Genre: Science Fiction/Action/Video Game Adaptation.
Studio:
20th Century Fox (North America); Sony (Int'l.)
Production Company:
Digital Anvil/No Prisoners.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.
Who's In It:
Freddie Prinze Jr (Christopher 'Maverick' Blair); David Warner (Admiral Geoffery Tolwyn);
Matthew Lillard ('Maniac'); David Suchet (Captain Sansky); Jurgen Prochnow (Commander Gerald);
Ginny Holder (Rosie Forbes); Saffron Burrows; Cechi Cerrio; Hugh Quarshie.
Who's Making It:
Chris Roberts (Director); Kevin Droney (Screenwriter); Todd Moyer (Producer); Jean-Martial Lefranc, Romain
(Executive Producers); Thierry Arbogast (Director of Photography); Peter Lamont
(Production Designer); Digital Anvil (Special Visual Effects); based on Origin Games Wing Commander CD-ROM series.
Premise: Based loosely on the first Wing Commander game: in the future, spacefaring humans encounter a hostile race of warrior cat-like aliens known as the Kilrathi. We follow the war's course through the eyes of rookie space pilot Christopher Blair, who suffers both victory and loss with his other wingmen.
Release Date: Unknown.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
January 4, 1997... [Page drafted by TCS Victory pilot 'Deadpool'.]
Chris Roberts, the creator and director for the first four Wing Commander CD-ROM games, will be also directing the big screen adaptation of the hit game. Roberts' new interactive media company, Digital Anvil, is producing the $27 million film starting this month in Luxembourg. The script (by Mortal Kombat scribe Kevin Droney) loosely follows the events of the first game, in which we're introduced to a group of Top Gun-like space combat pilots on-board a starship fighting the Kilrathi. There's been some talk about Roberts' co-partner, director Robert Rodriguez, lending his hand in the project, but so far no announcement abour Rodriguez's involvement has been forthcoming.
The special effects will be entirely computer generated imagery (CGI). Of the cast members from the CD-ROM adventures reprising their roles, only one has been selected: Malcolm McDowell will be seen playing Admiral Tolwyn again. Mark Hamill, who played the game's protagnoist Blair from Wing Commander III onward, and Tom Wilson who played fan fav Maniac, won't be included in the movie. Instead, the producers are re-casting Blair and Maniac with young, 20-something stars, since their characters are said to be straight out of the academy. Roberts told Online Gaming Review that he envisions the movie as "Das Boot in space."
In October, we were contacted by someone associated with the Carousel Picture Company, who claimed to be involved in the production of the film. They told us that Tom Reeve and Romain Schroeder were the film's producers; when we tried contacting them at their email address provided, the mail bounced. However, they did predict the Luxembourg location before it was officially announced in November. [Submitted by 'slave'.]
Another scooper adds that other actors from the games will be in the movie too, but didn't offer us any additional names. The scooper also said the story will be set 8 years before the games, and the TCS Tiger's Claw will be involved. [Thanks to 'pohlmann'.]
Then, a few days ago, Ain't It Cool News printed a list of stars they say have been selected for the film. Freddy Prinze Jr. (I Know What You Did Last Summer) is reported to play Christopher 'Maverick' Blair; Matthew Lillard (Scream) is 'Maniac'; Minnie Driver (Hard Rain) is Angel Devereaux. There's a rumor Ben Kingsley is being considered for a part. [We'd also like to thank these pilots for scratching up some Kilrathi kills: 'Goatlord', 'Nords', 'Echoes', Alan, 'Torgo', 'Horseman', 'eeilerts', 'sumap', 'natdrat', 'Hawkeye', 'mpearson', 'One Riot, One Ranger', 'Broken', 'Shoe', 'wilsonge', 'The Flash', 'Kal El', 'Tavis', and many anonymous wingmen.]
February 17, 1998... The press release information supplied by Digital Anvil is now on the page. In addition to listing the cast and crew, one piece of the release informs us that Digital Anvil will produce all of the film's 250 special effects for about one-half the traditional cost. Production began last Sunday on the 15th. [Thanks to Lori Mezoff for the heads up message.]
April 19, 1998... David Warner replaces Malcolm McDowell in the role of Tolwyn. McDowell had to give up the part due to a previous television commitment two days before the end of principal photography on April 18th. The part of Tolwyn, while large in the games, appears to be rather small in the film, from Warner stepping in two days before the film wraps. [Emailed by 'jeditim', Anonymous.]
October 2, 1998... 'Silentmobius' pointed us to the official website, http://www.wcmovie.com/ It's apparently open for business now, though there's only a graphic with the cast members and the words 'Launching soon...'. [Scoop handed in by 'silentmobius.']
Related Sites:
Wing Commander Official Movie Site
Reddie's Wing Commander: The Movie Page -- Devoted to providing a record about the status and production of the film based on the game. It was the first site on the Web to post up images taken from the set and creature designs. Designed by Ville Lappalainen.