How would YOU make an Animorphs film?

[Yorick Brown]

Lots of people keep ragging on me for deleting or changing major plot points even though they couldn't fit, so let's see you do better.

Would you adapt The Invasion alone or with another book like The Message? (Maybe the Animorphs meet Elfangor AND Ax at the construction site and Ax leaves with the Animorphsw hile his wounded brother dies?) What happens in the movie?

Would you cast any established actors (if so, who?) for roles or mostly unknowns?

Would you end the Animorphs journey with just one film?

[XenomorphLV426]

Good GOD, Sideshow Mel.  It can't be done with today's film capabilities and social constraints, man!  Let it go!

Move on.  There are plenty of other good franchises out there that won't cost half of Spielberg's wallet and all of ILM's nerdery coupled with a little of Jim Cameron's sanity.

Come back in ten years or something and propose it again.  This new photorealism tech might be at the stage where it's engaging and affordable by then.

Like, seriously.  2018.  2020 to be safe.

You're not going to get anything better than Narnia if this thing gets made anytime soon.  Balls to that.  Balls, I say.

[Yorick Brown]

WHY does everyone keep saying that Animorphs would be too expensive to make? It isn't!

ID4 was only made for 75 mil!

An Animorphs flick would NOT need a 90-100 mil+ budget.

[zaprowsdower]

Well, I would try to stay as true to the books as possible. Now I know there a lot of story elements that don't 'translate' as is across media, ie book to movie, but good directors and actors just get creative and translate it to film. They don't remove or add things! (Well, they can add things, but if it ONLY enhances the story/message.)

[Yorick Brown]

Translate is NOt the right word to use. That means that a film will follow a book word-for-word and that's a recipe for disaster.

The word you're looking for is ADAPT. Things have changed to accomodate the transition across media but it doesn't mean that the movie isn't faithful.

Films remove and add things from the source material all the time. Sometimes for the better or worse.

You never told me what's your first film about and what would happen in it yet.

[ElementX]

An Animorphs movie is perfectly capable of being made. Nobody has a right to flame Yorick just for wanting it to happen. Plenty people do. And no one can really flame somebody for his interpretation on how it should done. But anyone can disagree with it.

I'll be back with my idea of how I would do it in a lil bit.

[yeerklover]

Here is how I would do it based solely on the fact that movies aren't typically longer than 3 hours. Obviously, this would be a movie that would attract many people who used to read the books, but it would also need to be marketed to a general audience or else it won't be worth the money to make it.

I would do a trilogy. I would have the first movie cover the first 20 books. The second movie would cover the next 18. The final book would cover from book #39 to #54.

Time wise, some of the books would need to be shortened, and some of the storylines dulled down a bit, but I would put emphasis on the character relationship building. And on the battles and planning around them.

I think the first hours of the first movie would be from books 1-6, ending the hour with Jake's yeerk dying. Those are the details from the top of my head. I'm sure if I sat down and wrote up a synopsis it would be much longer. 

[Phoenix004]

I'm sorry, but how the hell can you fit 20 Animorph books into ONE movie?! Even it were possible, the movie would be far too long and would be butchered by the fact that it would have to rush every plot line. Besides, they are several books that have no relevance to the plot and would not not need to be included in the movie.

[yeerklover]

Well, for instance, instead of doing the full books, I would make the scene end where Jake's yeerk dies, and the next scene would open with "Two weeks later". And Jake would be narrating again, talking about how after he was a controller, they fought other battles, and explain them a bit. But I'd work the storyline back in. And then it would start out at book 10 or something in the second hour of the movie. 3 hours per movie. You skip a few books and then work them back in with flashbacks or the narrater talking about what happened. Like, I could start with book 1, and make it last about 20 minutes, then skip a few books, and have the meeting where Cassie is talking about dreams she keeps getting with messages from under the sea. I don't know the logistics of it, I would figure all that out of course.

[Yorick Brown]

Obviously, this would be a movie that would attract many people who used to read the books, but it would also need to be marketed to a general audience or else it won't be worth the money to make it.

THANK YOU!

FINALLY someone else who considered the non-Animorphs reading public!

