Among the best works in cinematic history have been the victims of rewrites. A necessity for creative retooling doesn’t robotically preclude a failure within the making. But when so many video game adaptations have ultimately suffered after their projects endured mandates like “make more accessible,” it is easy to see where fears are coming from now that the Keeper’s out of the bag on the behind-the-scenes skinny over at Amazon Prime Video’s Mass Effect TV project.
Peter Friedlander took the helm from Jennifer Salke as Amazon’s Head of Global TV back in October, and a brand new report shines light on his present endeavors. He’s been reading scripts from all forms of shows, including plenty which presently lack formal series orders—like Mass Effect. His feedback? You guessed it. “Make more accessible.”
Look Twice, Non-Gamers Are In all places
Today’s report comes from The Ankler, which, alas, is paywalled. (I’m personally curious to see whether analyst Lesley Goldberg got the news on anything relevant to Amazon’s Stargate sequel series, but I’ll should go digging on my lonesome later. I’ve got a Mass Effect story to publish here.) Thankfully, the hard-working folks at IGN isolated the Shepard-savvy snippets for us.
The Ankler references Prime Video’s in-the-works Mass Effect adaptation as a “pricey genre drama.” Money talks, and Peter Friedlander has words. The excellent news? The show is “on the verge” of a proper series order. (In case you thought that was already a done deal, nope. It’s never quite that simple.) Friedlander’s goal is to make top-down decisions on which shows make the cut, and while Mass Effect seems more likely to achieve this, the doubtless bad news pertains to an edict that lots of us have heard all too again and again:
“Make it more appealing to non-gamers.”
To this end, Friedlander has requested script rewrites with that goal in mind. IGN cannot speak as to what this implies, because they are not mind readers; unfortunately, neither am I. Devil’s advocate and all, however it’s possible the scripts of their previous condition flew too near the sun on that rating, packed to bursting with nods and in-jokes to the epic trilogy it’s set after.
Rewrites don’t robotically mean failure within the making, and company mandates aren’t at all times for the worst. But, despite the fact that I’m not personally a fan of Amazon’s Fallout show, I actually have to ponder whether there is a little bit of woeful irony here; much of the praise for that adaptation stems from just how much love is on display for the video games it’s inspired by.
The Mass Effect show is being written chiefly by Fast & The Furious 9 scribe Daniel Casey. Doug Jung, of Star Trek Beyond and Mindhunter fame, is attached as overall showrunner. BioWare’s own Mike Gamble and longtime genre adaptation overseer Avi Arad are on board as producers.