Wishlist Dominions: The Movie

NTJedi · #1 November 24th, 2009, 12:18 AM

I was just thinking how sweet it would be if a movie about Dominions was created. Several possible options exist for the movie considering so many nations.

My most fond idea would be where our modern day nations are dealing with the usual wars/issues when suddenly all combustion stops working thus guns, explosives, gunpowder, etc., etc., are powerless. This occurs because of a water global which prevents combustion from working. A day or two later several nations find themselves being ambushed from the seas by LA R'lyeh ! The world has lost use of most explosives and ranged weapons due to the global plus R'lyeh has the advantage of magic. Add any center plot for heroes and villians, but basically LA Atlantis emerges from the oceans to teach mankind about magic, gems and magic sites allowing them to fight back.

What's your movie idea using any of the features/nations from the Dominions series?

Omnirizon · #2 November 24th, 2009, 02:35 AM

Dominions is more like a hodge-podge of D&D themes. They have all the things that make good D&D themes (storytelling, creativity, mixture of history and fantasy), but lack the cohesion to compose a 'dominions movie'. Any sort of Dominions media would require limiting the focus to a handful of nations, and crafting a story between them.

The other option is to put the focus on a character or set of characters, to the exclusion of any cohesive relationship between the nations. You'd then end up with a 'conan the barbarian' style flick, where the different places visited in the movie never seem to have any sort of delineated relationship with any other place, and the whole story is following what some band of adventures (Bogus maybe) are doing.

the macro-quilt-work perspective that makes dominions nations and gameplay what it is just will not translate at all into a movie.

EDIT: another option would be to do something more 'star wars' like, treating all the nations as different worlds/races in the universe. Still, the vast majority of the nations would figure into the story only peripherally (if at all), and the focus would have to be on only two or three nations.

vfb · #3 November 24th, 2009, 03:39 AM

I just hope if they make a movie out of it, they keep it off the movie channels. There have been some really horrible movies made from "franchise" games recently, in heavy rotation on HBO/Showtime.

Illuminated One · #4 November 24th, 2009, 08:53 AM

Hmm, what would be the difference to a random fantasy/mythology/sci-fi movie?
Except, when the main character screams "just you wait ... I'll come back with some tarts" this will be very confusing for anyone not playing dominions.

vfb · #5 November 24th, 2009, 09:34 AM

Got your difference, right here:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_t...on_siege_tale/

4%! That's pushing it.

Gandalf Parker · #6 November 24th, 2009, 11:30 AM

Hmmm...
none of the "I never play dominions as an RPG" crowd have said yet what a ridiculous idea this is?

But of course I like it.

Mostly for cost-cutting I picture the main story to be about a human pretender trying to raise up a dominion within a human nation. Arcos? Ulm? maybe even Man? So "Iam" (as in "I am, I am, I am a God!") in the void of Early Era created by the loss of the Pantokrator has barely finished convincing his own people of Ulm that he is more than just a man. He is worthy of their worship and capable with their help of becoming the Pantokrators heir.

We follow Iam was he finds his nation coming up against dreaded Ermor. He marches his armies against them and then discovers that the biggest danger is their dreaded dominion spread so he must bunker down and begin pushing priests and temples against his border. His mages are busy creating food items to prepare his armies for their excursion into the dead lands.

The plot twist can come as we are settled into the idea that the movie is going to be about Ulm vs and the pretender false-god of Ermor. Suddenly Ulm is attacked on the other side their kingdom by Fomoria. Are they allies? NO. Surprisingly this is a completely separate problem altho we do discover it is caused by yet another pretender to the High Throne. Very different plans must be made. This is an usual thing in movies to discover that the plot is multi-faceted. Soon after we discover that there are many pretenders. Ctis, Abyssia, Pangaea, Atlantis. (late in the movie so that only a few glimpses of them need to be provided for the effect. Very cheap)

At the "end" of the movie we have a climax where the dreaded dark lord of Ermor is seiged, dominion killed, his armies routed and defeated. Ian's people rejoice and begin to turn their attentions on the other confused nations.

