Casting a Nightspawn TV show

Specter · Unread post by **Specter** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 3:20 am

A regular Guardian; like spike was a regular baddie... if we are going Palladium based then Burgerface should be a main character. This show would be really high budget to be good though.

gaby · Unread post by **gaby** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 8:39 pm

Well are the characters members of the Nightbane,s Resistance?

What City do you set it in?

I wood Make 4 of the 6 nightbane 1 magic human and 1 Psychic human.

The team will meet other Factions from time to time.

The Ongoing Bad Guys are the Night Prince of the city and his Minions.

What do you think about my idea?

Specter · Unread post by **Specter** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:18 pm

Maybe a human priest? Not to be cliche, but it would cool to touch on the religious sides of things esspecially when faced with the threats of vampires.

BookWyrm · Unread post by **BookWyrm** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 11:31 pm

Rule # 1; Let gamers be on the writing staff. You have to have someone who at least is familiar with the game's premise, rather than some passing vague idea (as was with Kindred-The Embrace).

Rule #1-a: DO NOT LET SPELLING TOUCH IT! again, I site the aforementioned "Vampire-90201" series.

Rule 1-b; The licencees have ABSOLUTE CONTROL. While most of us remember vividly the legal fiascos instigated by a certain comic-character-creator over variations of said character's name, Creator-Controll is still one of the more intelligent moves ever done. You don't want to wait nearly 50 years for your royalties, as Siegal & Shuster did over Superm@n.

Rule #2: Go for at least two tv-movies, establishing the story & characters. Have it produced by a network that has at least an idea of the genre, like SciFi Channel. Cable is your best bet. Network TV is too restrictive. You have a better chance at syndication with cable, not to mention VHS & DVD rights.

Rule #3; Blend all available tech into it. Live action is great, but can only do so much. CGI enhancement, yes. But anything over 50%, and you might as well go either all animated or full CGI. (BTW; if you do go full-CGI, go with Mainframe, the people who made ReBoot.)

Mike Taylor · Unread post by **Mike Taylor** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 3:33 am

I would definitely set it in the Windy City! Not that I'm biased, mind you.

I agree with keeping the number of factions pared down, at least initially.

As a twist on the repentant monster theme, I'd throw in a Night Prince who has been having second thoughts on his support of King Moloch. He still isn't a noble hero by any means, but he's trying very hard to get there. Of course, this character would end up dying as an act of repentance for his past sins.

Another twist, drawn from my own gaming experiences, would be for one of the "human" characters to discover he was really a Doppleganger. Then have the real guy hunting for the Doppleganger, in hopes to kill it for ruining his life.

Now, if you had a sufficient budget, who would you cast in this show and why? Remember that this is a TV show, so big screen stars should be kept to cameos or season finales.

Marcethus · Unread post by **Marcethus** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:07 am

I think the Nocturnes would make a great main faction for such a show

Vidynn · Unread post by **Vidynn** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 12:01 pm

The pilot should center around Dark Day and show us 1) a young kid being transformed into a Nightbane and 2) chaos and mayhem around the world.

I would base the main plot in Los Angeles, but there should be other cities in the US as well as Europe/Asia and Africa for a change.

after a few episodes there should be a Nightlands-episode.

Burgerface is a must.

keep the Vampire Threat out of the plot until Season 2.

oh, boy, this would be great. alas, its not gonna happen.

Sanctu · Unread post by **Sanctu** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 12:40 pm

I was just going to post something about the pilot handling Dark Day. While you could potential do the flash back thing, I think it would work far better for the pilot to have our main characters (not a single hero-based game like Angel or most such shows) all be like starting pre-change characters. They probably all know each other, but might not all know that they are all adopted, etc. A heafty chunk of the Pilot, possibly even the first half (assuming the pilot is at least double-length) would be establishing the normal lives of the people, with background seeding. Then Dark Day hits, chaos insues.

Everyone keeps saying "What city should it be in?" but this confusses me. I would think the story would at least start in a smaller town/city somewhere, much like recommended in the book. Being in a big city, roaming around on Dark Day in morphus form, would be a death sentance for our heros and something that would pull them into the fry VERY fast. Not that you couldn't do this, mind you, but my own thoughts would be a slightly slower ramp-up time.

You could start them in high school easily. In fact, this is what is mentioned in the main book. You don't have to, though. The characters could all easily be the same age and in the same college, or live in the same area, or work in the same town, etc. They may or may not know each other ahead of time, although it might work best if some do, and possibly know that they were adopted through the same agency. (I myself have found myself in a house where all the people were born on the same year and all adopted by Catholic charities. Strange, but it happens, even un-intentionally.)

