a buffed one. Or it could be a Bard - though the bard would probably be better as one of the "experts" added to the group (he would be added for his excellent knowledge of Lore - and his fighting and magic skills would make a nice supplement to the rest of the group). You also need a cleric in the group, so it would make a LOT of sense to have the PC be the cleric, then add the fighter, wizard, thief and (possibly) bard.

I agree that Minsc is almost a must-have just for his entertainment value. And you would need some demihumans (preferably an elf and a dwarf). So it could be good to add Korgan. Yoshimo might be "exotic" enough to suffice for the thief character, but you might want to take Jan instead to get the second demihuman in the group.

As for animation vs real life, my boys have been watching a video of the Spiderman series from the early 90's. That series (along with the original X-Men cartoons) were done very well and very "realistic". The characters don't have the exaggerated eyes and facial expressions so popular in anime today (I can barely stand to watch Teen Titans with the kids because of the excessive exaggeration the characters go through).

So if you go with the the type of animation of Spiderman and X-Men, that would work well.

I haven't seen the movie Sinbad, but I have plenty of other Disney animated films, and you certainly couldn't go wrong having the premier pioneers and experts of full-length animation films hired to do the Baldur's Gate movie. So somebody send Michael Eisner a copy of BG2 and ask him what he thinks of making it a film project?