Rifts Movie

[Akashic Soldier]

What would you want/expect to see and what other franchises would you like to see as a feature film or animated series?

[Jason Richards]

Rifts is itching to be an anime, I've always thought. Splicers would be great animated as well.

[ffranceschi]

RIFTS and SPLICERS. I was tempted to say HU but we got Marvel doing great movies right now about Super Heroes so I stick with two choices.

[Eashamahel]

Heroes Unlimited, Palladium Fantasy, BTS and Dead Reign are too generic. There is very little to distinguish them from anything else in those genres, in fact at least a few of them are made to be generic.

Rifts, Chaos Earth, Nightbane, and Splicers (from what little I know of it) have enough original identity to have something in other media based on them and stand on their own merits. All would likely bomb as movies.

[kaid]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! /ducks.

[Razzinold]

Rifts is itching to be an anime, I've always thought. Splicers would be great animated as well.

My original gaming group and myself have been discussing that since the first time we ever played. As much as a Rifts movie would be cool, an anime movie (better yet an ongoing series) would be way better!

You could make juicers looking amazing on screen zipping around while everyone else is at a stand still, borgs, PA, and Robots would look sweet too.

Now to be fair the bots in Pacific Rim did look awesome, but that was bot against giant monster, imo it would be hard to have humans running around the bot, or climbing it, without it looking like CGI was involved to make it appear that way.

[Alpha 11]

Rifts is itching to be an anime, I've always thought. Splicers would be great animated as well.

My original gaming group and myself have been discussing that since the first time we ever played. As much as a Rifts movie would be cool, an anime movie (better yet an ongoing series) would be way better!

You could make juicers looking amazing on screen zipping around while everyone else is at a stand still, borgs, PA, and Robots would look sweet too.

Now to be fair the bots in Pacific Rim did look awesome, but that was bot against giant monster, imo it would be hard to have humans running around the bot, or climbing it, without it looking like CGI was involved to make it appear that way.

Yes! Anime all the way!

[Kryptt]

Anime and HBO.

[Dunia]

The day that a PB game is made a hollywood-ish movie or HBO-ish series, that day I will retract all negative things I have ever said about them.

By the way, (this is not criticism or meant in any bad way) what ever happen to Jerry Bruckenheimer (or who it was) and his intent to make a movie about Rifts?

[TagsPB]

The day that a PB game is made a hollywood-ish movie or HBO-ish series, that day I will retract all negative things I have ever said about them.

By the way, (this is not criticism or meant in any bad way) what ever happen to Jerry Bruckenheimer (or who it was) and his intent to make a movie about Rifts?

Last I heard, Mr. Bruckenheimer and/or his production company keeps renewing the film rights with PB.......waiting on that script.

[say652]

He is most likely waiting on a viable conversion table for traveling between sdc and mdc worlds.

[cornholioprime]

A long-running series -probably in Anime form because of the tremendous expense of all the needed Special Effects -on HBO, Cinemax, AMC or even Netflix.

No single movie will do Rifts justice.......and more than one movie is probably considered to be too risky for the studios to take up.

[HWalsh]

A long-running series -probably in Anime form because of the tremendous expense of all the needed Special Effects -on HBO, Cinemax, AMC or even Netflix.

No single movie will do Rifts justice.......and more than one movie is probably considered to be too risky for the studios to take up.

Nah... You could do it in one movie... It would beg for sequels but you could self-contain it... You have to introduce the setting and slinking by the exposition would be a pain in the butt though...

Here is how I would do it...

Begin in "The golden age of man..."

Show (Don't tell!) the golden age... Cyborgs... Etc... Close to a "War Room" where a group of military people are talking about how this new neural computer... ARCHIE Three... Could revolutionize modern warfare. Use this as an excuse to show off some tech, as maybe a power point is given, have someone explain: "Sure, the Chromium Guardsman is impressive but it is only useful if deployed properly, it is a scalpel. A scalpel is only as good as the surgeon who wields it. ARCHIE could be that surgeon. With the current wars raging, the death toll around the world is rising, ARCHIE could lead the NEMA into the next..."

