Avi Arad to Produce Video Game movie 'Mass Effect' and other Marvel Films
There is some interesting news that has come out about producer Avi Arad and his future projects. It looks like he has optioned the rights to the video game 'Mass Effect' from Electronic Arts, and has started it's journey to the big screen. Variety reports:
Turning "Mass Effect" into a movie, or at least trying to do so, is pretty much a no-brainer. Even those who didn't love it would have to admit that it has a lot more meat to its narrative than most games. You've got a hard-ass protagonist, a crusty bureaucracy trying to hold him back, a motley supporting cast, a hugely diverse (if a bit similar looking) bunch of settings, and an alien invasion fueled by technology that nobody but our hero fully understands.
Those are certainly a lot of standard elements for a science-fiction movie. Though "Mass Effect, rather intriguingly, has a main character whose look and personality and even gender can, to some extent, be shaped by the player. So the makers of a movie will have to figure out just who exactly Commander Shephard is.
This could end up being a very good movie. If you don't know who Avi Arad is he was CEO at Marvel Entertainment. He was the guy that started the wave of popular comic book movies. He was involved with 'X-Men', 'Spider-Man', and 'Iron Man'. On the down side he also had a hand in 'Spider-Man 3', 'Electra', and 'Ghost Rider'. So the movies he ends up being involved with have a chance of ending up bad, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He currently runs his own production company which is currently developing the movie 'Lost Planet', which is also based on the popular video game.
Now check out this list of upcoming movies he is going to be a producer on:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Silver Surfer
X-Men Origins: Magneto
Nick Fury
Dr. Strange
Ant-Man
The First Avenger: Captain America
Deathlok
Spider-Man 4
The Avengers
We knew that some of these movies were being made, but some of them come as a surprise like Nick Fury and Dr. Strange. I would love to see a really good movie on Dr. Strange! I really liked the Marvel animated version. We have a lot of good comic book movies to look forward to. Hollywood is saturated with them right now. So far so good.