EA sells off Mass Effect movie rights

By Ellie Gibson Published 25 May, 2010

Doctors Ray and Greg to exec produce.

A big screen adaptation of hit RPG series Mass Effect is in the works at Legendary Pictures.

BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will work as executive producers on the film, along with Casey Hudson - who executively produced the games. There's no script just yet but Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and Thor, is in talks to produce one.

Legendary Pictures' previous offerings include 300, The Dark Night, The Hangover and Watchmen. The company will work with Warner Bros. to co-finance and distribute the Mass Effect movie.

There's no word on when the film will be out or who will play Commander Shepard. We vote for Bruce Boxleitner obviously.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • etherfiend #1 2 years ago

    I think you probably mean "The Dark Knight" ;)

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    Please dont fuck it up Hollywood. For once you have a decent story and some brilliantly written characters already there for the taking.

    Oh who am I kidding, you will fuck it up.

  • Paperghost #3 2 years ago

    it would be awesome if they made movie shepard female, given that she was 100% better in the game than the male canon choice.

    of course it'll all go wrong when ryan renolds is given the role and McG directs it. In three deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

    / razors

  • Alivada #4 2 years ago

    I wouldn't do a direct Mass Effect film from the games because the whole idea of Shepard is that it's your character not Hollywood's.
    There is loads of backstory espically human's first discovery of the Mass Relays (and then the Turian wars) which could create a great story without destroying the story of the game.

  • RodHull #5 2 years ago

    Jason Donovan as Shepherd, Eammon Holmes as Wrex, Patricia Routledge as Ashley Williams. Music by Blunt, set design by Llewellyn Bowen.

  • Dr.Frappers #6 2 years ago

    I have a bad feeling about this.......

  • ISmoke #7 2 years ago

    Please, God. No.

  • Paperghost #8 2 years ago

    @Alivada

    "I wouldn't do a direct Mass Effect film from the games because the whole idea of Shepard is that it's your character not Hollywood's."

    to be honest, just once as an experiment I'd *love* to see a film directly ape the plot of a game. every time they do their own thing it goes horribly wrong (the RE films are proof positive of that), but they'd really have to work at screwing up the basic plot thread of the first ME game.

    actually, you know what? forget it, they'll still screw it up. I can dream, though...

  • Caimbeul #9 2 years ago

    Nothing wrong with Ryan Reynold Paperghost...
    Heres to hoping that if it does see the light of day that it doesnt get diluted and f'd up. It needs to be a trilogy with 3hr parts to do it any justice.

  • ShiroBen #10 2 years ago

    I'll just bet the movie contributes to the bizarre myth that Shepherd is male.

    Actually, if they made it about something other than the Mass Effect (ie Shepherd's) story I might be interested.

  • SAMagic #11 2 years ago

    I vote for two movies, one a paragon walkthrough and the other renegade.

  • SpaceMonkey77 #12 2 years ago

    Cool news. Its about time Hollywood muppets got the right hat on, with regards to the right license for game to film adaptions. Prince of Persia (I hope that flick is good) is setting a good trend, that I hope Mass Effect, Kane and Lynch (Jamie Foxx WTF!?) , and Heavy Rain films will follow, and not be stupid burnt cheese.

    Game films are taking off at last
    Edited by SpaceMonkey77 at 25/05/10 @ 09:19

  • des #13 2 years ago

    Shit movie confirmed

  • AphoticCosmos #14 2 years ago

    Shepard is a male. Femshep was sooooo dull in ME2 it was unreal. Jennifer Hale sounded like she was just there for the money, Mark Meer was putting effort into it all the way.

  • bad09 #15 2 years ago

    Dear Hollywood,

    Please stop making movies of games. It's just not worth the little effort you put in, stick to ruining your own medium don't bring gaming down with you.

    Thanks.

  • makariel #16 2 years ago

    Robert Pattinson would make a good Shepard. And Kristen Steward as Ashley. And the Collectors should be Werewolves. Brilliant.

  • Freek #17 2 years ago

    Prince of Persia is decent. Not as good as the game, but not an utterly lazy cash in like Resident Evil either.

  • s3y3 #18 2 years ago

    I vote for Jason statham as sheperd and Mariah Carey as Williams. Unfortunately the movie industry will probably take me seriously.

  • Hantheman #19 2 years ago

    One of the best gaming storylines, albeit unoriginal, in years. But still not sure it'll transfer well.

  • dr_swin #20 2 years ago

    Surely Jack Shephard from Lost. He looks very similar to the default shepard anyway.

  • hiddenranbir #21 2 years ago

    "We're going to have a game with a movie experience" seems to suggest they really really really really did badly. Which I agree with. Because the movie won't have hours of pointless mining to disrupt the story's flow.

  • TeaFiend #22 2 years ago

    It could be good. Or terribly rubbish.

