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with cow bells

I hope Tom Hanks is in it. What they need to do is take the same character from Castaway and put him in a rift movie.

My brother and I have spoken of this many times and believe the Proseks should be played by Jack Nicholson and Christian Slater. Think a Few Good Men and Christian Slater I always thought could pass for Jack's son.

When Erin Tarn was mentioned as narrator the voice from the first season of Desperate House Wives popped into my head and now i can't get it out. How do I know that voice ? I'm sure some of the other married guys know my pain.....

Lately, everytime someone mentions Erin Tarn I picture Judi Dench.

I'd like to see a CS Grunt or someone allied with the CS being turned into something else by the Gene Splicers and becoming an enemy of his former friends.
Something like that would be a great gimmick to use to show how villainous the CS are - any movie that successfully convinces the audience that the last hope of humanity is something we shouldn't be hoping will be victorious is a winner in my book.
Also I'd like to see something like the Cyber Horsemen of Ixion involved. A Cybernetic Centaur is exactly what we need to show the fusion of fantasy and sci-fi that is Rifts.

Failing all that, a party of a dozen Amazons. Who wouldn't want to watch them in action?

earth

One of the group members should be a blind warrior woman.

Agreed

STAR, as in single character...nope, I don't think it would work. Rifts is all bout the teamwork, the combination of disciplines, the multiracial group united under a common cause. Be it the acquisition of credits under more than dubious means or the protection of the innocent from supranatural forces, the proper portrayal of the Rifts setting should not fall on the shoulders of an individual.
How about a team like the guys from Machinations of Doom...
Darn it! why not base the whole movie on that graphic novel. IMO it captures what Rifts is all about. That book singlehandedly restored my liking for Rifts!

That been said, the only voice that should narrate the movie should be Erin Tarn...
portrayed by Morgan Freeman

Every movie no matter how big and team oriented has to have at least 1 main focus character (star). Ideally you have the known characters (erin tarn, prosek, etc) as supporting roles only with bigger name actors, like Judy Dench who would be a shoe in for erin tarn. But the movie would have to focus on 1 or 2 nobodies(not nobody actors, but nobody characters). Most likely with a support team of the classic Rifts icons like an operator, Techno wizard, Juicer an old merc soldier wo's partially reconstructed. A Glitter boy cannot by default be any part of the main casting as it's too epic and reveared to be common cast. Could be sed as a knight in shining armor (literally) who appears at one point near the end of the movie to aid the main character..who I would probably say would work best as a PA pilot.

For a Rifts movie to fully appeal to the masses it can't get too much into the magic or psychic end of things. People like magic, but technology wins. and assosiating a wizard using tech is ore fun and "realistic" for the general population who has no clue what Rifts is.

The role of the movie should go to unknown's or thearter actors.

Should scap the big names as they have lost the ability to act as seen in most of the new big budget movies. Let in some nobody who can act and let the drama unfold.

and the movies script should be a 3 parter or 4 with a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Small plot that can grow, never try for the big stuff always have the details.

enough already lets get this movie done and lets get the TV series as well while we are at it.

Go Rifts Movie Go

I don't know but angelina jolie would make one hell of a blind warrior woman

Please... Please be a GlitterBoy!!

Being a huge fan of history,i am always amazed how history is always written by the victor.such are the spoils of war i suppose but that being said i do enjoy alot of history from "the other" point of view. WWII from the german soldiers point of view,pearl harbor from the japenese pilots point of view etc. i would love to see the tolkeen front from the cs grunts perspective. a saving private ryan type movie.that movie scared the heck out of me and it amazes me 18 year old's went through something like that.Imagine entire mountains moving crushing tanks,trees animating to snap your friend in half.Imagine dragons the size of houses swooping down on a cs armored column,the list goes on. I really don't want to see an ex grunt scenerio because it has been so played out in my games but a "in the trenches" look at a futuistic type war would be amazing.

I SO agree with this. The audience, just like the CS Dead Boys, would be completely blown away by the scope and the variety of all the different aspects of RIFTS that make it so original and so much fun to Roleplay.

Responding to OP:

It should be a Juicer (Kurt Russell) who is beginning to go through Last Call and is seeking to find peace with old demons before the bio-comp does him in for good.

Along the way he befriends a hot-shot Glitter Boy pilot (Leonardo di Caprio), a haunting Mystic (Helena Bonham Carter), and a Crazy (Andy Dick) who help him track down the Coalition general responsible for torching his hometown when he was young (Gene Hackman). Along the way, they are forced to contend with one of the Coalition's newest and deadliest Juicers (The Rock). They find the general in Minnesota, preparing to launch an assault on the Xiticix with General Holmes (Samuel L. Jackson). When the Mystic communes with possessing entities (voices done by Tilda Swinton and Ice T) in the area and persuades them to wreak havoc upon the Coalition forces, it provides them with just the distraction they need to approach the general and get their revenge.