The general is cut off, by a report... Something horrible has happened... The west coast is gone... People are reporting huge portals... Huge rifts... Opening everywhere... People are reporting monsters... Literal monsters...

Show a map of the world, with red dots filling it in... Then a massive shockwave rattles the building... Fade to black...

Next have Erin Tarn... The star of the movie... Picking through a burned out wreckage... Add a tag showing the current year... Show her pick up a book and talking to a young man with her, a boy. The boy will comment how that book is worthless, and have her explain to him that books are all we have left of the world that was destroyed with the coming of the rifts...

We use the boy as the viewer's eyes into the world, and Erin as a historian to explain things without it seeming contrived...

If we have Erin Tarn find something of extreme value, a book that is potentially dangerous to the CS, we can have Erin plan on taking it from where she found it to a place where it will be protected. Along the way the CS learns she has it and sends teams out to stop her. She finds companions along the way, as she seeks to deliver this knowledge, this valuable thing, to a safe place. This valuable thing? A reproduction of the Declaration of Independence... Something Emperor Prosek would not want people to have access to.

We use the kid to serve as the person who asks questions. Maybe the kid asks a Ley Line Walker what it is like to wield magic. Maybe he asks what it is like to become a 'Borg. Maybe he asks what it takes to become a Cyber-Knight.

You could totally do this in a single film... And have plenty of room for sequels...

[Warshield73]

HWalsh, I actually like your idea but I always thought the narrator needed to be ARCHIE 3. Saying how he was born 2090 (I am guessing I don't know if they give a specific date_ during the golden age, showing all the advances of the human race and then telling the story of the Rifts from his point of view.

Also, I have always thought the star of the movie should be a soldier or (God help me I hate saying this because I hate them) even a NEMA officer that rifts forward in time.

[Kagashi]

At this point, anything a single movie tries to show viewers is just going to come across to the mainstream movie viewers as copying this or copying that; despite the fact that Palladium has been pushing Rifts since the early 90's and has the original ideas. This movie is about 10 years too late. Much like how it took Palladium too long to come out with a video game (on a platform that wasnt owned by only 10 people) and the other similarly named MMORPG caused confusion and the average gamer thinks Palladium ripped off this other game, this is how the average movie gower is going to see a single Rifts movie.

You want monsters and robots? Pacific Rim. You want super powered humans? X-Men franchise. You want a team of unlikely heroes of varying power levels and abilities that oddly create synergy? Marvel Cinematic Universe. Post-apocolyptic war between dragons and humans? Reign of Fire. You get the idea: Sucker Punch has literally beat Palladium to the punch.

The idea of a movie needs to be wiped from the minds of JB, KS, PB, gamers, and movie watchers alike. This needs to be a series of sorts (6 part mini-series, limited run series, and so on). They need to be more Star Trek and less Star Wars. This is needed to adequately explain the world of Rifts, the Geo-political environment, how magic works, and what a rift is. To do a movie, and try to cram everything into a 1.5 - 2 hour film will come across as rushed and confusing, will provide no opportunity for character/plot development, and be filled with CGI to the point which will make the Star Wars prequels look like a campy 80s movie; its going to end up in the $5.00 bin at Walmart along with all those copies of the last AC/DC album a week after it is released.

A movie will not do well. It might have done well back in 2006. But not today. Sorry, but that window is closed, and its closing with every sci-fi/fantasy movie that is released. A series is the way to go, the medium doesnt really matter. Animation or live action will still work. Animation can be done cheaper than CGI, which will be required to pull off the visuals. But with good writing and the opportunity to develop the plot and characters, it can be a success and not be posted on Rotten Tomatoes immediately with no chance of a much needed sequel.

