Whatever happened to that hero factory movie?

[masterchirox580]

I remember back in 2012 hearing about a potential live-action movie based on HF, lego were supposedly discussing the idea with universal and it would have been written by the same guys who did predator. But since then nothing's been heard about it, so it leaves a lot of questions such as, what happened to it? Why did it(presumably)get cancelled? Was it even true? And I also ask you would it have been a good idea and what would it have been like?

[The 1st Shadow]

I had only heard rumors, or just a lot of wishful thinking. So, honestly, I have no idea. I would like to find out, though, if that was true at some point.

[fishers64]

it would have been written by the same guys who did predator.

Um, predator was hardly a kid's movie. Somehow, if it was "going to be written" by them, I think that might be a myth. (That they were writing, not that the movie was coming out.)

 

Eh, I think they were doing talks, and those talks never went anywhere. 

[xccj]

Well, it was certainly a thing they were planning, because I remember asking about it at one of the 2012 Lego Conventions when Kevin Hinkle was doing his Q&A. So it said something about the longevity of Hero Factory at the time, in that they were at least planning it out for a few more years. But clearly that didn't go over well, especially since the last episode they did was on a small budget (or so I believe. Maybe they just had a tight deadline for that episode and I'm remembering it wrong.) However, I never heard of the director bit. Seems like something we would've posted about if the news had come to us.

 

Edit: Based on our story here, it was an idea that was going around, but probably just never got finalized.

 

Edited September 20, 2014 by xccj

[Lenny7092]

I don't know, but I do have a theory; I remembered how The Lego Movie had started being developed in 2010. Three years later, in 2013, the information about it, including the actors, characters, plot, release date, and trailer, was released, and then, in 2014, the movie itself came out, too. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, since the live-action Hero Factory movie is mentioned in 2012, like you said, masterchirox580, maybe the movie is already developing now without us knowing it? I don't know, but I'll also bet that more information about the live-action movie would come out in next year, 2015, and then, the movie itself would be released in 2016. Just making a theory about the movie.

[John Smith]

I don't know, but I do have a theory; I remembered how The Lego Movie had started being developed in 2010. Three years later, in 2013, the information about it, including the actors, characters, plot, release date, and trailer, was released, and then, in 2014, the movie itself came out, too. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, since the live-action Hero Factory movie is mentioned in 2012, like you said, masterchirox580, maybe the movie is already developing now without us knowing it? I don't know, but I'll also bet that more information about the live-action movie would come out in next year, 2015, and then, the movie itself would be released in 2016. Just making a theory about the movie.

 

Thing is, they're not gonna release a movie promoting a cancelled line. If (big if) they are indeed developing it, it's likely they'll re-tool it into a Bionicle movie.

[Lenny7092]

 

 

I don't know, but I do have a theory; I remembered how The Lego Movie had started being developed in 2010. Three years later, in 2013, the information about it, including the actors, characters, plot, release date, and trailer, was released, and then, in 2014, the movie itself came out, too. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, since the live-action Hero Factory movie is mentioned in 2012, like you said, masterchirox580, maybe the movie is already developing now without us knowing it? I don't know, but I'll also bet that more information about the live-action movie would come out in next year, 2015, and then, the movie itself would be released in 2016. Just making a theory about the movie.

Thing is, they're not gonna release a movie promoting a cancelled line. If (big if) they are indeed developing it, it's likely they'll re-tool it into a Bionicle movie.

I agree with you, but what makes you say Hero Factory's cancelled? We didn't see any upcoming 2015 sets for it yet, if there would be any.

[John Smith]

 

 

I don't know, but I do have a theory; I remembered how The Lego Movie had started being developed in 2010. Three years later, in 2013, the information about it, including the actors, characters, plot, release date, and trailer, was released, and then, in 2014, the movie itself came out, too. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, since the live-action Hero Factory movie is mentioned in 2012, like you said, masterchirox580, maybe the movie is already developing now without us knowing it? I don't know, but I'll also bet that more information about the live-action movie would come out in next year, 2015, and then, the movie itself would be released in 2016. Just making a theory about the movie.

Thing is, they're not gonna release a movie promoting a cancelled line. If (big if) they are indeed developing it, it's likely they'll re-tool it into a Bionicle movie.

