I think Icewind Dale would make the best movie out of all the IE games - it has a strong linear plot, a deep atmosphere and no fixed cast of protagonists. That's what I say since that wierd Courtney Solomon movie.
I think IWD would make the best HOLLYWOOD movie. It is very light on story or character depth. Maybe Michael Bay is available? (it's a joke)
Seriously, IWD is intended to be a dungeon crawl with the absolute loosest possible excuse to string a bunch of adventures together into one. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE IWD. i just don't see it in the same camp as BG as far as story or Character driven drama. It's kind of like comparing Game of Thrones to a Roadrunner cartoon.
One thing I've noticed about the IWD plot, is that
you get sent on two or three *huge* dungeon crawls that turn out to be red herrings.
Arundel: "Well, there's this huge valley of undead monsters that are carrying people off in the night. That's probably what's making the Great Tree sick."
(you fight your way to Kresselack.)
Kresselack: "Go kill this evil cleric of Auril for me. She's in one of the caves on the surface. You already went to that cave? She must have been out. Go back. No, really, go back, she'll be there now. And then come report to me when she's dead, and I'll help you heal your Tree.
(you trek all the way back up to the caves to kill the cleric of Auril, then all the way back to the bottom of Kresselack's tomb.
Kresselack: "Is she dead? Good. I'm not the one making your Tree sick. I have no idea why your Tree is sick. No, I have no idea who's doing it. But now you know it's not coming from me or my undead, and that's something. I don't care if you're unhappy with all you had to go through. Here, take this armor and sword off my dead body, and get out."
(you return to Arundel)
Arundel: "Hmm, so it wasn't the undead? Must be the Ettin in the Hall of the Ettin. Go there, and I'm sure you'll find the Heart of MacGuffin that we need to heal the Tree.
(you go on a huge, extremely dangerous and difficult dungeon crawl in the Hall of the Ettin. You find an empty altar, where apparently there used to be a Heart of MacGuffin, but it's long gone. You return to Arundel again.)
Arundel: "It's been stolen from there? Rats! I thought we had it that time. It must have been taken to the Eye of the Doom Dragon Endless Caves of Infinite Number by the lizard people or the Yuan-ti snake priests. Oh, btw, we're missing a cleric. If you find her down there, we'd love to have her back."
(you go on a huge, extremely dangerous and difficult, five-level dungeon crawl, and after journeying deep, deep, deeeeeep underground, almost to the very core of the earth, fighting lizard people, trolls, spiders, paralyzing carnivorous stink bomb beetles, hordes of undead, rescuing the lost townspeople who were being held as food livestock, rescuing the lost cleric, rescuing another adventuring party from the yuan-ti priests, you finally have an epic battle with a fallen snake goddess, and retrieve the Heart of MacGuffin at long last.)
(you return to Arundel.)
Arundel: "Thanks for the Heart of MacGuffin, suckers. I'm not really Arundel, I'm a doppelganger. Buh-bye! (POOF). "
(you find the real Arundel upstairs, bound and gagged, and you rescue and release him.)
Arundel: "Terribly sorry about all that running around! I believe these other monsters wanted the Heart of MacGuffin for an ancient elven ritual, so we have to stop them and get the Heart back. All you need to do is to go the 107 story Skyscraper of the Ancient Hand, kill the monsters on all 107 floors, piece together a puzzle that has clues on four (or was it six?) random floors out the 107 floors, reconstruct the entire 5,000 year history of the elves, find your way to the top floor, kill the mad omnipotent King of All Liches, and then recover the Heart of MacGuffin. Return here when you are finished."
(you and your five friends sigh heavily and roll your eyes, and set off yet again
LOL. I do love IWD, but people in a mood of nostalgia like to exaggerate the depth of the plot. At least the first three dungeon crawls are total red herrings that do nothing to get you closer to the end goal.
It's a hack-n-slash combat tactics game, with really only the thinnest excuse for a story, and what story there is contains some real eye-rolling moments. It's a standard "Whoever gets the MacGuffin and touches home base first wins" kind of story.
I'm not complaining; I actually like stuff like this, but I'm also pretty realistic about it. All of the above is merely my opinion.
I got to thinking that Summer Glau would probably be a really good fit for Shar-Teel. What do you guys think? She has that terminatoresque type feel and could definitely pull off the whole Dexy Female warrior.
I misunderstood the rules slightly. But, what if you can have any actor in history from any time in their acting career? Since, lets face it, a movie will never be made and even if it was you would never get all these current stars and starlets anyway, so might as well just go all out fantasy casting. So you can have Alyson Hannigan and David Warner from when they were younger.
I watched Westworld, once, and remember thinking that Yul Brynner would have made a good Sarevok (it was the eyes).