I would like it to be about a CS grunt; who possibly survives some sort of attack (Tolkeen War?) and is saved by a Cyber Knight. Possibly having his eyes opened to the "other side", maybe becoming a Cyber Knight (or not). Perhaps taking on a mission; or similar to the Kurt Russel movie Soldier; taking on the Coalition.

I just think it would be awesome becuase Cyber Knights go everywhere in NA. The training regime would be awesome; think of like Batman Begins and the main character conquering his fears (possibly of D-Bees and Demons). This would make for an awesome onscreen movie.

There is a few key things they have to do right though.

-Avoid to much of the whimsical. The monsters need to look scary; not like something out of Peter Jackson's King Kong. They need to all look downright scary. Movies like Lord of the Rings, and Reign of Fire did a good job at making their creatures rugged.

-The Coalition would need to be good and gritty. They shouldnt be treated as Stormtroopers; where they are all in shiny armor. This is post apoc; so they should take cues from real soldiers and have their armor's nice and dirty; gritty and have character.

-Violent. The Cyber Knights should fight like there from 300. There battles should be like Starship Troopers or Saving Private Ryan of the future.

-If they do that; it should stop it from looking like a Sci Fi Channel original.

Ugh, not Andy Dick. If you need a Crazy, Andy Sandberg would be a much better choice anyway

Agreed. The power armor in Fallout 3 is good inspiration for how it should look.

After thinking this is what I think the Rifts movie should be like.

The film follows a Coalition Commando; played by Josh Brolin. The movie opens up with a coaltion invasion of Tolkeen; hinting that the war has been ongoing in these stages. Our protagonist is soon thrown into instense street fighting. His unit is quickly overran; they find themselves being assaulted by d-bees/monsters in the dark of night in urban warfare. A building collapses our protagonist caught in the rubble. He is pulled out of the rubble by a group of Tolkeenian resistance fighters;(Mickey Rourke as a Juicer on Burn Out, Ben Foster as a Crazy, Michael Beihn as a Headhunter,Evangeline Lilly as a younger Cyber Knight) and where they debate if they should torture or kill him, the argument is quickly settled by a Cyber Knight (Antonio Banderas) who decides that his life should be spared; and he will take on the burden of nursing him back to health. The protagonist is grateful to the Cyber Knight however he is still afraid and angered. The Cyber Knight takes him out of the city limits and progressively begins to show him the other side of war, as the cyber knight aids refugees. The Cyber Knight teaches the protagonist to read, and shows him books of what really happened (this is where they can explain pre-rifts stuff; imagine Time magazines with headlines from "Wilks Medical Genius!" to "100 Billion Killed in 5 hours"). The Cyber Knight takes him under his wing and begins to train him in becoming a Cyber Knight however he struggles. However over the course of his training; they are engaged by a Coalition Mop Up; outside of the city in a refugee camp. The Cyber Knight is slain leaving the Brolin to defend the remaining refugees. Brolin, unfinished in his Cyber Knight training; feel thats he doesnt have what it takes to be a Knight. So decides to one last thing to make up for all his coalition sins, sensing that the best defense is a good offense; he takes the remaining warriors left (any combination but the Juicer has to be included) and goes back into the city; where he utilizes his commando tactics to break down the coalition in one last battle.

Thats what I think it should be like.

I think a good format would be a weekly series like Deadwood and Rome. Rifts is so broad that even a 3 hour movie would not be able gloss over everything.
On the topic of casting there are a number of real life bodybuilders and professional wrestlers that could nail the juicer look.
Markus Rühl and Dave Batista come to mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrApeDp7iC4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Uovt6Uq_Q

A Rifts movie should include a CS grunt who has to come to terms with the realities of his world, a techno wizzard who turns out to be a true Atlantean, a psychic possibly as a love intrest to the grunt, and maybe a dragon. There should be some dog boys well featured as either hunting them or as allies to the grunt (maybe he's always been really nice to them?).

I quite agree. The Lonestar Raiders--That's your cast list.

Love it.. Just do Wormwood for a first Rifts Movie! An Apok with a WormSpeaker companion... hell, yah.

-Rifter6

I put this up on another thread, but this is a more appropriate thread...