At this point it is sold to the SciFi channel and continued as a series. Each of the nations are defeated one at a time with small hints about what the next nation will be. Some interesting peaks in the series will occur when Ulm comes up against the Titan combatant god and the seductive Vampire Queen. Also surprising will be the continual defeat of the strange Lich god. The fans debate and finally figure out the immortality factor that will keep the lich coming back until his entire dominion is destroyed.

The final episode comes without warning and catches everyone off guard at the long awaited final battle against the Lich when the last few nations suddenly just give up and all together acknowledge Iam who ascends (after all, this is Dominions 3 we are talking about). OHHHHH the let down. The ruckus it will generate. The cries of indignation. How stupid to stop a popular series so suddenly. Did someone quit? Were there contract disputes? In-house fighting? What will all of the fanatic followers of the series do? NEVER FEAR, suddenly we are rescued by "Dominions: the return" as Ulm enters the Middle Era. Fans will overlook the problem that somehow a new battle for a single god is occurring when they discover that dreaded Ermor has returned, and has changed! However, this time we begin by providing abit on each pretender. Fans rush to create sites supporting their favorite. AND LOOK, we have merchandising! Hurry and purchase your tshirts and stickers and lunch boxes proclaiming your support for individual nations and their pretenders.

Gandalf Parker
--
There can "only be one" is a great marketing quote.
But after years of play we all know that there will NEVER be one."

rdonj · #7 November 24th, 2009, 12:04 PM

Hmm, I don't know gandalf. A movie about erecting temples to secure the belief of the masses... sounds both controversial, and maybe even a little boring

. And it kind of sounds like you're fighting LA ermor in an EA setting? The purists would have your head! There is a certain ringing of truth to your final paragraph though :P.

I would probably go in a different direction. Say, vanheim and helheim fighting side by side to turn back a niefel apocalypse. Or a stalwart band of heroes who set off to do battle with a powerful moloch who is corrupting the people of ma/la marignon and attempting to become a god. Or perhaps a movie about ulm and the malediction... that could make for an interesting story.

The problem with making a movie out of dominions though is that it's hard to make a dominions movie without just making a movie about various mythologies. Most cool and thematic wars you can think of (fomoria vs TNN for example) would be really tough to do without heavily referencing already existing mythology. That's not a bad thing, but it wouldn't really stand out as being dominions. If someone wanted to make a movie based on dominions, ultimately I feel that it would be best to use at least one of the nations that is more or less completely original, like agartha (the story of just what is behind the seal could make a good movie). Not that there aren't lots of cool things you could do with the dominions universe. You just want to avoid cliches, make the movie stand out as being dominions and not various mythologies in general, and avoid things that only really make sense in the game, or else the world feels hokey and unrealistic.

Gandalf Parker · #8 November 24th, 2009, 01:06 PM

I had considered adding a line that "of course this movie could NOT be made in the US at this time".
The protests would make cost overruns go thru the roof. Of course they would happen anyway but that would just be good publicity as long as the movie was someplace they couldnt reach easily. Also there would be the extensive costs of all the additional requirements in the US of even trying to do Kailasa. Tasmania seems popular for such things now.

And we would probably have to leave out some such as Rlyeh. But at least the witches and pagans are reflected in a good light so there should be no trouble from them.

Folket · #9 November 25th, 2009, 04:24 AM

We could let the fan base vote out a nation after each episode and let it be defeated.

Swan · #10 November 25th, 2009, 08:21 AM

Just give me Jim Carrey as a blood mage scrifing young girls, Johnny depp as a witch king and Leslie nielsen as a phylosopher; add tim burton or quentint tarantino and you just your new best of all time movie[or the worst of all times, it can be both way].
p.s.
Rourke must do something as ulm commander