Mass Effect videogame will become an epic sci-fi movie

I still haven’t had a chance to play the MASS EFFECT games (hell, it took me nearly a year just to get through FALLOUT 3), but it looks like I might get to see the characters on the big screen before I control them on my TV.

Production company Legendary Pictures has grabbed the rights to BioWare’s MASS EFFECT videogame franchise, and have already approached screenwriter Mark Protosevich (I AM LEGEND) to adapt the sprawling space journey. You’ve probably seen the Legendary Pictures logo in the opening credits of movies like THE DARK KNIGHT, 300 and WATCHMEN.

The project will be set up with Warner Bros., and former Marvel madman Avi Arad is also producing. Arad had this to say: “EA and BioWare are terrific partners who have created a brilliant piece of fiction with a universe filled with amazing aliens and technology. More importantly, though, they created a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasizes the need for all cultures to learn to work together. All this magic is presented in a fast paced action-adventure that makes for the best kind of movie experience.”

Some of the game’s story background: The galaxy is trapped in an endless cycle of extinction. Every 50,000 years, an ancient machine race invades the galaxy. With ruthless efficiency, the machines wipe out all advanced organic civilization. They leave behind only the scattered ruins of technology, destroying all evidence of their own existence. Few believe this ancient legend. You, however, know it to be true. The fight to stop this extinction event has become the most important mission in the galaxy. It is your mission. As Commander Shepard of the SS Normandy, you will take your elite recon squad across a galaxy in turmoil, in a desperate race to stop the return of an enemy without mercy. To stop this enemy, you must act without remorse, without hesitation, and outside the limits of the law. Your only imperative is to preserve the safety of civilized life in the galaxy – at any cost. You must become the tip of the spear of humanity, for you alone know the full extent of what is at stake if you should fail.