If Animorphs fan and Animorphs fan alone were the only who could understand and want to see aridiculous long movie, it'd only make 30 bucks total.

I would do a trilogy. I would have the first movie cover the first 20 books. The second movie would cover the next 18. The final book would cover from book #39 to #54.

Like the trilogy idea but how can you cover so much in only two-three hours each?

[yeerklover]

Read my above post. I kind of explained it.

[Duff]

um dude, how long do you think these movies are going to be? 20 books in 3 hours? 20 minutes for the first book? With a script, a page translates to a minute on screen, you are talking about a 2000 page script per movie, and even if you dont include everything in every book, and you skip books, and cut corners, you can maybe cut that down to 500 pages lol

Okay heres what I would do:

1. The first movie would take the Invasion and mix in a classic yeerk plot for them to foil. It would be nice if it could be an origional plot, but for arguments sake lets say its the kandrona at the EGS tower. While in the yeerk pool, Tobias overhears about where they are keeping it while he is being trapped in morph. Then the movie ends with them destroying it.

2. The second movie would mix the message and the predator. This is the only one that would worry me about feeling tacked on. We could have them get captured trying to escape the sea with Ax, but that would be a little too long in the same mission. I think it would be better to have them get ax, and then they go straight to helping him get home and get captured and brought to V1. So technically it would be 4 and 5 just pasted together, but i dont think it would feel that way, i think it would flow nicely. We could also add the theme of ax not trusting the team and then end it with him telling them about seerows kindness.

3. The third movie is where Tobias gets his morphing powers back. For this we should mix #7 and #13, while tobias is dealing with the bird thing, rachel finds out her dad is moving and she could leave the fight. A random battle leads them to the yeerk pool where the ellimist comes to them and helps them escape, in the chaos two hork bajir escape. As the ellimist comes to tobias telling him to save these two, he also comes to rachel and shows her the future, which allows her to learn the location of the valley, the perfect place for the hork bajir.

4. This movie will introduce Erek and the Chee. While the Android has enough story to support a movie, it wouldnt be long enough, so a side plot such as jake being infested or rachel getting an allergy can be used to add depth and length to the story.

5. The David Trilogy. Nuff said.

As I've said in other threads, these movies arent working to an end, and these five movies are only the tip of the iceberg. A little creativity can adapt almost any of the other books to make another 10 movies. This isnt how it should be done, or how it has to be done, this is how i think it should be done and would like to see it done.

[wotw2112]

I'm sorry, but how the hell can you fit 20 Animorph books into ONE movie?! Even it were possible, the movie would be far too long and would be butchered by the fact that it would have to rush every plot line. Besides, they are several books that have no relevance to the plot and would not not need to be included in the movie.

I agree.  It'd be a glorified clip show.

[Yorick Brown]

The plot of your third film is a little too confusing but I sincerely like the ideas you presented so far, Duffy.

I like that you werre able to take on my challenge but succeed. Good job.

For the 4th film, do you think you can combine The Android and The Exposed?

This isnt how it should be done, or how it has to be done, this is how i think it should be done and would like to see it done.

You may want to rewrite this.

[Duff]

Yea thats the one I had trouble with, cause I needed to add another storyline and it kinda made sense to have it involve the ellimist

Its basically the events of The stranger, and when they escape so do the hork bajir, then tobias finds them and helps save them as the ellimist comes to them like he did the second time in the stranger and shows them the future where the yeerks win, but instead of showing them the egs tower he has someone mention where the hb colony was. It is kinda confusing but I think the right script could link them well

eh i dont think it would really work imo, cause they are kinda similar, yeerks are after pemalite technology and the chee need the animorphs help. actually, maybe if the pemalite crystal is the key to locating the ship it could work: Marco finds out about erek because his hologram is malfunctioning from the ship. They agree to help them steal the crystal but the yeerks are able to figure out where the ship is before they can and its a race to the ship, final battle in the ship. But you might have to leave out the drode unless you can have a movie introduce the crayak before this

This isnt how it should be done, or how it has to be done, this is how i think it should be done and would like to see it done.

You may want to rewrite this.

what do you mean?