For those who aren't familiar with the game, Monsterpocalypse is a collectible miniatures game which features battles between titanic sized monsters -- Kaiju, if you will. You have giant apes, giant lizards, giant blobs of goo, giant squidheaded monstrosities, and...aliens. In my opinion, the game is the perfect combination of all the things I love from the giant monster movies of the 60s through 00s.
What's not to love about the theme?
Heck, they even recently licensed Voltron which will be featured in a game this summer. The acquisition of this license was a sign to me that Privateer Press had a product that would bring in the revenue for years to come.
Since the miniatures are produced by Privateer Press (Iron Kingdoms), the figures are well sculpted and very high quality. I own quite a few, and I love them so much I spent hours using Dundjinni making a prettier version of the map for Creature that Ate Sheboygan just so I could use these figures with that game.
While my enthusiasm for the game knows few bounds, I was surprised to read that there was a movie in production (by DreamWorks no less) based on the product. There is just a part of my conscious that begins to spiral toward insanity when it thinks about a movie, based on a game, inspired by characters from movies. My metacognitive meter goes past eleven. It's really too much for me to comprehend. Imagine if you will a Villains and Vigilantes or Mutants and Masterminds movie. Either could be good, but still seems out of place in a world where studios can make a Justice League or Avengers movie instead. Besides, DreamWorks recently released Monsters vs. Aliens so they have kind of addressed the topic already.
Skepticism aside, the upcoming Monsterpocalypse movie will be scripted by John August. In addition to having tremendous amounts of "geek cred" -- just read his entries in Gameplaywright Press's Things We Think About Games to get some sense of how hard core a gamer John August is -- John is a very experienced Hollywood writer/director. His past credits include Titan A.E., Big Fish, Go, Corpse Bride, both Charlie's Angels movies, and Prince of Persia (as an Executive Producer).
This film could be very good if John mixes the right elements. I think that he should stop by my apartment in Glendale once a week for the next few months and play sessions of Monsterpocalypse, Monsters Menace America, and The Creature that Ate Sheboygan just to make sure.