The Rifts novels, beginning with "Sonic Boom" by Adam Chilson, are excellent. In fact, I think they're a perfect outline for "HOW" any script writer, director, ect should develop a first Rifts Film. It's hard to get all or even much of the Rifts content into a single film, particularly a first where you're introducing the whole scene and 'concept' to an unexposed audience.

Adam Chilson pulls it off very well. Start very focused. He chose Chi Town. Get the audience to get the feeling and empathize with a small cast of 'human' characters in a particular environ/culture (like the Coalition military and Chi Town 'life'). Then start to take the story further and further... also taking some time in the later half to actually 'characterize' another set of different people. In this case people on the inside or at least involved in the Federation of Magic. And, yes, there needs to be pleanty of action... cause Rifts is full of incredible Action!

The more I think about how the first Rifts novel was written, the better I like it for adaptation to film... or at least, just HOW it took Rifts and PRESENTED it to a new audience.

...and to remark on those who think the Rifts Movie should include a big cast of characters as a "'party" cause that's what we role-players do... Naw... it get's to close to the D&D movie. They tried to take too many character types... all stereotypes with thin backgrounds and real character interest... and turn it into an epic story. It takes a little time to really characterize each role... I agree that there needs to be one (maybe two) main characters that the audience really falls in love with/empathizes with. Even in "Sonic Boom" the character I remember best is the tech wizard ... he was the most individualized. It was a little hard to follow all the different people in the CS platoon but for those few who Adam Chilson spent some considerable time developing back story on.

-Rifter6

yes, they got the look for serious juicers, but can they "ACT"? We need good actor casting, and I'm for some big name actors if we can gett'em. Despite what the ultra critics say about them, Big Name Actors are big name because the vast majority of people like them, they get lots of good roles and they get buts in the seats. I don't want a movie that will only be understood and enjoyed by Rifts players, but that will take in a large new crowd of people who fall in love with the concept/world and are inspired by it to support and emerse themselves in the Palladium franchise. Only this will give Palladium the notoriety and $$$$ they need to really launch things like a kick @ss MPORG, PC video game(s), cartoons, and everything we Rifts fans are just drooling to see... eh, action figures!

-Rifter6

I dunno, I think a movie with a lot of different types could work, if you tweak the format a bit. Like, instead of a "hey we're the player character party" vibe, have some sort of objective they're all after, where they have to work together sometimes, and as rivals or enemies at others. Something where the characters are thrown out of their comfort zones, nobody's sure who to trust, everyone has an angle and is scamming everyone else. The kind of thing where you're not entirely sure who's coming out on top because you could conceivably say that any one of them is the protagonist, and even then you're not entirely sure what side any particular one will be on by the end.
Where they're not together all the time, but a lot of it is parallel maneuvering.

Hey I really like this 'angle'.

Ok... I'm not the movie buff..actually not one at all.. so how bout we compare "Successfull" movies. I'm not going to say "good" cause everyone (specially movie buffs) has a different idea about good and is usually more critical than the average movie goer (me).

All of us would like to see a Rifts Movie be a blockbuster hit. So lets compare blockbuster hit movies. What content, plot styles, twists, background do you think would fit ... and has PROVEN it 'fits' with wide audiences?
-What movies successfully use the "big diverse party concept" (not D&D!!)
-Do people gravitate more to movies with "one big star" and which ones/types would fit for Rifts?
-Combat scene types? (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Saving Private Ryan?)

I'm quite interested to see responses!

-Rifter6

Erin Tarn!!! Whether you like it or not, she should be the star. With Vin Diesel as Sir Winslow Thorpe...would not have to be as written to the letter. Heck Erin Tarn can be easily played by Jennifer Garner.

I never saw the Oceans movies, but I figure those might be close.
Star Wars (you had a smuggler, a space ape, a royal, a wizard, and robots).

I think one big star could work, but several stars, maybe of slightly lower caliber, would also work.
As for which ones to get?
People:
Vin Deisel: It's a violent (it better be violent) sci fi movie based on an RPG. That's his specialties and interests right there
Jason Statham: Hey, somebody's gotta drive, may as well get the best. Seriously, if you watch his movies, he's got 98% in all piloting skills, high level martial arts and lots of WPs. Sounds like a Rifts PC to me
Kate Beckinsale: Preferably in shiny black formfitting body armor
Djimon Honsou: Hero of villain, this guy is just pure badass
Someone should be a rogue scholar who has or is looking for some cryptic info key to the plot. This person should either be an older and refined actor (like any number of revered british actors), a crazy-eyed loon (Kramer, Cramer, or Christopher Lloyd), or else a sarcastic egotist.

