Firefly’s Browncoats Get Their Own MMORPG?

By Geoff Duncan December 8, 2006

Multiverse Network, Inc., announced today that it has executed an option with 20th Century Fox to develop a massively multiplayer online game based on the defunct sci-fi television series Firefly. Multiverse plans to hire an independent production team to develop the project, and plans to make it available through the Multiverse Network sometime in 2008.

Firefly was a short-lived "space western" Fox television show developed by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. Although only fourteen episodes were produced—and only eleven were broadcast back in 2002—the show developed a tremendous fan following and sold enough DVDs to justify Fox greenlighting a feature-length movie, Serenity (written and directed by Whedon), based on the series and starring the original cast. Firefly fans call themselves "browncoats," a nod to the series’ defeated independence movement.

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"Fox’s Firefly series is set in an incredibly rich and exciting universe. It’s going to make a very compelling and unique online experience filled with adventure, humor, and mystery," said Corey Bridges, Multiverse co-founder and Executive Producer. "It’s our hope that Firefly’s passionate and dedicated community of fans will enjoy the chance to become part of the story as they develop and explore the worlds of Firefly."

Multiverse was founded in 2004 by former Netscape employees with the aim of creating a platform for massively multiplayer online games and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse licenses its tools and client software for free, with the company only taking a cut of revenues if publishers charge for their games or goods available in their virtual worlds.

According to reports, the online version of Firefly will steer clear of the show’s original characters, and instead expand upon the universe outlined in the Firefly universe, including backwater planets with an old West flavor, high-tech cities, an oppressive central government, freedom fighters, smugglers, shady characters, and—of course—the shows boogiemen, the terrifyingly depraved Reavers.

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Gaming

X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer sets the stage for a mutant apocalypse

x men days future past trailer sets stage mutant apocalypse of

The future is not looking good for the mutants of the world, as we see in this new trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Peter Dinklage may be the only lovable Lannister in Game of Thrones, but he's the mutant-hating, Sentinel-inventing Bolivar Trask 20th Century Fox's return to Marvel Comics, and you get your clearest peek yet at his creations in action here.
Days of Future Past sees X-Men and X2: X-Men United director Bryan Singer return to the series for the first time in more than a decade. The movie combines the Marvel mutant universe as Singer envisioned it with the one that director Matthew Vaughn ushered into being in his 2011 take, X-Men: First Class. Key cast members from both appear in Days thanks to a time-twisting plot in which the mutants of the present travel to the past in order to save the future. Or something like that.
We'll find out soon. X-Men: Days of Future Past is in theaters on May 23.

Gaming

Battlestar Galactica heads to the big screen with a fresh take

Universal is moving ahead with plans to bring Battlestar Galactica to the big screen, according to Variety. The proposed film would be a reimagining of the property, and not directly related to the recent SyFy channel version or the original series that first aired in 1978.
No word on a possible production schedule yet, but Jack Paglen has been hired to write the screenplay. Paglen is coming off of writing Transcendence, and is currently committed to write the screenplay to the sequel for Ridely Scott’s Prometheus. Glen A. Larson, creator of the original Battlestar Galactica series, will produce.
Battlestar Galactica first appeared on TV in 1978 and ran for 17 episodes, totaling 24 hours (including multiple two-parters). Despite a loyal following the series was deemed too expensive given its poor ratings and was soon cancelled. A second series was commissioned under the name Galactica 1980, but it lasted just 10 episodes. The series was then recut and re-released as a handful of different movies.
Several attempts to bring the property back to either the big screen or reboot it as a TV show were discussed, but it wasn’t until 2003, when Universal Television brought the show back as a mini-series on the SyFy channel, that it returned. The new take/reboot proved a success for the channel, and the series ran for four seasons and spawned several spin-offs.
In both the 1978 and 2003 versions of the show, the story focused on the last human survivors of a war against a robotic race known as the Cylons. The humans flee their doomed home in search of the lost, thirteenth colony known as Earth. There's no word yet on whether or not the new film will keep this aspect of the property or not.

Entertainment

Marvel’s Netflix bound TV shows to cost a whopping $200 million

Marvel and Disney are not messing around when it comes to their four upcoming TV shows and one miniseries headed to Netflix, loosely known as the “Marvel Defenders project.” The five properties together will break down into 60 episodes, costing an impressive $200 million, according to Variety.
The $200 million will be spent over three years, and go towards filming series based on the characters of Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. Those properties will then culminate in the miniseries, The Defenders. The majority of filming will take place in New York City, and the deal marks the biggest commitment from a TV or film project in the history of the state of New York.
In the comics, all four of the characters are based to some degree in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, also known as Clinton. Despite the odd costumed supervillain and the superpowers each character possesses, the four are generally considered to be more grounded in reality than most superheroes. Despite his superhuman senses, Daredevil is just a man with a day job. Luke Cage and Iron Fist were linked together for years under the title “Heroes for Hire,” through which they helped people on the side while working as private investigators. Jessica Jones was most recently reborn as a fairly average PI as well. Their powers lean toward the fantastic, but their stories exist in a reality most people can relate to.
According to Disney CEO Bob Iger, it was important for the shows to feel “authentic,” which is part of the reason for the decision to film in New York City. The $4 million in tax credits probably helped as well.
The way it breaks down is that Marvel and Disney are planning to spread that $200 million over 60, one-hour episodes, to be filmed over the next three years. Each of the full series will feature a 13-episode season, and all four will then culminate in The Defenders miniseries. Marvel has previously stated that the miniseries would be between four and eight episodes. With the four 13-episode series planning on 52 episodes in total and the deal with New York being for 60 episodes, it looks like Marvel is leaning towards the longer option (although that could always change).
Assuming the budget is spread between the five series equally (although it would make sense to spend a little more on The Defenders miniseries), each episode will feature a budget of roughly $3.3 million. That doesn’t come close to touching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ridiculous budget of $14 million for the pilot alone, but it is in keeping up with several other, high-quality shows.
Netflix’s House of Cards reportedly cost $100 million for two seasons, which averages out to just over $3.8 million per episode. AMC’s powerhouse Mad Men costs around $2.5 mil per episode, while The Walking Dead costs $2.75 million per show. The Disney deal will put the upcoming projects on the same footing.
Marvel and Disney have both remained fairly quiet about the upcoming projects, but Drew Goddard is set as the executive producer and showrunner for Daredevil, which is set for a 2015 debut, making it the first of the four shows to be released. The other projects do not yet have dates or showrunners, but with all production set to occur in the next three years, those announcements should be coming relatively soon.