What faction seems obvious to me: the Underground... at least at first. Remember: the Resistance started some time after Dark Day as an off shoot of the Underground. I think it would be sad not to miss the chance to have the characters in contact with them while the division is happening. Not that the characters couldn't move on or what-not, mind you.

Non-banes should be few to none for regular characters, although I can easily see a psychic in the mix, and perhaps a Guardian that the characters meet later.

The biggest problem is, of course, the effects budget. An animated series could work well, becaus ethen you really aren't restricted to what the characters can become and do. Nightbane by defintion will be rather high-strees on the budgets of a live action show, though. The most likely people to do it would be the Sci-Fi channel, and while they do some stuff, having anything too out there wouldn't happen, or woudl lead to our heros not changing very often. I can almost see a "Buffy"-like moment, though...

char one: "Why do all the realy monsterous ones look like something ina plastic suit?"
char two: "Maybe they all watched too many B-movies as a kid. Or maybe it's just us, the observers, who watched too many of them."
char one: "Remember that Eye Creature one? The original?"
char two: "Yeah. We all watched it in your dad's garage wit that old antena."
char one: "I keep thinking of that, where the monsters all look better in the dark. We've become that: creatures who look better if you only catch a glipse of us, other-wise we just look silly."
char two: "I don't know. Being able to make booze flow from your fingers sounds pretty cool, though."

Beelzebozo · Unread post by **Beelzebozo** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:11 pm

As far as budgetary considerations goes, my vote goes for animation. "Serious" animated series - both anime and domestically produced - are finally gaining enough respect in the US for it to be a possibility.

Oh, yeah. And cast Keith David for something. Or else. Maybe Burger-Face. And assuming it's animated, keep Jim Cummings away from it...

glitterboy2098 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:29 pm

With all due respect to Chicago, I think Philadelphia or Boston might make better locations. They seem (to me) to have a greater sense of history. Besides, you could make so many parallels with the war for Independance. Maybe even have NB from the time period.

Not to turn it into Dark Shadows...

or a Special Unit 2. (though i liked that show.....)

Sir_Spirit · Unread post by **Sir_Spirit** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 5:45 pm

I think you should start off with 2 or three prechange night banes and have them undergo it's becomeing and Dark day and their joining/forming the resistance after they've met the UR and begun to understand what and who they are. Have one of them be Burger Face and the others be unknown but have one of their contacts be an elder Nightspawn Sorcerer...

Then after maybe half a season of so, have them encounter an amnesiac Guardian whom they befriend and who is new( or "just made"-if you will)...

Slowly build up the team as they encounter people. So that where you start with 2 or 3 banes then you add in another bane(maybe a Bane-sorcerer) and Guardian(in a rare episode with vampires, maybe the first time they encounter them) and then may be a human psychic. Each of whom is added encountered during an episode and then laters joins the team a few episode down the line. Sort of like Gunn(Gaah!!!-get better name though) or Fred was added in.
And while your at it, have the banes go in different directions, have one learn sorcery, while another goes talent happy(and has problems with not having enough "juice" to power them), and another just keeps to one or 2 talents while never worrying about "juice"(but worries that maybe they aren't as versatile as the other ones).
Maybe even add in a Living Nightmare join after a character dies. One based on an enemies nightmares about the now deceased character.

Jefffar · Unread post by **Jefffar** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 7:40 pm

I also vote for the animated option, there's no other way to really get all the special effects that this will have without a mega budget.

TechnoGothic · Unread post by **TechnoGothic** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:05 am

less bio-mechanical ppl, just one is needed...

We Need a ::
(a) Huge Hulking Monster of some kind, maybe mixed with animal features too...Lizard-Croc Man but Hulking muscles...maybe even is made out of crystal or rocks....

(b) a Skeletal Stigmata NB *played by a Puppet/CGI-enhanced*
a Goth in Human form, really freaked out about his new condition.
Acting tough and dark and gloomy is thing, but becoming it persoified...ewww

(c) a Gender-Bender type...Attractive, too attractive, but their human form is of the opposite gender

Still has the Opposites gender voice though...good for laughs

(d) an Owl-Girl...Wereform type with Wings on her back.
She seems stuck in her NB form, she secrety doesnt want to turn back, so her fanily wont find her...abusive parents maybe

Overlord Rikonius · Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:38 pm

TechnoGothic wrote:(c) a Gender-Bender type...Attractive, too attractive, but their human form is of the opposite gender
Still has the Opposites gender voice though...good for laughs

Does this person date a guy whose morphus is a scrawny monarch butterfly? :lol:

TechnoGothic · Unread post by **TechnoGothic** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 9:05 pm

Lord High RICO Statute wrote:
TechnoGothic wrote:(c) a Gender-Bender type...Attractive, too attractive, but their human form is of the
Still has the Opposites gender voice though...good for laughs
Does this person date a guy whose morphus is a scrawny monarch butterfly?