Producer talks all about the canned Metroid movie
A number of years ago, there had been talk of a Metroid movie. Once Zide-Perry Productions’ licence option expired, in 2004, director John Woo and the folks at Tiger Hill took over.
Brad Foxhoven, producer on the project and former president of Tiger Hill, told IGN:
“We believed there was a great opportunity for John Woo to bring his style of action into a Metroid film. Nintendo was quite supportive of the idea, as they were all fans of John’s previous films.”
According to Foxhoven, Tiger Hill was more than willing to work on the Metroid movie project for three years. It would have created a story that would appeal to new fans as well as existing fans.
“We knew that a lot of the Metroid mythology had many similarities to other well-known science fiction franchises, so we had to try and propose some fresh ideas that Nintendo would approve. We also knew that the characters were originally developed many years ago, when game systems were limited in their graphics and animation. These same designs needed to be updated, particularly when seen as a live-action representation.”
The Metroid movie was originally targeted for release in 2006. However, due to the massive failure of the Super Mario Bros. film in 1993, Nintendo was circumspect with Metroid, and maintained a number of restrictions that Tiger Hill needed to work around.
“Nintendo was definitely discouraged by it, but felt that with John [Woo] they would be in better hands. The challenge for us was that it felt that the biggest lesson Nintendo learned from Mario was to hold onto their rights even tighter, limiting collaboration when it came to translating Metroid to the big screen. Our entire development time was spent exploring the Metroid world, and what we could – and couldn’t – do within it.”
Foxhoven confirmed that a few different writers were brought in. One such writer was David Greenwalt, from series including Buffy, Angel, and Grimm.
“We liked David because he brought along a strong sensibility for a female protagonists. Obviously this was a must, with Samus being the key figure in all of this. We made it as far as a treatment for a live action film that John would possibly direct.”
Foxhoven said that early scripts explored Samus Aran’s origin story. Samus would have been exceptionally talented, but a flawed character on a path looking for redemption.
“We wanted to see her struggle, to be humbled, and to be forced to rise up against crazy odds. And of course we wanted to see the cool weapons in all of their glory.”
Unfortunately, the writers eventually encountered issues. Foxhoven explained:
“Things started to go south when we tried to dig into the character a bit more. As you know, any film needs a deeper story arc than what is told in the game, where we learn about the characters and their world. What are they doing when they are NOT fighting? What is their daily existence and relationships? What are Samus’s aspirations, history, and fears? Nintendo appreciated the questions, but had never thought about them before, and ultimately didn’t have a lot of answers. In the end, they felt uncomfortable with our team being the ones to propose those answers.”
2007 marked the end of Tiger Hill’s involvement with the Metroid movie. The studio moved on to Stranglehold, and the rights lapsed for a second time. Still, Foxhoven thinks there’s a chance of a Metroid film happening one day.
“I know for Nintendo, they walked away appreciating the process and how much further they needed to explore the franchise so that it has a chance for a feature film at some point. I still believe there is a chance. There are quite a few Hollywood executives in town who grew up playing Metroid, and who would be willing to take the time needed to bring Nintendo along in the process.”