Both!
A Rifts movie should have epic battles with lots of soldiers in the thich of it and big mechs and bigger booms. It should also have a few one on one and few on few fights.
Also, toward the climax of the movie, while the armies are fighting, the hero(es) try to sabotage a CS facility or steal a datadisk or somesuch, and are met by the protectors of their target. Ideally this fight is somehow crucial to the outcome of the larger battle.
Of course not every fight is gonna end in death. Most of the best action films have fights that end when one side knocks the other into a trap or cripples their vehicle or creates a diversion and splits or something of that nature.

Overlord.. like your response..

I've moved this stem of the conversation to a new topic at viewtopic.php?f=43&t=106992

-Rifter6

Penultimate Rifts Movie character, D-Bee: My Grackle Tooth Gunfighter, voiced by Patrick Warburton.

Penultimate Rifts Movie character, Human: Dr. Desmond Bradford, played by Lawrence Fishbourne.

I really think it would be awesome to have Hagan Lonovich be the main character of the movie, played by an older actor like Bruce Willis. Make the story center around him and ARCHIE and their fight with the Republicans. Along the way there are plenty of opportunities to describe and introduce encounters with the Coalition and the Splugorth. At the outset, we see a lone man and a super-computer fighting in a hostile post-apocalyptic world against all kinds of enemies human and alien. But as the story develops, we slowly see glimpses of Hagan's past, how he came to be with ARCHIE, and how he replaced James T (for those who don't like the obvious reference to Kirk, just call him James or actually come up with a last name). Then, as their struggle with the Republicans develops, more about their past with ARCHIE is revealed, until finally we learn the true history of both characters. The sympathetic Hagan and ARCHIE are finally revealed to be the villains they are in a dramatic closing scene in which the Republicans attempt to breach ARCHIE's security systems and free the Sleepers.

...of course they fail.

While that movie could be good, it's highly doubtful it'd be the first Rifts movie. The first movie has to be kind of "Generic Rifts" in theme. For the most part, it'd be the sort of campaign you just need the main book for. The movie you describe would make for a good sequel at some point, assuming the movie does well enough to become a franchise.

Here's the issue with making a movie that you could imagine being a campaign run from just the main book: the main book has too much stuff for the average movie-goer to grasp. One of the reasons I commonly find it hard to find players for Rifts for is because there is just too much stuff going on. There are more than 20 classes to choose from in the main book alone. Think about what made D&D a success. Simplicity. Originally it was 4 classes and 4 races and they were mutually exclusive (an elf was just an elf; only a human could be a thief or a fighter). Palladium has more of everything. More classes, more races, more technology, more magic, more psionics, even superheroes and aliens from other planets thrown into the mix! Admittedly you wouldn't necessarily be expecting all of that if you were to base it on just the core book, but still, there is a lot there.

That's why the more I think about it, the idea of starting the franchise off with ARCHIE and Hagan just seems practical. Hagan is a fairly simple and relate-able character on the outside. I think you could draw the audience in by slowly revealing his diabolical madness. I think that ARCHIE and the Republicans gives the audience something to anchor them as well. It's hard to identify with D-Bees and Dragons, but the descendants of remnants of the actual USA are something people completely unfamiliar with the game or genre can understand.

It would be so much easier just to make thousands of cartoons.

Anyone who knows the first thing about Rifts knows that the obvious choice for the main and secondary rolls would be a Headhunter and a Rouge Scholar. Think about it

You know Lord Coake's story would be nice.

The latter played by Eddie Izzard?

Actually, though I did think of that just as a rogue/rouge misspelling joke, he'd make for a good rogue scholar.

The name of the game is Rifts.

Have a mundane from today fall into the world, have to be saved, and eventually become part of a group or band that saved them. It doesn't matter who they fight, doesn't matter if the underdog(s) take out a dozen or a thousand bad guys; what matters is an exploration of the world, and an introduction for more people, perhaps even converts, and let's go so far as to say new people, to come play the game, to buy the source materials, support the habi... I mean, hobby, hehe, and expand the player base again.

And, it doesn't matter who the star(s) is/are, as long as they are able to act with a LOT of green screen, hehe.

I want to see Kevin and crew's vision(s) of the world. Mix it up in the Federation of Magic, skirt the Burbs, fight a D-Bee or three, and beat back the darkness. My definition of the darkness is anything NOT friendly to the main character(s) living. Heck, go down to Ciudad Juarez for a little visit.

What would be really cool would be to have a MMO in development to be released the same day as the movie, and to be able to climb screaming into the world you've just been witness to on the silver screen. THAT would make my day.