ATB, Splicers, and Rifts Space would be cool to see too.

[MethosDarkblade]

What you're saying Kagashi is that instead of looking at films, PB should be looking at Anime studios? Because that would be awesome. The world of Rifts would fit in well with the anime community. Also, Splicers would probably be the most original anime out there, as would After the Bomb.

So maybe we should be writing anime series rather than movies. In fact, with Harmony Gold's support, we could bring Kagashi "the character from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" into Rifts Earth. Imagine a Cyclone Rider with Rifts Bionic Limbs fighting with a group of misfits like a mutant doctor who can transform into sand and a psi-ghost who hates music. Now that's a series

[Kagashi]

Heh, yeah, we would basically already have a script in place.

[cornholioprime]

I would point out to Kagashi and any other 'Rifts Movie Fatalist' that Hollywood makes the vast majority of its money -to the tune of billions and billions and billions of dollars -on sequels, remakes, and other versions of movies based on the principle of recycling ideas that have already been made into movies.

If we can have a "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" and a "American Pie Part 15" and "Paranormal Activity XX: Revenge Of The Shaky-Cam" and "The Lord Of The Rings 5: Even More Hobbits Taking A Long, Long Walk" and "Transformers 70: Michael Bay Is Making These Films Just To Torment TF Fans At This Point," then we can have a Rifts Movie with every expectation that it can make a lot of money for both the movie studio and Palladium Books alike.

Especially since we haven't ever really come even close to seeing a gestalt High-Magic-And-High-Technology-Fantasy-Setting-In-The-Same-Movie film on the big screen before.
(Have we ever had a mix of the two in any movie or TV show, ever? Isn't that a rare concept even for anime?)

[Warshield73]

"Transformers 70: Michael Bay Is Making These Films Just To Torment TF Fans At This Point,"

This is the best title for the last movie I have ever seen. Very well done.

[jaymz]

I personally believe a live action movie is NOT the way to go at all with pretty much ANY of Palladium's properties.

Rifts you NEED it to be anime to get the right feel

The others can be more what we consider "regular" animation, or cgi (ala Star Wars Clone Wars and Rebels) to work.

That;s just my opinion though. Mind you I still don't get why they haven't done in house comic book lines for anything yet with the talent they have there. Path of the Storm would have been a really good Comic Mini Series imo.

[cornholioprime]

I personally believe a live action movie is NOT the way to go at all with pretty much ANY of Palladium's properties.

Rifts you NEED it to be anime to get the right feel

The others can be more what we consider "regular" animation, or cgi (ala Star Wars Clone Wars and Rebels) to work.

That;s just my opinion though. Mind you I still don't get why they haven't done in house comic book lines for anything yet with the talent they have there. Path of the Storm would have been a really good Comic Mini Series imo.

Agreed on the sentiment, one hundred percent.

HOWEVER.....making it an Anime won't make any serious money, and at this point a Rifts Film is every bit as much a business proposition as it is the dream of many to finally see such a wonderful game make it to the big screen.

[jaymz]

I don't know man, I mean, anime is getting to be bigger business every year.

If one prefers, they could use the same style as Clone Wars/Rebels and get the feel as they can do some REALLY good stuff for supernaturals judging by how they handled Jedi and such so...if they go THAT route there is definite money to be made.

Mind you business wise a relatively widely distributed Comic/graphic novel series to set the stage ahead of time would be a good idea too....sate the appetite for more as it were.

Edit- mind you I also very little faith we will ever see such a thing as a movie anime or cgi animated series let alone a comic/graphic novel series....

[Killer Cyborg]

I still haven't watched Clone Wars specifically because I dislike the animation.
The more stylized something is, the more likely it is to alienate potential viewers.

[Warshield73]

I still haven't watched Clone Wars specifically because I dislike the animation.
The more stylized something is, the more likely it is to alienate potential viewers.