I agree with you, but what makes you say Hero Factory's cancelled? We didn't see any upcoming 2015 sets for it yet, if there would be any.

 

 

*Googles* Oh, I guess it's not ending for sure. Somehow I'd gotten that idea into my head. I'd still say there's a good chance of it ending since I doubt it would co-exist well with Bionicle, but you're right, there's no official word yet.

[masterchirox580]

I don't know, but I do have a theory; I remembered how The Lego Movie had started being developed in 2010. Three years later, in 2013, the information about it, including the actors, characters, plot, release date, and trailer, was released, and then, in 2014, the movie itself came out, too. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, since the live-action Hero Factory movie is mentioned in 2012, like you said, masterchirox580, maybe the movie is already developing now without us knowing it? I don't know, but I'll also bet that more information about the live-action movie would come out in next year, 2015, and then, the movie itself would be released in 2016. Just making a theory about the movie.

Well here's the thing with that, first of all TLM was being planned as early as 2008 and I believe it was greenlighted in november of 2011, I remember during that time we'd get little bits of information each year. With this thing it's a case of one news report and the project just vapourized never to be heard of again, and if HF is ending then this thing will definitely get cancelled(assuming it hasn't been already).

[Aanchir]

I don't really think anything happened to it. The last we heard about it, they were in talks to develop it. It's entirely possible that those "talks" never ended up going anywhere.

 

Frankly, if any Hero Factory movie were actually in development, we'd have heard something more concrete about it by now.

[Toa Green Ninja]

I really hope that a theatrical BIONICLE movie is "replacing" it. Wouldn't that be awesome?

[Lenny7092]

I really hope that a theatrical BIONICLE movie is "replacing" it. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Well, yes, but we need a update about the Hero Factory movie first, and I'm not sure if we can get a Bionicle movie, because next year, we will have new, Mixels-like webisodes about Bionicle, but we don't know if Bionicle will have humans in its reboot this time, unless they can travel through dimensions somehow.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Um, predator was hardly a kid's movie. Somehow, if it was "going to be written" by them, I think that might be a myth. (That they were writing, not that the movie was coming out.)

 

Eh, I think they were doing talks, and those talks never went anywhere. 

 

Um, are you saying writers of adult-oriented films can only ever do adult-oriented films? That is a ludicrous statement. Some of the best directors and writers have written for a PLETHORA of genre's and age-groups.

 

Even the writers/directors of the LEGO Movie were responsible for a certain film called "22 Jump Street". I would definitely not consider that a "kids movie".

 

Regarding the HF movie - I do remember hearing about this and being very excited. If they do change it to a Bionicle movie, that's even better BUT it'd better not involve live-action.

 

-NotS

[Axilus Prime]

Bionicle and Hero Factory both wouldn't work with live action, because, well...

 

Live action tends to work best when there are actually humans involved.

 

Now, if we got a full 2 and a half hour theatrical Bionicle movie with solid story, acting, action, and tone...then that would be awesome.

 

As for the aforementioned HF movie, I'm not sure they ever even started development.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Now, if we got a full 2 and a half hour theatrical Bionicle movie with solid story, acting, action, and tone...then that would be awesome.

I mentioned this on a different site before, but I'd love for it to have a really photo-realistic feel like How to Train Your Dragon 2 did. Not character-wise, but the film itself looked almost real, like it was shot on a film camera but still had all that sense of surrealistic fantasy to it. I feel Bionicle could really work in that style.

 

And 2 and a half hour? I hope you realize how long that is. Plus, most CG movies are little over 90 mins.

 

-NotS

[Axilus Prime]

 

Now, if we got a full 2 and a half hour theatrical Bionicle movie with solid story, acting, action, and tone...then that would be awesome.

I mentioned this on a different site before, but I'd love for it to have a really photo-realistic feel like How to Train Your Dragon 2 did. Not character-wise, but the film itself looked almost real, like it was shot on a film camera but still had all that sense of surrealistic fantasy to it. I feel Bionicle could really work in that style.

 

And 2 and a half hour? I hope you realize how long that is. Plus, most CG movies are little over 90 mins.

 

-NotS

 

That's the length of a typical blockbuster movie. And I'd like photorealistic CGI, but then it would have to be little over 90 minutes. Unless...

