We're Alive Movie

[Rhino]

Just started listening to the series a week or so ago and love it. The story line is incredible and just amazing. Its just my opinion, but I think the story would make a great movie/cartoon series. Im new to the forum, so I dont know if this has been brought up before. Any chance its in the works?

I realize theres been a ton of zombie movies and storys over the years, but this one is different. Dont get me wrong, I like and watch the Resident Evil series, played the games, seen other zombie movies, etc. etc. However, I think where Resident Evil fails/has flaws is that they didnt stick to the game story. The game came back out in the 90's and I thought it was awesome. Then the movie came out and they changed the story. The movie wasnt about a chopper crashing and then them scrambling to get to the mansion where the whole game takes place. Again, just my opinion, but I think it would have been better off sticking to the script. Which if there ever was a movie/cartoon series for this story, I think it would be best served if it stuck to the story as written to the letter.

[mascaria]

I really hope that they don't make a movie/cartoon for We're Alive. It's perfect in the audio drama format. I love having the ability to listen to such an enthralling and modern story while doing... Doing what? What ever, going for walks, doing the dishes, laying in bed, riding the bus. If you turn this into video you're limiting not only the writers but the audience.

[I The K Train I]

I really hope that they don't make a movie/cartoon for We're Alive. It's perfect in the audio drama format. I love having the ability to listen to such an enthralling and modern story while doing... Doing what? What ever, going for walks, doing the dishes, laying in bed, riding the bus. If you turn this into video you're limiting not only the writers but the audience.

I agree completley. I think that audio drama is perfect. I love the fact that you can listen to it at any stage. Myself and a mate listen to it every tuesday while working.

I also think that it would be ruined in my head, I don't know what the zombies look like, but I have an image that I like to use. It might be ruined then by what would probably not live up to my expectations.

[StepLaugh]

I think what really makes it work in the end is the characters. Just like the show LOST, it was a great show, but the characters are what made us watch that show week-in and week-out.

I'd love to see kc work on something. But I'm scarred that if it does become something more than a podcast the script might get changed, and I don't like that at all. But I know KC will not let his baby get out of hand XD

[fraggot]

I think what really makes it work in the end is the characters. Just like the show LOST, it was a great show, but the characters are what made us watch that show week-in and week-out.

I'd love to see kc work on something. But I'm scarred that if it does become something more than a podcast the script might get changed, and I don't like that at all. But I know KC will not let his baby get out of hand XD

I have to agree big time, almost anything that's insanely good in it's original form is always changed for easiest consumption by the masses. Look how many great things have been ruined by some moron director wanting to have more explosions or completely change plots and important details. The only way I would even think it'd work for me is if KC and all of the original actors and story writers were involved and had ultimate control over how it turned out. That'd make all those awful video game movies so much more entertaining if someone who was involved in the game was involved in the movies as well.

[jamman39]

You would definitely have to make some serious changes to make it fit into a 90 minute or two hour movie, thats just the nature of adaptation. Thing is 20 minute installments is the only way to tell this story, theres no shortage of great zombie movies and not enough zombie podcasts I don't see a need for a We're Alive movie, maybe a comic book...

[StepLaugh]

A comic book would be sweet.

Now I think you could make 3 podcast episodes into a 55 min tvshow.

I know this is crazy but like how Showtime shows like dexter and weeds, their seasons are about 12 episodes or so, and you could do a season on tv per season on podcast.

[mascaria]

:(

The point of the audio drama is using your imagination to visual what's going on (in my opinion). The second you add visuals then it ceases to be as personal. The world needs more good drama that inspires imagination. We're Alive does that. Making it a comic book or a TV show or a movie... It would lose so much in translation, even if it stayed true to every word of the dialog.

[StepLaugh]

I agree with you on that.

But, if it would work out well, then KC would be able to work full time on we're alive and maybe other project.

[Hollomandious]

I'm against it.

Tho, i do like some visual cue's. The little sketches of the characters, and the picture of the Tower are very nice. They help shape the image in my head. I'd like more of those.

[cPT.cAPSLOCK]

I have to say I agree with Hollomandious.
Some concept art and sketches can help the team to still affect the listeners imagination regarding the characters and scenery, but video-storytelling would be a bummer.
A lot of things that cause tension in audiodramas just don't work as well with video, so it'd require a lot of effort to rewrite everything.

Add to that the fact that this podcast is made by people who have jobs. The extra time required for filming and editing, getting props and decors done, lighting and make-up simply isn't available.