I have started watching Clone Wars several times but the animation bugs me too much. At this rate I might get through the entire series around about the time the 9th movie comes out.

I think this is the real problem with an anime of Rifts. Gaming is a niche market and anime is a niche, this means that any Rifts anime will be niche of a niche. So an anime of Rifts will be great for anime fans within the Palladium community but it will do almost nothing to expand the Rifts itself.

[Kagashi]

I would point out to Kagashi and any other 'Rifts Movie Fatalist' that Hollywood makes the vast majority of its money -to the tune of billions and billions and billions of dollars -on sequels, remakes, and other versions of movies based on the principle of recycling ideas that have already been made into movies.

If we can have a "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" and a "American Pie Part 15" and "Paranormal Activity XX: Revenge Of The Shaky-Cam" and "The Lord Of The Rings 5: Even More Hobbits Taking A Long, Long Walk" and "Transformers 70: Michael Bay Is Making These Films Just To Torment TF Fans At This Point," then we can have a Rifts Movie with every expectation that it can make a lot of money for both the movie studio and Palladium Books alike.

Assuming it makes it to a sequel. If a movie bombs, no producer is going to make a second movie. Green Lantern lost $90M. You will never see a Green Lantern 2. At least not with Ryan Reynolds in that continuity. Give a few years and you might see a re-imagining or reboot, but for now, nobody is even entertaining that idea.

I am fairly certain a Rifts movie, in the manner of the conventional movie industry knows movies, will bomb though.

Imagine, sitting in "Lord of the Rings 5: Even More Hobbits Taking a Long, Long Walk...Directors Cut" and the previews come on. The first preview starts and you see the Earth from space. As a zoomed out view of the solar system shows Earth in line with Mars and Jupiter, two small scale nuclear bombs go off in South America, creating a chain reaction causing these blue lines to criss-cross the face of the Earth (a few sound effects of people screaming, monsters growling, and obvious sounds of war like bombs and machine gun fire can be faintly heard in this scene). The camera view zooms in through the clouds of Earth and passes by a rippling ribbon of blue energy pulsing across the ground. A large monster emerges from the blue energy. (Your heart is pounding now, cause you think you know what his might be). Then, as if God himself has personally answered your prayers, the image of a Coalition Spider Skull Walker traverses over the hill, rail guns and lasers blazing, cutting the monster down where he stands. (you are practically leaping out of your seat at this point). The camera spins around and zooms past a patrol of Coalition soldiers rushing a house which zips past through the window, past dirty, broken glass and tattered curtains, focusing in on the face of action star Hugh Jackman clad in robes and adorned with runes and symbols. He slides his gas mask over his face and leaps out the window, sending shards of glass flying through the air and unleashes a series of fireballs that cuts down the rushing CS soldiers, causing enormous Bruckheimer-esque explosions to grow in slow motion.

"From the studios that brought you Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Pearl Harbor..."

Jackman's Character is joined by a warrior woman who appears to be wearing dark shades, scantly clad rubber armor, and an 80s style gold helmet (no mistaking it is Scarlett Johansson). Johansson's character dodges a laser while kicking a soldier in the face, throwing his head back as he flips over backwards (in slow mo), then produces a sword (fast forwarded) which she plunges into the armor of a second soldier (slowed again during the impact).

"Special Effects by ILM and sound by Skywalker Sound..."

Jackman's character spins in a Matrix style manner and points his hands to the camera...

"Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson...in..."

Flames erupt from Jackman's character's hands right at the camera...as the flames clear, it reveals the Palladium-iconic "Rifts" title with a sentence fading in "Summer 2016".

You are pumped, you think this is the best thing since you found out Betty White did nudes back in the 40s. Suddenly you hear from the row behind you, "Like I need to see Pacific Rim again". His friend agrees and says, "Isnt that, that game, you know, like World of Warcraft or something?"

