Galactic Civilizations The Movie

somehow... I think it'd end up being like Wing Commander the movie...

Which I'll note, I actually love, but its generally panned as Awfultastic.

I actually see it more like a mix between Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Gate.  I think done right it could have a lot of potential.  It would be hard to be able to reflect the galactic scale that the game can.  Think of the core factions with several random (non-core) other factions mixed in eating Torian Soup, just as some Torian freedom fighters attacking the Great Hall and erupting a massive galactic war!!!

All the possibilities....

Kickstarter?

I think a normal movie would not work, since a movie needs to follow some characters - but GalCiv is not about individuals, it is about whole civilizations. Of course you could write a story that is located in the GalCiv universe, but it would not be "GalCiv the movie".

If anything a fake documentary would be the way to go. You could do some documentaries about the colonizations, the techs, the wars in the GalCiv universe with fake footage, some historians who explain why the Drengin liked to eat Torians and interviews with important people like Jenna Casey or N-1. Basically like the documentaries about World War 2 or the Cold War Period you see on TV.

It could start as a documentary but then an intergalactic war breaks out per the idea of a Torian resistance related uprising above or something. We could then follow the reporter, it could contain random news flashes from his/her race that he/she watches in horror and so on. Tries to get to the 'front lines'.

Wishing for a movie is a bit much when we don't even have voice acting in game or faction specific cutscenes.

Ah the whole Starship Troopers kind of movie...

Would that really add to the game though?  Personally this doesn't add or take anything away from the existing game.  As far as movie I think the game would have to do a lot better for this to really even hint at making anyone's list, however, one can always have the discussion.

I feel one could capture the feel of the game in a movie, not a short 1 1/2 hour production mind you but, more like 2 1/2 hours.  I would tend to focus on the Terran's as well as a few other core factions, preferably one being Thalan, and Drengin.  I would start as such...

Terran, start by inventing the hyper drive and setting out into the galaxy to colonize distant worlds.  (Intro of main Terran Players)

Cut many years later as they start to meet other factions out in distant space. (Intro of main other core faction players/perhaps starting to bring out of conflict or struggles.)

Formation of the United Planets and growth of conflict/beginning of war.

Action (War) little drama being mixed in. (War), (Loss of major player which audience is attached to.)

Galactic Peace Treaty signed (with small skirmishes still present)

Movie ends (although things left open on a few fronts for future movies.)

I have in my collection of old sci-fi a book called The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.  As I recall, it gives the perspective of a space war from the viewpoint of the crews on relativistic speed ships living on a time scale greatly independent of that on the individual planets they protect/threaten.  I have always envisioned my games of GalCiv as that kind of plot, with the administrators of the galaxy also caught up in the isolating nature of time warped space travel.  I think you could use that mechanic to tell a people based story that also spanned the lifetime of an empire.  You could use the concept of the relativistic days and weeks in GalCiv turns to cover sprawling empire changes happening in seemingly brief time spans.

I think you could do a movie similar to the Babylon 5  universe. I recall read somewhere in the forms that is what Brad loosely  based Galactic Civ on. Have it take place with the start of Galactic Civ II.