City of Heroes Movie and TV Series In The Works
City of Heroes is the only massively multiplayer online game that I can say I have been truly addicted to. Not even World of Warcraft had the same draw for me, and although I ultimately found the inner strength to cut the cord, I think the idea of a world full of endlessly customizable superheroes was a great one. The popularity of the game has since dwindled, but now it looks like the brand may soon get turned into a movie… unfortunately I’m not sure it will have much appeal beyond a niche audience.
Transformers producer Tom DeSanto has picked up the screen rights to the game, and has plans to create a live action feature film set in Paragon City, plus a possible TV series after that. While comic book movies continue to rake in the cash, I have to question whether or not anyone would be interested in a story based on no-name heroes that they would have to invent. Granted, the game world did have established fictional characters and locations that were originally created by the developers, in addition to some of the characters from the on-going comic book series that game subscribers received for a short while. I think most people would agree that the comic book sucked though (I certainly don’t remember any of the characters from it). It seems to be a odd choice for a movie, since the strength of the game lies in the ability to play your own hero or villain, not someone else’s. Then again, if they can make a World of Warcraft game, I suppose anything is possible. Are you interested in a City of Heroes movie?
Comments (3)
this is another situation that brings up the same question that I had about the Spy Hunter movie. What will it be taking from the game that warrants relating the two? If they’re just going to make up some superheroes and make up something/someone for them to fight, why not just create a new franchise in hopes of creating a new audience?
Posted by Rian on June 7th, 2007Tom DeSanto stated on the Attack of the Show program on G4 that the movie would be dealing with the first Rikti War. The game picks up in the aftermath of this war and the recently released Issue 10 expansion deals with a resurgence by the Rikti. He did not make it clear whether or not the main characters of the movie would be Statesman and his Freedom Phalanx Supergroup or even Hero One and the Omega Team who went to the Rikti Dimension to stop their invasion.
I play the game regularly and have read the 2 books and the comics. I do feel there is a strong and interesting enough mythology to make a good movie from. But it would be a hard sell for the general public since it would in essence have no built in draw outside the 250k subscribers.
Posted by John on August 10th, 2007Leave a Reply