When I heard the news that "Mass Effect" would be Prime Video's next big video game TV adaptation I was initially ecstatic. Did it kill my decade-long dream of writing the screenplay myself? Perhaps, but now it can be left to the professionals.
However, I'm now worried that Prime Video has left it to the wrong professionals. And that's potentially a big mistake that it didn't make with "Fallout."
In the Variety article that broke the news, the Hollywood news outlet reported a few key details about the creative team behind the still unofficial video game adaptation. Key among them was that screenwriter Daniel Casey "is set to write and executive produce the adaptation."
Now, first let me state for the record, that I have no qualms with Mr. Casey personally, and I'm sure that he is a talented writer. He's certainly far more accomplished screenwriter than I am. But he also wrote one of my least favorite movies of the past few years and doesn't have a great record with high-profile projects.
Video game adaptations are hard and require the right creatives to get it right
So far, Casey's resume includes "Kin" and "F9" from The Fast Saga. The former was largely disliked by critics and audiences according to Rotten Tomatoes and the latter is the aforementioned movie that I did not care for at all. In fact, I disliked it so much it turned me off from watching "Fast X" entirely.
Now, in fairness, Casey did serve as an uncredited writer on "10 Cloverfield Lane," a genuinely good movie. But that movie also had Damien Chazelle as a writer and J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves as producers.
This brings me to perhaps an even more important point — the entire creative team matters for "Mass Effect" to work.
In the past few years, we've had massively successful video game adaptions in the form of HBO's "The Last of Us" and Prime Video's "Fallout." But when you look at the creative teams behind those projects, you can see they were set up with a successful foundation. "The Last of Us" was created by Craig Mazin, the Emmy Award-winning creator of "Chernobyl," and Neil Druckmann, the creative mind behind the source material that the show adapted.
These people are talented enough and qualified enough to be screenwriters and video game producers, so it's not impossible that they could then write and produce a good — even great — video game adaptation. But I think it's fair to be concerned that the current "Mass Effect" TV adaptation creative team isn't at the incredibly high standard recent history has shown us that a video game TV adaptation requires.
"Fallout" also had a similar caliber when it came to its creative team. The show had an executive producer roster that included Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who were the team behind "Westworld" and individually have impressive resumes besides. It also included Todd Howard, the director of video games "Fallout 3" and "Fallout 4."
Which brings me back to "Mass Effect." In addition to Casey as the screenwriter, the project will bring in Mike Gamble as an executive producer. Gamble did work on "Mass Effect" games for BioWare, but most notably he was a producer on "Mass Effect: Andromeda," the least well-received game in the series. His other major production credit was "Anthem," which was famously a flop.
Again, I could be wrong. These people are talented enough and qualified enough to be screenwriters and video game producers, so it's not impossible that they could then write and produce a good — even great — video game adaptation. But I think it's fair to be concerned that the current "Mass Effect" TV adaptation creative team isn't at the incredibly high standard recent history has shown us that a video game TV adaptation requires.
