In case you missed it, UFC superstar Ronda Rousey recently mentioned in an interview with Gamespot that she wants to play Samus Aran, the intergalactic bounty hunter from Nintendo's Metroid series, in a movie. She expressed particular enthusiasm for how Samus's identity as a woman was kept secret until the end of the first game, when she removed the helmet of her power armour, presenting a strong message about the role of gender stereotypes in our society. Who would have thought that the ruthless mercenary was actually a chick all along? Incase you're unfamiliar with the series, the games follow Samus as she blasts aliens, engages in wars with the ruthless Space pirates, and tries to restore order in a galaxy being torn apart by war. As a film option, the appeal barely needs expressing further. Critically, the games have performed spectacularly well. Metroid Prime, the first 3D entry in the series, which came from Texan developer Retro Studios, is often cited as one of the best games of all time, with an astonishing score of 97% on Metacritic. That kind of success guarantees an audience. John Woo, the guy who bought us films like Hard Boiled and Broken Arrow, was set to direct a Metroid movie at one point, but it was shelved. But just in case it ever does happen in the future, there's a very definite checklist that any director should try to hit when they open production...
6. Make It Feel Lonely
One of the most memorable features of the first two Prime games was the strong sense of isolation and loneliness. Samus wandered the endless wilderness with no characters to interact with and no comms-links to communicate with people in different locations, just hoard after hoard of mindless creature to kill. The third entry in the Prime series, in addition to Metroid: other M, both completely abandoned this approach in favour of more traditional narrative features and a much larger number of characters, but this in turn eliminated some of the series' original charm. So the way to utilise this approach in the film would be to keep the cast limited to as few members as possible to keep the focus on Samus. The fewer characters the better. Just Samus and a few supporting players, so that we can genuinely feel her loneliness and isolation.
