Mass Effect Heading For The Cinema

Award-winning, alien-packed console game being developed by the studio behind The Dark Knight

Legendary Pictures has nabbed the rights to turn critically-acclaimed console game Mass Effect into a movie. The same, which was released in 2008 for the Xbox (and later ported to the PC) is an alien-packed, hard SF action role-playing game.

The story is set in 2183, when humanity has discovered dark matter-related technology which has enabled it to become part of Citadel Space, an alliance of various different races, including the Asari (blue-skinned hermaphrodites), the Salarians (amphibians) and the Turians (raptor-like). An elite human soldier named Commander Shepard sets out to explore the Galaxy on a starship, the SSV Normandy, with a mixed-species crew, and discover that the Eden Prime colony is under attack by alien synthetic life-forms known as the geth, led by a rogue Turian Spectre named Saren Arterius.

Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on Thor is in talks to script the movie, which will be produced by fromer Marvel Films head Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad alongside Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. Warner Bros will distribute.

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”