Mass Effect Adaptation May Take Longer Than Expected

Fans of the popular Mass Effect game franchise who are looking foward to the upcoming film adaptation will unfortunately be kept waiting for a little bit longer, according to producer Avi Arad.

Ever since the announcement was made about the adaptation, development has been stalled time after time with various problems. In the beginning it seemed Legendary Pictures (the company behind the adaptation) could not decide on whether the film should be a direct adaptation, or if it was going to be an entirely different story. After some debate it seems they have finally agreed to take the story directly from the video game series.

Unfortunately, that decision presents some more problems concerning the film adaptation. The Mass Effect game trilogy is a vast universe which connects the fate of a multitude of alien races with the fate of humanity. It also has a pretty unique concept where the player makes choices throughout the game(s) that affects the outcome, so there is no clear-cut story that someone could just copy from game to film. To take the story straight from the video game and try to boil it down to a film that could be anywhere from roughly 90 minutes (give or take a few) to well over two hours is a huge undertaking. It is not impossible by any means, but it is pretty difficult.

Screenwriter Mark Protosevich admitted as much when he revealed that he was being replaced as the writer for the Mass Effect film: "I wrote a couple of drafts and then they brought on a new writer...When I was on it I was definitely adapting the first game. That story, it was very much the first game. And that was the approach." He goes on to say that he will most likely not try to adapt any more video games from this point on: "It was the first game adaptation I did and it will probably be the only one. They're hard. I will freely admit it was hard. Because - especially with 'Mass Effect' - there's just so much material. Narratively, with the game, you're talking about nine, ten hours of narrative you're jamming into two hours...I hope they pull it off. I'd love to see a 'Mass Effect' movie. I think I did some good work, but even I'll admit I didn't pull it off."

Since Protosevich is off the project, relatively unknown screenwriter Morgan Davis Foehl will take his place. Hopefully the change in screenwriters will jumpstart the process back up to finally bring Mass Effect to the big screen. Who knows, maybe since Protosevich was unable to directly adapt the games Foehl, along with Legendary Pictures, will try to come up with an entirely new narrative for the film regarding some other aspects of the games that might have been touched upon in the games but could very easily be expanded in a feature length film. To be honest though, I have a feeling that we will not see any more news regarding the Mass Effect film for at the very least another year or two.

Source: Screen Rant