I've always wanted to see Armin Shimmerman (Quark, DS9), and Wallace Shawn (Vizzini, Princess Bride and Grand Nagus, DS9) in shorty roles.
Either one of them would make a really good Jan Jansen or Tiax. I've heard most people like Wallace Shawn for Tiax, so I guess Armin Shimmerman would be Jan Jansen, or maybe Quayle.
I've given this a lot of thought, and I think I've come up with the indisputable perfect casting for a BG movie. You might be against a movie of BG, but one look at this line-up and you'll change your mind quickly.
CHARNAME: Eddie Murphy Gorion: Eddie Murphy with a beard Imoen: Eddie Murphy in drag Sarevok: Eddie Murphy in a suit of armour Montaron: Eddie Murphy kneeling Xzar: Eddie Murphy with crazy eyes Khalid: Eddie Murphy with a stutter Jaheira: Eddie Murphy in not-as-much drag Minsc: Eddie Murphy, constantly yelling Dynaheir: Eddie Murphy in even more drag Mulahey: Eddie Murphy in heavy makeup Tazok: Eddie Murphy in heavier makeup Scar: Eddie Murphy in a uniform Angelo: Eddie Murphy in a different uniform Duke Eltan: Eddie Murphy faking sick Elminster: Eddie Murphy in a pointy hat
Tell me that this isn't the best way to bring the world of Baldur's Gate to life.
@Coutelier It's been so long since Baldur's Gate was first out. There's good reason why people aren't mentioning Alyson Hannigan as Imoen much anymore. A lot of time has passed. She's still incredibly attractive, but she has grown up since then.
Not that I'm not a huge fan of Buffy which I am, I would think more people now would know Alyson Hannigan from How I met your Mother. I think that even in her role as Lilly she is still incrediably simalair looking to Imoen I mean makeup and other special effects are magic to aging. Look at cloud atlas.
Considering Allison Hannigan can't act... no she wouldn't make a good Imoen quite simply because she couldn't do Imoen justice cause she can't act.
Much like her more famous counterpart (Sarah Michelle Gellar) she plays one role, and she doesn't play that role very well. Stilted, wooden, and with a voice that makes me want to rip my ears off. She would make a HORRIBLE Imoen.
I actually don't know who would make a good Imoen.
Although could you see Lena Headey as Safana? Or maybe Skie? Actually Grey De-Lisle might make a good Skie...
I've given this a lot of thought, and I think I've come up with the indisputable perfect casting for a BG movie. You might be against a movie of BG, but one look at this line-up and you'll change your mind quickly.
CHARNAME: Eddie Murphy Gorion: Eddie Murphy with a beard Imoen: Eddie Murphy in drag Sarevok: Eddie Murphy in a suit of armour Montaron: Eddie Murphy kneeling Xzar: Eddie Murphy with crazy eyes Khalid: Eddie Murphy with a stutter Jaheira: Eddie Murphy in not-as-much drag Minsc: Eddie Murphy, constantly yelling Dynaheir: Eddie Murphy in even more drag Mulahey: Eddie Murphy in heavy makeup Tazok: Eddie Murphy in heavier makeup Scar: Eddie Murphy in a uniform Angelo: Eddie Murphy in a different uniform Duke Eltan: Eddie Murphy faking sick Elminster: Eddie Murphy in a pointy hat
Tell me that this isn't the best way to bring the world of Baldur's Gate to life.
OK. It isn't the best way to bring the world of Baldur's Gate to life.
Given advances in CG technology, (Just look at Cinematic Trailers for most new video game releases) my dream cinematic experience of Baldur's Gate would probably be a TV series (the plot is too long for a feature film) like Game of Thrones, but all done with computer animation, which can be close to photo-realistic these days. That ways each character can be depicted faithfully to what they are supposed to look like in the game.
Of course this is horribly expensive and financially impossible. But then we are discussing actors for a movie that will never be made.
Comments
Seriously, IWD is intended to be a dungeon crawl with the absolute loosest possible excuse to string a bunch of adventures together into one. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE IWD. i just don't see it in the same camp as BG as far as story or Character driven drama. It's kind of like comparing Game of Thrones to a Roadrunner cartoon.
Arundel: "Well, there's this huge valley of undead monsters that are carrying people off in the night. That's probably what's making the Great Tree sick."
(you fight your way to Kresselack.)
Kresselack: "Go kill this evil cleric of Auril for me. She's in one of the caves on the surface. You already went to that cave? She must have been out. Go back. No, really, go back, she'll be there now. And then come report to me when she's dead, and I'll help you heal your Tree.
(you trek all the way back up to the caves to kill the cleric of Auril, then all the way back to the bottom of Kresselack's tomb.