 

Unless they shot with real locations, thus saving time and effort for backgrounds, and then used photorealistic CGI for the characters, making them really have proper textures and details.

[bioniclepluslotr]

They managed live action trailers. A movie would likely be similar.

 

[Lenny7092]

They managed live action trailers. A movie would likely be similar.

 

Good find, but I'm not sure if a Hero Factory movie could work like this because:

1. These toy commercials used animated characters from the TV series.

2. I have a feeling that many people expect robot-toy-based live-action movies to be like the Transformers ones: they got a lot of good ratings.

Anyway, I have another feeling that it could be unlikely that the Hero Factory would come out because of the poor performance of the IFB episode and the upcoming return of Bionicle in 2015. I am hyped for the movie, but it would be disappointing if it is going to be cancelled.

Edited October 19, 2014 by Lenny7092

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

That's the length of a typical blockbuster movie. And I'd like photorealistic CGI, but then it would have to be little over 90 minutes. Unless...

 

Unless they shot with real locations, thus saving time and effort for backgrounds, and then used photorealistic CGI for the characters, making them really have proper textures and details.

 

It is the length of a typical blockbuster LIVE-ACTION movie. All CG movies made by large studios rarely ever hit the two hour mark. Also, pretty much all of them are also catered towards younger audiences, which is why the length is predetermined.

 

It would actually be easier to build everything from ground-up. It's easily more work inserting CGI characters convincingly into a live-action setting, especially if there are many complex camera moves. Once you build the environment and characters in a computer, you have the freedom to get whatever angle, whatever camera move you like without worrying about subtle keyframing and inconsistent lighting of the real world.

 

-NotS

[Axilus Prime]

 

That's the length of a typical blockbuster movie. And I'd like photorealistic CGI, but then it would have to be little over 90 minutes. Unless...

 

Unless they shot with real locations, thus saving time and effort for backgrounds, and then used photorealistic CGI for the characters, making them really have proper textures and details.

 

It is the length of a typical blockbuster LIVE-ACTION movie. All CG movies made by large studios rarely ever hit the two hour mark. Also, pretty much all of them are also catered towards younger audiences, which is why the length is predetermined.

 

It would actually be easier to build everything from ground-up. It's easily more work inserting CGI characters convincingly into a live-action setting, especially if there are many complex camera moves. Once you build the environment and characters in a computer, you have the freedom to get whatever angle, whatever camera move you like without worrying about subtle keyframing and inconsistent lighting of the real world.

 

-NotS

 

They rarely hit the two hour mark, but there's no rule against it. And more length means more room for content, something which a Bionicle movie, to tell the story in the best way possible, sorely needs. LOMN could have covered everything in '04, and WOS could have done the same for '05, Time Trap included, if they were given lengths that big.

 

And there's no need to specifically target younger audiences. Most superhero movies these days are not specifically aimed at kids, but kids still love them.

 

Well, if you use practical effects for part of it, and use photorealistic CGI models, it should still work. Lighting I hadn't really considered, but it's been done, many times. 

 

But actually, doing it all from the ground up works too, I just remembered the intro cinematic and ending cinematic for Halo 4, plus all the Halo 2 Anniversary cinematics. Those are all pure CGI, but they look real. If we had something like that for a Bionicle movie, that would be awesome.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Axilus Prime

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

They rarely hit the two hour mark, but there's no rule against it. And more length means more room for content, something which a Bionicle movie, to tell the story in the best way possible, sorely needs. LOMN could have covered everything in '04, and WOS could have done the same for '05, Time Trap included, if they were given lengths that big.

 

And there's no need to specifically target younger audiences. Most superhero movies these days are not specifically aimed at kids, but kids still love them.

 

Well, if you use practical effects for part of it, and use photorealistic CGI models, it should still work. Lighting I hadn't really considered, but it's been done, many times. 

 

But actually, doing it all from the ground up works too, I just remembered the intro cinematic and ending cinematic for Halo 4, plus all the Halo 2 Anniversary cinematics. Those are all pure CGI, but they look real. If we had something like that for a Bionicle movie, that would be awesome.

 

Yes, photorealistic CGI would be an amazing style for BIONICLE, which is why I brought up How to Train Your Dragon 2 up earlier. It has a great feel and style to it while retaining a realistic sense of environment. Plus, it's hard work but again nowhere near as hard as inserting CG into live-action convincingly. If you have full control of the environment you have created in-studio then it will be easier and faster.  

