Topic: Do you think Prince Of Persia was good film and can Castlevania be as good?

[bucky]

I have very low expectations for a live-action Castlevania. I'm not sure I even want to dive into exactly why that is, because it'll quickly turn into a 'TLDR' rant. If they can pull off something that's even mediocre, I'll be surprised.

I'm just bummed that it seems the animated CV3 film(s) seemed to have fallen through. We haven't heard any news in a long time and the official blog seems to be down. I think that had potential to be legitimately awesome. It was going to fit into proper 'canon', but with more trustworthy writers and artists (imho) than Konami would've provided. (James Jean, Warren Ellis)

[X]

I think it fell through cause they decided that grant wasn't a 'needed' or 'important' enough character for the script. Those guts should play the game at least once to get the idea right.

-X

[Nagumo]

The script was horrible and there were also condradictions because the script writer didn't even knew his source material properly. If would have he would have known that Grant is no pirate at all. Which he uses as excuse to omit his character.  I so hope it is canned. *fingers crossed*

[bucky]

Wow! People were that upset about Grant, huh? I'm not sure where to even begin on that.

It was revealed with further clarification that he would not appear in the first film. Since they were planning on doing two or three, I wouldn't see the need to have to wedge him into the first film either. Character recognition is always a cheap shill for fans, so the fact that they were concerned about making the story flow without too many convoluted details gave me the impression they were trying to make something of quality. Warren was being cynical about wedging a pirate-character into a landlocked setting... as they were concerned about making something tight, which is probably the last thing we should expect from any other VG adaptation.

Why put all your eggs in one basket as well? What would they have focussed on in those two other films? With the 'meet the characters along the way' style of CV3, it's perfectly reasonable that one of the characters would be... you know, met along the way. I've always wondered why people were so upset about his exclusion from (what would be) the first film.

Additionally, I guess you'll have to pardon my ignorance, but I thought Grant was a pirate as well. However, I think this should invalidate any silly remarks about how they 'should play the game' first. Because I've played the game, many times. I could tell you about how Sypha Belnades is actually spelled 'Syfa Velnumdes' in-game, and I have the sound test code memorized. Yet somehow it escaped me that he wasn't a pirate. I know that his family were villagers killed by Dracula and  / or Dracula's hordes. And that he possible came from a family that rivaled the Dracula royalty as well (based only on the name, not anything actually in-game or known canon). So, if someone can clarify his non-pirateness, that would be appreciated.

Perhaps I'm coming from a completely different perspective on an appreciation for the series, but I honestly thought that team and their mindset going in (from what we heard from the blog) was almost a *best* case scenario for a Castlevania adaptation. You had conscience people with a history of great work behind them. If the most banal complaints about the lack of Grant in the first film are enough for people to hope doom upon the project, good luck with the live action movie!

[Nagumo]

Well the English version of the game says he is a pirate while the Japanese one claims he is a freedom fighter. The writers should obviously go with the Japanese canon so I think its pretty dumb that Warren Ellis didn't even know this. I might not be a big deal but I don't really trust him to write a movie that would to both the game and the canon justice and that is what it's all about for me.           

I thought Grant was being cut permantely by the way.     

Also, I read that they were planning on naming him Granvid or some other stupid name because that would be more Romanian. But that is totally crap since the characters in the series never had any East European names so I don't see what the big deal is. Trevor/Ralph is an English name for crying out loud. *sob*           

     

[X]

It's also amusing to note that at the end credits for CV 3 (Japanese or English) Grant's profession is "Acrobat". But I still like the idea that he was a pirate since he looks like one in the game and in the official Konami art.

-X

[bucky]

Clearly he was an acrobatic, freedom fighting pirate. 

[Aridale]

I know bucky is jokin but its still a good point. How many ppl spend their entire lives doin just 1 thing? Whos to say he wasnt a pirate and then retired from piracy and became a freedom fighter? Hell no one knows what Grant did before CV3 none of the chars were fleshed out before or during the game. Only Alucard went on to be "some one"

Grant coulda been an orphan that was raised in a traveling circus and one time doin a performance near the coast were beset by pirates and Grant was taken because of his skill so he could be the spotter guy cause he could climb the ropes the best and do all kinda crazy stuff. After he got older he fought his way from that life and decided to become a freedom fighter to help save ppl from bein forced into things like he was. Then he learns about the situation in Dracs land and heads to see if he can be any help and the rest is in CV3

[X]

In the japanese translation of the game, Grant had revenge on his mind. All the people in the village were murdered by Dracula and this angered Grant. However he never got the chance to take revenge as Dracula turned him into that beast-like creature and stuffed him at the top of the clocktower. Grant has more then enough meret to be in that CV movie so I don't see any reason at all why the wrote him out. After all Grant is one of the four warriors who stood up to the Prince of Darkness.

-X

[Holycross]

I saw the prince of persia movie and i thought it was alright, hopefully the new castlevania movie wont disappoint. 

[bucky]

In the japanese translation of the game, Grant had revenge on his mind. All the people in the village were murdered by Dracula and this angered Grant. However he never got the chance to take revenge as Dracula turned him into that beast-like creature and stuffed him at the top of the clocktower. Grant has more then enough meret to be in that CV movie so I don't see any reason at all why the wrote him out. After all Grant is one of the four warriors who stood up to the Prince of Darkness.

-X

I'd be pissed too if a set of CV3 films didn't include Grant, but I think everyone leaped to conclusions and freaked out when he said Grant wasn't in the script. He was talking about part 1 / 3.

edit:

Why a trilogy?

I spent a month or more pacing around the central problem of this film. Which is the format. 80 minutes. I knew, coming on board, that this was the format, and I liked it, because it was a technical challenge. But Kevin knew, when I came on board, that I wanted to write a film, not some by-the-numbers videogame adaptation. I wanted it to have some depth to it. I wanted to explore the environment of medieval Wallachia somewhat, I wanted the ordinary people to speak, I wanted a hint of feudal politics. And I wanted a vein of strangeness to it (also, an element of springpunky prochronism, which I’ll get to later).

Also,

One big story, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, told across three movies. Grant is not in the first movie. From Warren’s earlier post Cutting The Pirate, here it is again -

When he does turn up, I’ll probably use the alternate spelling of Grant DiNesti.

This is why I never understood what the big stink about Grant was. *shrugs*

[X]

I had no idea, let alone heard about that interview *Whew!* That clears things up.

-X