So again, more concept art would be great, but I can't see much good coming from a video version.

[RamblinMike]

Yeah, I can't see a movie version being any better than what we have now.The real backbone of the series is its excellent writing, high-calibre acting and top-notch production values. Take those away and hand them off to someone else for, say, a movie version, and what do you have? Just a clever story idea.

[Spud]

I'm against it.

Tho, i do like some visual cue's. The little sketches of the characters, and the picture of the Tower are very nice. They help shape the image in my head. I'd like more of those.

Me too i love the sketch of the Tower probably the most

[TCM Revolver]

:(

The point of the audio drama is using your imagination to visual what's going on (in my opinion). The second you add visuals then it ceases to be as personal. The world needs more good drama that inspires imagination. We're Alive does that. Making it a comic book or a TV show or a movie... It would lose so much in translation, even if it stayed true to every word of the dialog.
I agree completly. I listened to 3/4 of the released episodes b4 I even came to the website. I formed everything in my mind first then came to see how close I was.

[sdkmcqueen]

Yeah i'm with hollo here. I am always disappointed by shows/movies that are made out of comics or books or the like. The characters are always different then I imagine them being.

[HaveCrowBarWillTravel]

I have to agree with the naysayers on this. A movie would blow it. The podcast is perfect because we actually have to start using the old gray matter again. Our ears are the filter instead of the eyes. The only thing I would say is mini clips that could possibly be inserted in the podcast. Clips of a place, or a flash of something like Samatha being dragged down the hallway ala the ending of the movie "quaritine."

[fraggot]

If anything I'd like it to be done in the style of a CGI animated short(maybe the chapters) or an animated comic or just animation.

My best example of what I'd like is watch the Introduction video for Left 4 Dead 1, that little short is very well done.

[jamman39]

Making it a comic book or a TV show or a movie... It would lose so much in translation, even if it stayed true to every word of the dialog.

Your right about one thing for sure, staying true to every line of dialogue would ruin it. David Cronenberg once said, that the only way to be true to what your adapting is to betray it. Changes are necessary to make a successful adaptation. IMO I think the best way We're Alive could branch out into another medium like comics would be as a supplement to the radio drama. Imagine a comic book that was based around the Mallers or Colony that happened concurrent with the main story

[jiwasz]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned how the Walking Dead has transitioned from comic book to TV series. It's been popular enough to warrant a second season and it has successfully transitioned to a wider audience despite the fact it does not adhere to the exact storyline. The premise of both Walking Dead and We're Alive is similar in that both are ongoing stories of survival which does not lend itself to a movie format. Just as the Walking Dead TV series deviated from the comic book plot any retelling of We're Alive would necessarily deviate. The realities of movie production and budget would call for alterations as driven by both timeline and budget.

The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King, was rereleased in comic book form a couple years ago. The comic focuses on aspects the original series didn't explore. A comic book suplement to We're Alive would, I think, be a welcome addition and broaden the audience. It wouldn't have to reproduce the same story. Rather it could explore various sidestories like the relationship between Angel and Scratch, how Skittles' companions met their fate and how he survived, how the Mallers got together and their community's struggles, etc.

[bohemianroxie]

I'm going to agree with most others.
I'm not a zombie groupie...more an apocalyptic groupie.
I love to see the way that these situations affect the "humans"..
"We're Alive" transforms the genre by being character driven. Audio works perfectly for that.
That's something most zombie movies seem to fail to do and the thing that makes "We're Alive" so different and unique..
I find zombies, themselves, incredibly boring and not very appetizing to look at.
They're not very bright, are terrible conversationalist and have repulsive table manners.
What's so mesmerizing about that? Innards gobbling..yech!
The only way an adaption would work for me is perhaps as a tv series that still retained it's character driven roots and not a carbon copy of every other zombie film.
I'm afraid the powers that be would twist it into a clone of everything else.
The media loves to make everything a carbon copy of whatever has worked in the past. Screw individuality.

[Onslaught]

I agree with you jiwasz, the plot could be drastically changed if turned into a show or movie, and I think the comic could be a good idea if done right. Just as long as the story remains the same although the image that I have of a zombie could be changed if it is made into a comic.

[Binary101]

I've been thinking of doing a machinima using left 4 dead 2 with the audio of we're alive it seems very similar just gotta create some maps and some new character models.