To put it bluntly, the market is currently saturated and there is really nothing that will separate this movie from the rest of the similar movies in recent cinematic history. Heck, if anything, it will have TOO many aspects to cram into one movie, let alone a preview which is supposed to capture attention.

Especially since we haven't ever really come even close to seeing a gestalt High-Magic-And-High-Technology-Fantasy-Setting-In-The-Same-Movie film on the big screen before.
(Have we ever had a mix of the two in any movie or TV show, ever? Isn't that a rare concept even for anime?)

Except for Sucker Punch (clearly you have not seen this movie; steampunked Germans, orcs, dragons, robot drones, flintlock pistols, tomahawks, M-4s, B-25s with jet engines, and power armor suits shooting down dirigibles and biplanes; all explained by delusions in an insane asylum), Pacific Rim (monsters vs bots), Cowboys vs Aliens (might as well have read New West before making that movie; peacemakers vs energy blasts) the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Avengers specifically (sure its a series of movies, but they are all related and in the same continuity, clearly using high tech, super powers, and magic), and a host of other recent movies.

If this is going to happen, it has to capture the attention of the average movie goer and it has to set itself apart from every other preview we have already seen. To do otherwise, means it will end up in the Walmart $5.00 bin. And I am having a difficult time thinking it will. It has to be more than spiffy explosions, CGI, and big names. We have to convey something else to the viewer that will make them say, "thats cool, I want to see that!". (although admittedly, Scarlett Johannson in a Blind Warrior Woman outfit would certainly pique my interest even if I had no idea what Rifts was).

[Soldier of Od]

Next have Erin Tarn... The star of the movie... Picking through a burned out wreckage... Add a tag showing the current year... Show her pick up a book and talking to a young man with her, a boy. The boy will comment how that book is worthless, and have her explain to him that books are all we have left of the world that was destroyed with the coming of the rifts...

We use the boy as the viewer's eyes into the world, and Erin as a historian to explain things without it seeming contrived...

We use the kid to serve as the person who asks questions. Maybe the kid asks a Ley Line Walker what it is like to wield magic. Maybe he asks what it is like to become a 'Borg. Maybe he asks what it takes to become a Cyber-Knight.

And at the end the naive kid turns out to be a new-born dragon hatchling!

[Raze_7]

What would you want/expect to see and what other franchises would you like to see as a feature film or animated series?

Rifts is definetly, as some others have already said, "itching to be an anime movie." Of course, this movie should definitely be able to be watched by adults and teenagers alike, so please avoid R-rated material. I really would hate to see a movie with such an interesting premise be rated R because the animation was to sensual or violent.

I really want to see the Zappers and Psi-Warriors in this movie, partially because you don't see many stories about them. Harvesters, too, if they can work that in without extreme violence.

I don't think that the star should be someone as famous and defined as Erin Tarn or ARCHIE III. They could definitely be supporting characters, or other stars, but the main protagonists should be Cyber-Knights, Glitter-Boys, Ley-Line Walkers, and/or Bursters/Mind Melters, or some other well-known class that generally is good and has just as much renown in the fictional world as they do to the people who play the game. A Psi-Warrior as another main protagonist would be nice, as well. The protagonist(s) (for, really, it is impossible to describe the whole of the Rifts World without multiple stars) should be of an honourable alignment.

I want to see at least one anti-villain (Artemis Fowl-like character), and possibly an anti-hero as well. Anti-villains are much more interesting, I find, than heroes.

Find a way to throw in the Tundra Rangers, without destroying their meaning, and I will be well-pleased.

[Alrik Vas]

a Rifts movie needs to focus on the struggle between the CS and non-human types, and it has to cast a questionable light on both while showing the good qualities of each as well. magic, tech and weird stuff can fit as given because viewers can understand what they are because of previous movies.

[jaymz]

A movie, sadly cannot portray the scope properly....anime series would be better, or even live action if they had the budget....

personally I;d rather see a well written comic book series at this point but that's me