Alpha Centauri: The Movie

Barinthus · January 9, 2004, 16:56

Ok I'm bored ha.

What if there was a movie being made based on SMAC and SMAX?

Who would you have playing those roles? Here's my list and I know some of my selections suck. Celebrities are not my strong suit. If you don't know who those people I posted, let me know.

SMAC:
Lady Deidre Skye of Gaia's Stepdaughters
Kate Beckinsale

Sheng-ji Yang of the Human Hive
Anthony Wang

Prokhar Zakharov of the University of Planet
Brad Dourif

Nwabudike Morgan of Morgan Industries
Avery Brooks

Col. Corazon Santiago of the Spartan Federation
Monica Bellucci

Sister Miriam Godwinson of Lord's Believers
Faye Dunaway

Commissioner Pravin Lal of the Peacekeeping Forces
Ben Kingsley

SMAX:
Cha Dawn of the Cult of Planet
Sing Ngai

Aki Zeta-5 of Cybernetic Consciousness
Milla Jovovich (possibly the worse selection

)

Foreman Domai of the Free Drones
Bruce Willis

Datatech Sinder Roze of the Data Angels
Jada Pinkett Smith

Captain Ulrik Svensgaard of the Nautilus Pirates
I'm torn between Russell Crowe and Ewan McGregor

The aliens, whatever. The guy who did Darth Vadar can do them both ha.

Anyway I'm curious as of your thoughts and suggestions. An excuse for me to avoid work and come back to this forum

SynthetGod8 · January 9, 2004, 20:35

horrah for Brad Dourif. I think he'd made a good Zak, if he can pull off the Russian accent. Hmm... how about if it were a 12 hour epic like LotR? well, i suppose that's what every movie trilogy will apsire to be these days (or like the original Star Wars trilogy).
I'm sure you've heard it before, but a AC roleplaying game (a computer game, I mean, not that pen&paper one) might have a story where the character gets sent through time into different sections of AC's history. Maybe the same could be true for an epic AC movie. the main character flips through time to save the planet from different threats. Like, say, in the first movie there could be an alliance between the Hive and Santiago, in the next, raging mind-worm boils (lead by a insane Gaian psychic) threaten both land, sea and air, and in the last, Progenitors arrive to stop humanity from Transcending.

Barinthus · January 9, 2004, 20:49

Haha I like that Gaian psycho tidbit.

One other possible venue would be this being made into a tv show sort like Babylon 5. But with much better acting and casting I would hope!

jtsisyoda · January 10, 2004, 03:03

Lady Deidre Skye of Gaia's Stepdaughters
Jennifer Connelly (but Kate Beckinsale would be good, too)

Sheng-ji Yang of the Human Hive
B.D. Wong (from "Law & Order")

Prokhar Zakharov of the University of Planet
Sean Connery (he did a good Russian in "Hunt for Red October")

Nwabudike Morgan of Morgan Industries
Djimon Hounsou (casting against type)
or Denzel (he's into not-altogether-nice-characters now)

Col. Corazon Santiago of the Spartan Federation
Wanda De Jesus (from Clint Eastwood's "Bloodwork")
or Jennifer Lopez

(she was good in "Out of Sight")

Sister Miriam Godwinson of Lord's Believers
Catherine Hicks (the Mom from "Seventh Heaven")

Commissioner Pravin Lal of the Peacekeeping Forces
Tony Shalhoub (from "Wings" and "Monk")

SMAX:
Cha Dawn of the Cult of Planet
Lucy Lui

(see Kill Bill just for her part)

Aki Zeta-5 of Cybernetic Consciousness
Michelle Pfeiffer
or Jeri Ryan (too obvious?)
or Sigourney Weaver

Foreman Domai of the Free Drones
Tom Hanks

Datatech Sinder Roze of the Data Angels
Jada Pinkett Smith (excellent choice, DataAeolus

)

Captain Ulrik Svensgaard of the Nautilus Pirates
Stellan Skarsgaard ("Ronin", "Breaking the Waves")

Who's Brad Dourif?

Impaler[WrG] · January 10, 2004, 07:42

Domi = Bruce Willas

Asolutly on the mark, the portrait of Domi is the spitting image of Bruce and he dose that gritty everyman character to the T.

Morgan is described as being very tall and I see him as more calculating then emotional which Brooks and Denzel are. So perhaps someone differnt their.

Most of the others sound good

James Earl Jones did the voice of DarthVader but I always imagined the Aliens as having higher pitched voices then that along with their odd resonace comunications tecnique (Dialouge is going to be anoying as they suposedly just repeat everything said to them)

Other sound good too, and dont forget we need a Captain Garland. Thats an easy one ofcorse

Patrick Stewart

Sarxis · January 10, 2004, 16:23

Morgan could be Morgan Freeman!! I mean.. c'mon!

Illuminatus · January 10, 2004, 16:29

First of all - an actual film based on SMAC/X is a very stupid idea. Even if it is a triology I doubt it would be done satisfactory. You just cannot make a film that will reflect depth of the game story and put in two hour or three hour format. Perhaps a Unity: Launch film would be an interesting idea - showing situation on Earth, giving more background information about faction leaders, assembly of the UNS Unity etc. - even maybe the Journey to Alpha Centauri incorporated. I would like to see pre-launch conflict between Zakharov and Miram or even Zakharov versus Diedre.