Kresselack: "Is she dead? Good. I'm not the one making your Tree sick. I have no idea why your Tree is sick. No, I have no idea who's doing it. But now you know it's not coming from me or my undead, and that's something. I don't care if you're unhappy with all you had to go through. Here, take this armor and sword off my dead body, and get out."
(you return to Arundel)
Arundel: "Hmm, so it wasn't the undead? Must be the Ettin in the Hall of the Ettin. Go there, and I'm sure you'll find the Heart of MacGuffin that we need to heal the Tree.
(you go on a huge, extremely dangerous and difficult dungeon crawl in the Hall of the Ettin. You find an empty altar, where apparently there used to be a Heart of MacGuffin, but it's long gone. You return to Arundel again.)
Arundel: "It's been stolen from there? Rats! I thought we had it that time. It must have been taken to the Eye of the Doom Dragon Endless Caves of Infinite Number by the lizard people or the Yuan-ti snake priests. Oh, btw, we're missing a cleric. If you find her down there, we'd love to have her back."
(you go on a huge, extremely dangerous and difficult, five-level dungeon crawl, and after journeying deep, deep, deeeeeep underground, almost to the very core of the earth, fighting lizard people, trolls, spiders, paralyzing carnivorous stink bomb beetles, hordes of undead, rescuing the lost townspeople who were being held as food livestock, rescuing the lost cleric, rescuing another adventuring party from the yuan-ti priests, you finally have an epic battle with a fallen snake goddess, and retrieve the Heart of MacGuffin at long last.)
(you return to Arundel.)
Arundel: "Thanks for the Heart of MacGuffin, suckers. I'm not really Arundel, I'm a doppelganger. Buh-bye!
(POOF). "
(you find the real Arundel upstairs, bound and gagged, and you rescue and release him.)
Arundel: "Terribly sorry about all that running around! I believe these other monsters wanted the Heart of MacGuffin for an ancient elven ritual, so we have to stop them and get the Heart back. All you need to do is to go the 107 story Skyscraper of the Ancient Hand, kill the monsters on all 107 floors, piece together a puzzle that has clues on four (or was it six?) random floors out the 107 floors, reconstruct the entire 5,000 year history of the elves, find your way to the top floor, kill the mad omnipotent King of All Liches, and then recover the Heart of MacGuffin. Return here when you are finished."
(you and your five friends sigh heavily and roll your eyes, and set off yet again
LOL. I do love IWD, but people in a mood of nostalgia like to exaggerate the depth of the plot. At least the first three dungeon crawls are total red herrings that do nothing to get you closer to the end goal.
It's a hack-n-slash combat tactics game, with really only the thinnest excuse for a story, and what story there is contains some real eye-rolling moments. It's a standard "Whoever gets the MacGuffin and touches home base first wins" kind of story.
I'm not complaining; I actually like stuff like this, but I'm also pretty realistic about it. All of the above is merely my opinion.
I watched Westworld, once, and remember thinking that Yul Brynner would have made a good Sarevok (it was the eyes).
Also, Wayne Rooney as Montaron.
Either one of them would make a really good Jan Jansen or Tiax. I've heard most people like Wallace Shawn for Tiax, so I guess Armin Shimmerman would be Jan Jansen, or maybe Quayle.
Who would Charlize Theron play?
Kate Bekinsale I could see as Viconia maybe?
CHARNAME: Eddie Murphy
Gorion: Eddie Murphy with a beard
Imoen: Eddie Murphy in drag
Sarevok: Eddie Murphy in a suit of armour
Montaron: Eddie Murphy kneeling
Xzar: Eddie Murphy with crazy eyes
Khalid: Eddie Murphy with a stutter
Jaheira: Eddie Murphy in not-as-much drag
Minsc: Eddie Murphy, constantly yelling
Dynaheir: Eddie Murphy in even more drag
Mulahey: Eddie Murphy in heavy makeup
Tazok: Eddie Murphy in heavier makeup
Scar: Eddie Murphy in a uniform
Angelo: Eddie Murphy in a different uniform
Duke Eltan: Eddie Murphy faking sick
Elminster: Eddie Murphy in a pointy hat
Tell me that this isn't the best way to bring the world of Baldur's Gate to life.
Much like her more famous counterpart (Sarah Michelle Gellar) she plays one role, and she doesn't play that role very well. Stilted, wooden, and with a voice that makes me want to rip my ears off. She would make a HORRIBLE Imoen.
I actually don't know who would make a good Imoen.
Although could you see Lena Headey as Safana? Or maybe Skie? Actually Grey De-Lisle might make a good Skie...
Of course this is horribly expensive and financially impossible. But then we are discussing actors for a movie that will never be made.