A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

If you were to make/cast a movie of F-Zero X, who would you cast in the 31 character roles (30 racers and Mr Zero) and why?

Captain Falcon;
Scott Adkins - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0012078/
- Is a great martial artist, just LOOK at his face - that is Falcon's chin - and I believe he could pull off the emotional undercurrents needed.
- Blood Falcon would be the same actor as Captain Falcon

Doctor Stewart;
Clive Owen - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0654110/
- Has the ladies-man grin, but can play parts with more depth.

Super Arrow;
Rodney Carrington - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1625306/
- Has the right look, smile and build

Mrs Arrow/Monique L'amoureax;
Bryce Dallas Howard - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0397171/
- Has the height and supermodel look, though might not have the muscularity.

Jody Summer;
Kate Beckinsale - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000295/
- Has done emotional roles as well as action films, the right sort of look (Needs her hair down)

Silver Neelson;
Willie Nelson - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005268/
- Dead ringer, good actor and just the right age for the old wise sage of the lot.

Michael Chain;
Terry Crews - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0187719/
- Massive in physical size, though might be a little too old.

Black Shadow;
Mark Strong - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0835016/
- Would be mostly covered up but has the presence and dark voice.

I can't think of anybody for the others. But if you have a different idea for casting these characters, or any casting ideas for the others, then please add them. Should be fun

Are there certain characters you think would be better as CGI instead of actors?

I think Pico would do well as a CGI render instead of an actor because of the difficulty of creating a believable mask that doesn't look like a plastic 'Gorn' person.

Just had a render made of him, and it's clear that the level of complexity in his design would befit a CGI characterisation, probably motion-captured in his movements to make him seem more real.

What actor would pull off a Pico voice and characterisation, do you think?

I'm not familiar with the F-Zero series. I know there's some sort of backstory, but nothing beyond that. Care to explain?

Also, that drawing is ridiculous. I would love to see the creatures from SMB in that style, though it would be cool to see any character done that way, really. Top-notch work.

Hey RedStar ^_^ Thanks for replying.

Well the F-Zero game series is a Nintendo series of racing games, that began on the SNES and was released on the same engine as Super Mario Kart. I personally loved F-Zero's driving mechanics and hated Super Mario Kart's though, which I know is extremely odd but there ya go lol There were subtle differences.

The series is Japanese, but is based (At least at first) on American style comic books, with the original SNES game coming with a small mini-comic with the game's four playable characters;

Captain Falcon: You'll recognise this guy from Super Smash Bros too. He is the 'main character' of F-Zero, a badass bounty hunter and renowned F-Zero champion. He often steals other people's bounty and is one of the sport's most popular racers.

Doctor Stewart: A slender egotist, who enters the races for "science... and women." Later in the series he developed into a slightly wiser looking figure (Complete with always-closed eyes as the Japanese do)

Samurai Goroh: A half-Japanese, half-American muscle-bound bounty hunter. He hates Captain Falcon for always stealing his bounty, and unlike Falcon is not averse to breaking the law to attain his target.

Pico: The only 'alien' of the original four, he is an officer of the Poripoto Army and a trained assassin (By F-Zero X, he had retired and opened up a gun shop, but still did assassination jobs on the side).

Official Pico Art: http://mutecity.org/index.php/Pico

It has produced two home console sequels - F-Zero X (N64) and F-Zero GX (GameCube), as well as an arcade machine (F-Zero AX, which along with GX was developed by SEGA) and several handheld games (F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, F-Zero: GP Legend etc..) as well as a more recent anime series that was very successful in Japan (But not in the West).

Within the original home-console chronology (Which my script is based in), the story was not built in-game until F-Zero GX, but in character biographies and mini-comics included with the games.

F-Zero X is the game I've chosen to base the movie on for this key plot reason;

F-Zero X notes prominently that a Horrific Grand Finale took place in an F-Zero race 4 years prior, which shut down the races 'indefinitely'. Almost all racers were injured, and among the badly wounded were Clinton Gazelle (who was so badly damaged he was rebuilt almost entirely into a cyborg) and Captain Falcon. Pico is considered to blame for his far too aggressive racing style, and his popularity in the races dropped to zero almost instantly, and it is considered he was attempting to assassinate another racer during the race and it failed catastrophically. Other than small side-notes, and the comment that Super Arrow was responsible for bringing the races back, little more is alluded to on this major accident.

To me, it seemed that such an epic crash - one that caused the near-death of many racers including Falcon, and shut down the championships seemingly forever - would not be shrugged off so quickly. While in the game it is a simple plot device for biographies, there was a lot of characterisation and story-driven meat that I felt could be gained by developing that side more fully. As such I have spent the last several months writing the script's first draft (Which will require re-writes and re-drafts) for presentation, along with a marketing artwork and 2 minute long trailer, to a movie production company. I have yet to finish, there is no set date nor has any production company, nor Nintendo themselves, given this title their blessing nor backing. At the moment I am doing the epic pre-production phase of the project, and finalising the script.