  • Phishfood #23 2 years ago

    It better have female shepard!!

  • davisorle #24 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • spekkeh #25 2 years ago

    I hope yvonne strahovski would play the real life rendition of Miranda as well, because she's a very believable actress and nailed the voice work.

    No actually, just so I can fap to Miranda and it would not look pathetic

  • kwesleyb #26 2 years ago

    I vote for two disks of the move when released. Disk 1: Female Shepard, Disk 2: Male Shepard... But just the Male Shepard released in cinemas :)

  • geeza2020 #27 2 years ago

    I think it has to be set before the games to be able to make any sense. Set it around the first contact war with, and leave the games as their own story.

  • Razorus #28 2 years ago

    I don't think they should have Commander Shepard in it at all. Perhaps mention him/her but they don't want to alienate players who have formed their own story of Mass Effect. Make it a prequel. Set it during the First Contact War. That way, it'll be a complete film with the Citadel intervening at the end, but it also opens up possible sequels.

  • chrisola #29 2 years ago

    Ain't no fail like an epic fail!

  • actionfitz #30 2 years ago

    " We vote for Bruce Boxleitner obviously."

    erm will he be getting a boob job for the movie then? :p
    nah, I know the film Shep will be a bloke.
    cue loads of Fem-Shep internet rage though.

  • Sunyavadin #31 2 years ago

    Mass Effect can ONLY work as a film if they make it some sort of spinoff.

    *If* for some cazy reason they decided to do the game's plot, It'd be far better served by cutting the plot of each game into 21 45-minute episodes for TV.

    *Edit*
    Y'know, the more I think about it, the more I think it'd be cool to see Anderson as the Hero with the events leading up to Saren's actions that stopped him from becoming a Spectre...
    Edited by Sunyavadin at 25/05/10 @ 12:26

  • TeaFiend #32 2 years ago

    @Sunyavadin:

    I agree, when playing it I kept thinking "This feels like episodes of Firefly".

  • darleysam #33 2 years ago

    That's one hell of a list of films by Legendary there. If it lives up to those standards, I will be all over this.

  • The-Bodybuilder #34 2 years ago

    Guys, if hollywood wanted to do a Mass Effect movie that beared very little resemblance to the actual games (for those saying no shephard, or no reapers), then they would just make up their own generic space epic battle.

    I'm 100% certain the reasons why they picked it up is because of the story of the reapers and the characters, so expect it to be very close to the games. You should be hoping that they don't balls up the script.
    Besides, ME is such a big universe, they could go all star trek on it and have movies, plus a tv series to cover the backstories and sub-plots (if the movies is deemed successful enough).

    Also.......Sam Worthington for Shephard. I don't care that the internet folsk will probably cry because he's too popular these days, but I want my shephard to have a bit of an intensity and hardness to him.

  • Wolverfrog #35 2 years ago

    Commander Shepard doesn't need to be in this. That would ruin the games for many. Set the movie in the First Contact War, when the Turians attacked humanity for activated a forbidden Mass Relay. They thought we'd surrender to them immediately, but were surprised to find we had a fleet nearly as big as theirs. Focus the plot around Captain Anderson and Saren, who both served in the war. A third of the way through have the war ended by the Council, and set the rest of the movie around humanity trying to find its place amongst the Galactic community.

    A trilogy of movies would be ideal; a movie set completely in the First Contact War, ending with humanity learning there is a whole Council or aliens in the Galaxy; a sequel about humanity being introduced to the Council and the aliens' reactions to this new powerful force, and then a final movie set before Mass Effect 1 showing Anderson being put forward to be a Spectre, and how Saren was corrupted by Sovereign.

    I doubt that will happen though.

  • CalmHorizons #36 2 years ago

    I demand Uwe Boll direct it.

  • WynneL #37 2 years ago

    Every sci-fi movie EVER except for Pitch Black and Alien/Aliens has been with a male lead. It's ALWAYS a male. Never a brother-sister team or a woman. Isn't anybody sick of the garden variety male military leader who is always present even in a supposedly liberated and equal future? Isn't a great way to draw more women into respecting the hobby of gaming, and possibly trying it out themselves, to portray the main character as many women didn't know she could be--as a female? A tough, gorgeous woman but with fierce dignity and talent instead of implants and bleached hair, assuming they pick the right actress, could make this film exceptional and unique rather than just another generic male hero in space. A Mass Effect movie is not going to stand out with a male lead. It's just going to seem like another Halo clone. They'll never make Shepard female, but I wish they would. Or that they'd at least have a brother sister or male and female team of cousins both named Shepard and working together; one Paragon, one Renegade. Bioware has a reputation for moral courage and interesting choices... but I can't help thinking this is beyond even them. I fully expect generic male Shepard to be an inevitable reality.