Just ol' Legend's two cents.

Perhaps the movie could start with a narrator talking about 'it's the year 2063.. blah blah.. and 'unknown to man, magic is real, but cyclic and ebbs and flows like the tide. The last x,000 years have seen magic and psychic abilities recede and science and technology rise to dominance' then you see some of the wonders of this advanced technology like robotics and power armor - particularly glitterboys - show the event that triggered the nuclear exchange - perhaps make it seem more plausible by altering it a bit, then show the rifts opening and everything going to crap, natural disasters, monsters etc plenty of cool cgi like in the movie 2012, which I just saw.

Then, after this opening sequence, you could do a retrospective: e.g. introduce the hero of the story, and put on the screen a 'counter' e.g. 24hrs before the coming of the Rifts - a normal person, some youngish kid or young adult who's going about their normal life when the rifts first open. Then you could show the effect of these rifts on their life and have them swallowed up by one expanding.

Then your main character is a 'vagabond' or 'D-Bee' and the audience share his discovery of the changed world of the future. I'm assuming he's american of course and you could have him shifted only in time not space and one of the early scenes would have him run into the fascistic Coalition, captured and taken into custody, luckily freed when the Coalition patrol (dogboys, coalitions soldiers and maybe a power armor or two) runs into a motley 'player character' group that includes a couple of oddball humans with unusual but rifts-representative occs and maybe a couple of D-Bees. I'd personally limit the framework of the movie to north america (fleshed out the best and obviously the main target audience) and not do too much of a parade of OCCs/RCCs.

It would be a cool part of the movie if this group and their clueless vagabond stumbled into an old robotic facility and a glitterboy that the pre-rifts vagabond hero might be best able to interface with/read the instruction manual. Suddenly our vagabond isn't so useless and you can have them run into more of the coalition or some significant non-humans to show off the glitterboy in all it's glory. Having the coalition troop and our PC group run into a slaving party from Atlantis and band together to survive, followed by an amicable parting of ways as the coalition troops expand their minds a trifle might work.

First, I say it's a good idea with the Splugorth Slavers... the Warrior Women, etc., because that might tie them to the original main book cover, if that cover is put on a new printing, of course. Second, I would say don't announce any of the O.C.C.s, make Rifts players have to guess, and don't burden mundanes with that idea of character classes. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't make it too obvious it's a role-playing game the movie is based on, lest it become a shameless commercial advertisement. However, tying identifiable elements from the game into the movie might help mundanes going into a Barnes & Noble or other book store chain to stop and look when they see it.

I'm interested in player proliferation.

Well it definitely goes without saying that you don't do too much name-dropping of too-specific things like OCC/RCC names. You need to make it flow more organically than the role-playing game does, if you want broad appeal.

I think that the main characters should be a group of adventurers, caught up in the conflict between the Federation of Magic and the Coalition. You can't have a situation where either of these evil groups are "Right." The heroes of the story have to have sympathy. Remember that the audience will pass a moral value judgement on this film based on modern values.

And I think the movie should be set a couple years in the future of Rifts, around 111 PA or so.

Hey, wait? Aren't I working on a novel about something like this...I might be...

I predict that the film will be about a disgruntled Coalition postal worker and the feral dog boy who chases him.

This should be animated...not live action.

I think animated something like Spirits Within, yes, and serious. I understand, though I've never seen, that the animated cartoon was too... "cartoony"... for serious Rifts gamers; the words I've heard most often is, "it was a joke". They said that about the BattleTech cartoon, also, and a lot of it was, but it had a good story, so I'd like to see for myself before I take everyone's word.

Heck, if they could even do an Avatar style movie, that would rock, with real actors who are, then, animated.

Has any one seen the CGI TMNT movie? It loked like it could be a jump-off for a Rifts movie. Seriously, the turtles would be a perfect vehicle to launch Rifts. The characters are known to people who aren't familiar to Rifts, and you could set up other characters that help them and introduce the world. After that a second movie could stand alone with the same characters after the turtles go home. Plus, you just need good voice actors, and som awesom CGI for the world, monsters and mecha.

That might not be a bad idea at all. Might take some legal foot work, but it would certainly be a way to introduce people to Rifts, especially older generation folks who loved the Turtles but never played anything.

Erin Tarn should not be the star. That would be like insisting Elron should have been the star of Lord of the Rings. The lead characters shouln't be any one from the source books they should resemble newly introduced PCs as much as possible.
Now, should Erin be in the movie? Without a doubt! The main characters would need to come to her and Victor to be put on the right path.