A miniseries would be a good realisation - unless the SMAC/X will become a boring franchize like Star Wars.
Just think of it

less then a century in future, at our closest star, far, far away

evil American empire has assumed control of Earth and a handful of rebels called UN flees Earth to build a society on a distant planet, hoping that during time they will come back to kick some evil American empire ass and restore peace throught out the Sol. But they splinter and must first overcome their internal differences and unite under *********

episode one: mindworm menace
episode two: attack of the Believers
episode three: rise of the Progenitors
episode four: new factions
episode five: Hive strikes back
episode six: return of the probe teams

etc.

if someone sees

just one thing to say: [blearrghhh]

But there is a small chance that someone could actually do it (since LOTR was done masterfully contrary to my beliefs).

About actors

Patrick Stewart as Garland = make it so

Morgan Freeman as Morgan (any name similarity is purely coincedential)
Bruce Willis as Domi=hmmmm Hanks is better choice since he already played similar characters
Monica Belluci or Jennifer Lopez as Santiago=

Sean Connery as Zakharov= not perfect after some consideration
Jeri Ryan as Aki=

Jada Pinkett Smith as Rose =

Russel Crowe as Svensgard=perfect
Yang - hmm can`t think of any actors that could do him
(except a few who are unfortunately members of the white race)

jtsisyoda · January 10, 2004, 17:18

Morgan Freeman would be perfect.

Catherine Zeta-Jones could pass for Santiago... remember her in Zoro?

Barinthus · January 10, 2004, 19:16

*grin*

Glad you guys liked some of my suggestions.

I did consider Jeri Ryan but figured that she may not be Scandinavian for the role of Aki Zeta-5 since Aki's supposed to be a Norwegian (if I recall correctly). I recently checked Ryan's biography on www.imdb.com, she was born in Germany - doh me.

Wanda de Jesus for Santiago -

Morgan Freeman'd be excellent, very adaptive. What about Samuel Jackson, I'm sure he can be very cold and calcuating?

Great ideas, guys! And I agree about movie. After a while, I figured miniseries would be better.

:) Smiley · January 10, 2004, 21:09

Who cares about the actors, I'd be more interested in the special effects.

Hercules · January 10, 2004, 21:32

Funny, like probably everyone who plays Smacx I was thinking about, what if a movie based on it.

For me the more important parts were the script. which seven factions and the ending.

Could the audience, say ten/fifteen minutes from the end of the film and at an intermission, press for their preferred ending from a menu choice, that would allow solo, co-operative; conquer and transcend.

The makers would make these different endings, still based on the previous actions/ storylines.

The possibilities are enormous. Gaian fans could pack the audience for a Gaian transcend. Hiverians for a Yang Conquer.

Reminder: Must check the creative forum for past or current threads

SynthetGod8 · January 11, 2004, 21:11

Jackson wouldn't be a bad Morgan, if he has the right haircut.
I still vote for Brad Dourif as Zak, Connery is so wrong. btw, Brad Dourif was Grima Wormtounge in LotR, that scientist who tries to make out with the Alien in Resurrection, a psychic (channeling) convict on deathrow in an X-files episode (season 1), and the Betazoid serial killer in ST:Voy. He's been in other things, but I can't remember beyond that. He's a very passionate character actor who could easily play the slightly deranged, cold and calculating, and un-ethical Zakharov (and I'm sure he could pull off the accent). Trust me, he'd be excellent as Zak.
A TV series or mini-series would be cool... like the Dune thing.
Like a 15 episode series could focus on the different conflicts and time periods on Planet in chronological order.
Ooooh.. and the fans could vote on the last episode.

oh, if only it could be true... if only such a thing could come to pass. (I'll just built my device to propel me through alternate universes until I find that one)

gwillybj · January 12, 2004, 02:31

I'd rather hear it done as a radio series with the same voice actors as were hired to make the game. The sound effects are already done, too.

... open Sound Recorder... cut'n'paste from various *.wav files...

sammy1339 · January 12, 2004, 14:40

I have always thought that SMAC would make a great movie, even if there is alot to cover (besides, you don't have to show everything. Think about how long it took for the opening video to relate the story of the Unity launch and crash. It left alot of questions unanswered, but it worked out fine - you are still talking about the story, aren't you?)
Morgan Freeman as Nwabudike Morgan is simply wrong. I like Morgan Freeman alot but he just does not resemble Morgan in any way whatsoever except that he is black and named Morgan. Simply put, he's a nice guy. Morgan is not nice. I have always thought (it's been a long time :-) ) that among stars Samuel L. Jackson would be the best for the role.
I also thought Harrison Ford would make a great Zakharov (but not Connery - he just looks too suave. Zakharov is an introvert and has "mild social deficiency.") and Angelina Jolie for Santiago (I'm not so attached to that choice. She'd have to not make that stupid smile or quivering raised eyebrow for one.) All that is among stars of course. Really you would use mostly character actors, since not only will not all of these be major roles, but most of them don't fit the patterns that stars would like to play. Even in the case of a more significant part it might be wise to cast an unknown - particularly for Deirdre. Anyway I always fantasized about making a SMAC movie so I got a little carried away here....