 

The difference between Superhero movies and CG-animated movies is that one is a live-action film that caters to both fans from both older and newer generations. A CGI animated movie unfortunately comes with a preconception that it will be aimed towards kids and big studios play off of this to ensure the highest level of success. Yes, they could break the mold but I don't see LEGO, as a big toy company, and Hollywood whom they will inevitably work with will attempt such a risky move. If there is going to be a CG movie of Bionicle, it would have to be mainly directed at kids (plus, it is a kids line so it won't hurt). 

 

Finally, regarding length - again, it's about maximizing profit. An hour-and-a-half movie will be fast enough to keep kids excited. But add an hour of unrelated content like Maze of Shadows to LoMN and a kid may be bored. Plus, animating it would be double the work. It wouldn't make sense to leave that range, and longer doesn't always equate to good. The V-Cinema Bionicle movies were fine. They ensured they could tell their story in that limited amount of time and did so successfully. It might have need a couple of more minutes to tighten the pacing but otherwise more story material would have been unnecessary. Inserting Time Trap into an otherwise complete story would just be confusing and bore the viewers, because the movie would well overstay its welcome and drag the audience into a portion they do not expect (or necessarily want to stay) to see.

 

-NotS

Edited October 20, 2014 by Nidhiki of the Shadows

[Axilus Prime]

 

They rarely hit the two hour mark, but there's no rule against it. And more length means more room for content, something which a Bionicle movie, to tell the story in the best way possible, sorely needs. LOMN could have covered everything in '04, and WOS could have done the same for '05, Time Trap included, if they were given lengths that big.

 

And there's no need to specifically target younger audiences. Most superhero movies these days are not specifically aimed at kids, but kids still love them.

 

Well, if you use practical effects for part of it, and use photorealistic CGI models, it should still work. Lighting I hadn't really considered, but it's been done, many times. 

 

But actually, doing it all from the ground up works too, I just remembered the intro cinematic and ending cinematic for Halo 4, plus all the Halo 2 Anniversary cinematics. Those are all pure CGI, but they look real. If we had something like that for a Bionicle movie, that would be awesome.

 

Yes, photorealistic CGI would be an amazing style for BIONICLE, which is why I brought up How to Train Your Dragon 2 up earlier. It has a great feel and style to it while retaining a realistic sense of environment. Plus, it's hard work but again nowhere near as hard as inserting CG into live-action convincingly. If you have full control of the environment you have created in-studio then it will be easier and faster.  

 

The difference between Superhero movies and CG-animated movies is that one is a live-action film that caters to both fans from both older and newer generations. A CGI animated movie unfortunately comes with a preconception that it will be aimed towards kids and big studios play off of this to ensure the highest level of success. Yes, they could break the mold but I don't see LEGO, as a big toy company, and Hollywood whom they will inevitably work with will attempt such a risky move. If there is going to be a CG movie of Bionicle, it would have to be mainly directed at kids (plus, it is a kids line so it won't hurt). 

 

Finally, regarding length - again, it's about maximizing profit. An hour-and-a-half movie will be fast enough to keep kids excited. But add an hour of unrelated content like Maze of Shadows to LoMN and a kid may be bored. Plus, animating it would be double the work. It wouldn't make sense to leave that range, and longer doesn't always equate to good. The V-Cinema Bionicle movies were fine. They ensured they could tell their story in that limited amount of time and did so successfully. It might have need a couple of more minutes to tighten the pacing but otherwise more story material would have been unnecessary. Inserting Time Trap into an otherwise complete story would just be confusing and bore the viewers, because the movie would well overstay its welcome and drag the audience into a portion they do not expect (or necessarily want to stay) to see.

 

-NotS

 

Well, How to Train Your Dragon 2 wasn't exactly photorealistic CGI. Maybe for some of the backgrounds, but other than that...

 

This, this, and this illustrate what I mean. The last one illustrating more of the type a Bionicle movie would use, with lots of metal and non-human stuff for the organics. As for the preconception about being aimed at kids, these screenshots are all taken from something aimed at teens and adults. They aren't taking a risk if they make the movie without specially targeting kids.