[nikvoodoo]

Couple points I wanted to add to the conversation:

When I was getting my audio/radio degree in college, my professor did an in class exercise about the power of the spoken word. We listened to an episode of Prairie Home Companion and specifically one of the "News from Lake Wobegone" segments. The segment was 12 minutes long and we listened to the first 6 minutes with all the lights out and just listening to Garrison Keillor. Then half way through we started to watch the PBS broadcast. When we analyzed it after, we all immediately said as soon as we saw the picture, our imagination turned off. We had originally been creating the mental image of the story in our head, but as soon as we had something in front of us, we struggled against what we were seeing to create the mental image of what he was saying. Obviously the same thing would happen with any visual representation of the We're Alive story.

But adaptations from books happen all the time. Hell, the theater company I work for does basically nothing but adapt novels into plays. You will always lose something in translation because you lose some capabilities of the original medium. A movie based on a novel can no longer give you 4 paragraphs of someones thought process, but because you can now see an actor playing the role that actor can wrap up those 4 paragraphs in a tilt of the head and a raised eyebrow.

Best examples I can think of that everyone would probably know: From the last hour and a half of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film all the way through Deathly Hallows part 1 I've been very pleased with the adaptation. I feel like what they did to cut and streamline vs. expand and elaborate was perfect for the stories. But I hated what they did with the first 3.5 films. They did too much cutting and streamlining but didn't take advantage of the extras they could have inserted to make the story better.

If there were to be a We're Alive movie, or animated feature or what have you, yes: We would lose something in translation from a radio drama. But if streamlined and modified in the appropriate way you can really gain something.

[Skynet]

I'd prefer We're Alive to stay the way it is. I like Jim Gleason's voice and I couldn't picture anyone else doing any justice to the character. Jim Gleason is Michael and no one else could get away with it now. It'd just be too weird. If it were animated in some way so the cast could stay the same, I'd definitely watch that. But I'm too attached to the actors who play the characters to see someone else playing them and not sounding exactly the same.

[Hikaro]

I would be against an adaptation. We're alive is just an audio drama plain and simple. That's the medium it works under, the characters are perfectly cast, and a movie/tv show would butcher the plot.
We're alive manages to make zombies seem more like part of the environment than anything. It allows the characters to get more development, and more interesting plots to form. 28 days later being the exception, no movies are really able to pull that off properly.

I do however, think it would be really interesting to see a show/movie based in the same zombie-verse with a different cast/plotline. If the writers were allowed free reign on the script of course. That would be a pretty damn good movie.

edit: as an added comment, doing something like that would probably put a lot of strain on the producers of the show. Unless they left their normal jobs to take care of the movie/show the podcast would probably be put on hold or completely scrapped to take care of the new project. That would be a very very sad day. Something on par with the day your closest friends get eaten by flesh eating neighbors right before your very eyes.

[Destiny]

A TV series would be better I think. There's just so much information to cover for to be just a movie.

[SleepyGlenn]

I really think We're Alive's radio play format sets it apart from other zombie fiction out there. I'm not sure I'd like to see a film version. Perhaps an online comic book or animation might be an idea, though.

[evslarg]

maybe you can do both? like for every chapter have 1 movie and for every part have the audio? that would boost the imagination to the max

[David Foley]

To tell you the truth, I think that (sort of like evslarg said) if somebody animated the podcast and simply left in the audio that's already there, I would be all for it. As long as it doesn't interfere in any way whether it be adapting it to the video format or in the upcoming with the podcast as it is and just added visuals to the audio, I think it would be really awesome.

[Pen]

I really like the comic book idea. As long as it stayed true to form. The Walking Dead comic series is fantastic. Yet the t.v. show is a let down. I enjoy listening to the podcast and visualizing what's going on myself. And the quality of the podcast is so good, it makes visualizing everything easy!

[SuperSerge76]

We're Alive... as a movie? I hope not.

[Jebus]

Movie would be sweet.

[MrScott101]

my opinion is that if anything was to be done it should wait until the podcast is done and then using the exact audio from the podcast build an animated series. Could be done in the style of a graphic novel. I have a vision as to what I see but explaining it is another thing. It would revamp the podcast, and maybe even get a new audience interested. I do think that the podcast needs to remain a podcast for now strictly because you can focus on the writing of it and use you're own creativity to fill your mind with what you think these characters look like and their surroundings. Me, I have to guess quite a bit on location mainly because I'm not familiar with where this is taking place. Just my 2 cents