The concept for me is to not produce another cheese-ridden action flick, ala Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, but something with more emotional punch and mature depth that really delves into the question of "What makes a hero?". Not in a Spiderman sort of way, but in a way that sees Captain Falcon looking to his idol (In this case the real-life hero of Donald Campbell) for inspiration and the fact that while Donald Campbell died a hero, dying for a cause isn't what made him the hero he was.

Donald Campbell is the British Speed World Record holder for Water and Land from the 60s, who died in an attempt to break his own water speed world record in the CN7 Bluebird. The reasons for choosing Campbell are multiple. He is a worthy hero, and speed was what killed him in the end (What other end would you forsee for Captain Falcon?). On top of this, Captain Falcon's costume design has similarities to Donald Campbell's. Add on top the Blue Falcon, and Bluebird - and the similarities don't end in just the names. If you see the original Blue Falcon in the original SNES F-Zero cover art, it has resemblances to the K7 Bluebird Land vehicle, while the 'new' Blue Falcon from F-Zero X onwards looks remarkably similar in design to the CN7 Bluebird Water vehicle which killed Donald Campbell. The number 7 is also appropriate, as Donald Campbell's Bluebirds were K7 and CN7, and the Blue Falcons are numbered - 111 (Binary for 7) and 07 respectively.

Thanks for the compliments on the artwork dude I've hired a 3D artist called Jim Ficker to build the artwork for me (The model is actually all brown at the moment, I recoloured it and added the eye glow in Photoshop) but will be used along with other characters and elements in the marketing artwork I'm paying him to develop for me. This is all coming out of my own pocket, but then it will hopefully get picked up and get me more back (And a step up the professional ladder). I'm already investing in my own movie this year (Imperial Nova) which is being made on a small budget, however for F-Zero I am going to pay for a 2 minute trailer and artwork only then make the film through a professional production company.

Well, man, I can tell you that the game does seem to have strength in its backstory. Despite being foremost a racing game the characters and their motivations definitely sound like they could hold together an actual story outside of the games, so you fleshing them out seems like a logical process.

Love the artwork and hope to see more. You're putting your all into this, so I would hate to see such a project fall to the wayside. If you keep motivated, driven and always passionate I'm sure you can get at least a fun short film out of it. We see video game-inspired films from the fans all the time now, including our own marioblaster and his "Mushroom Madness" film, so I have no doubt that you could do the same.

Glad it takes your interest

Movie writing, acting and directing is my career focus, so I haven't the money or time to develop this as a fan movie. I'm already producing my first independent feature film called Imperial Nova in September for release later this year. Full HD, 5.1 Surround Sound and available for Digital Download, DVD or Blu-Ray. Once that is complete, I can focus more on the F-Zero concept trailer and develop it to market for sale to a production company. If it doesn't sell, then I will have to put a lid on it until I have more clout as a proven name via my own unique concepts and bring it up again then.

This will need a production company, unlike Imperial Nova, because of the complexity of Sci-Fi action films. Unless I can find a way to cheapen the process without affecting overall quality. While I am pretty smart at finding cheap(er) special effects solutions, to create several of the movie's plot elements would be a bit much for a completely independent body I would think. However it could be just my lack of looking into it talking. Can you link me to Mushroom Madness? I'd like to see what the independent quality is like.

Mushroom Madness isn't released yet.

Roareye wrote:Can you link me to Mushroom Madness? I'd like to see what the independent quality is like.

You can check the thread for Mushroom Madness HERE. It's release was slated for the end of January, but due to delays we're now looking at something closer to August. Still, there's photos of props, costumes and a few scenes. It looks like a quality project.

Hmm, that Mushroom Madness looks good so far, I'm definately going to keep my eye on it

Just done a colour test for Silver Neelson, the old wise racer of the Night Thunder. Based on his F-Zero X design, not his GX one (Because the X designs are more realistic and down-to-Earth).

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/15738/461210-neelsen_large.gif

http://media.photobucket.com/image/f-zero/Hevendor/F%20Zero/SilverNeelsen.jpg?o=13

These are the only two official images from in the game to showcase Silver Neelson, and how we've managed to take the original design and make it look more realistic.

Your guy really knows how to translate these semi-cartoony characters into something realistic and workable. How closely do you work with him in the design process?

Well I don't work with him in the design process, he builds the models himself. However I gave him a specific brief.

The designs had to be F-Zero X style, not GX. GX's character designs are anime inspired, whereas X gave them more gritty everyday clothing/racing designs which suited the more realistic style of the script. I asked him to make them look realistic and not cartoony. There will be 7 of these character busts, as well as several racing vehicles to recreate the official Japanese F-Zero X game poster but replacing Mr EAD (Fat moustached robot guy) with Silver Neelson.
The original poster design is included below.

I'm very happy that he has got the design aesthetic correct without much direction, shows me and him are on the same wavelength.



ADDED: Captain Falcon colour test bust.