 

Kids didn't lose interest in the aforementioned blockbuster movies, despite their massive length. And I wasn't referring to Maze of Shadows, that was boring to me. I meant the actual battles for the Great Disks, beating the Morbuzakh, all those parts that had them using elemental powers that they cut out of the final film, and MAYBE the Tahtorak. All that could have been fit in. Time Trap was packed with loads of action and new characters, I hardly see that being the part where people lose interest in the movie. I think that'd be the part where people who got bored earlier would wake up and lean forward just to see it better.

 

The Bionicle movies we got weren't exactly fine. They were "okay" movies, and only if you bear in mind that they're specifically targeting kids. They didn't do the story justice.

[fishers64]

Er, the Bionicle movies were epic. Except for WoS, and maybe TLR...oh come on. 

 

Expanding them would have made them worse, I think. MoL had a bit of filler as it was (but not much), LoMN was very tightly paced, etc. Messing that up by adding other pieces of the story to it would have just gotten worse. 

 

And I'm no moderator, but this is the HF discussion forum, and I just had to remind myself of that a few times reading this. I think we're off-topic. 

[bioniclepluslotr]

Does HF have humans in it? Otherwise I don't see why they would bother with live-action instead of a CG film. Cause all the Heroes would be CG anyways, so just the setting would be real?

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Does HF have humans in it? Otherwise I don't see why they would bother with live-action instead of a CG film. Cause all the Heroes would be CG anyways, so just the setting would be real?

Nope. It works even less for HF because the setting (Makuhero City) is completely fantasy-like, like many of the Bionicle locations. There will have to be CGI either way to render the buildings, making the use of live-action footage almost useless.

 

I think some members say Bionicle on Mata Nui would be more feasible because of the setting.

 

-NotS

Edited October 30, 2014 by Nidhiki of the Shadows

[Aanchir]

Bionicle on Mata Nui would be feasible because of the setting.

Umm, no it wouldn't. It's not "feasible" to film a natural setting on location and then CG in the characters no matter WHAT franchise or story arc you're talking about. Having digital characters interact with a physical setting, and painstakingly matching the lighting angles of the digital characters to their physical surroundings, would be a tremendous waste of time and resources when rendering the surroundings digitally would be much easier and more effective. Plus, nature is unpredictable. What happens if wild creatures keep running on set while shooting? What happens if it gets too late and the angle of the lighting is no longer right for the scene?

 

If you're not using real, physical actors, then there's no justification for filming an actual setting. It just needlessly throws a spanner in the works. And I can't fathom why people keep bringing it up as if there'd ever be any point to doing so.

 

Another possibility people haven't mentioned is that of having actual people in costumes play the robotic characters. It'd probably be silly, but seeing as the initial talks for this movie probably never went anywhere anyway, it's kind of a moot point. More likely than not, Universal just wanted to have a humans-and-fighting-robots movie to compete with the Transformers movies, and the LEGO Group wisely never took the bait.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

 

Bionicle on Mata Nui would be feasible because of the setting.

If you're not using real, physical actors, then there's no justification for filming an actual setting. It just needlessly throws a spanner in the works. And I can't fathom why people keep bringing it up as if there'd ever be any point to doing so.

Yes, I wrote that post pretty badly (have since edited it), but I meant members seem to think that Bionicle on Mata Nui would be more feasible, and I can see their line of reasoning as a live-action substitute for much of Mata Nui could actually exist. No film studio would ever consider doing this, and if you've seen my other posts I have echoed what you have said in your post. 

 

-NotS

[Klak]

If Hero Factory doesn't get cancelled, I'm sure we'll hear talks about a film pop up again at some point. The Lego Movie was a box office success. Thus, film production studious would be eager to consider anything with the name "Lego" attached to it.

 

Plus, HF is almost like a superhero story.

 

Again, this all depends on the future of the franchise.

[Sumiki]

At this point, Hero Factory's cancellation is near-certain. All the same, an HF movie could work if they ever decided to bring it back as they did with BIONICLE.

[masterchirox580]

At this point, Hero Factory's cancellation is near-certain. All the same, an HF movie could work if they ever decided to bring it back as they did with BIONICLE.

Well I'm not sure about that, I mean HF didn't really have the sales of say bionicle or ninjago so I really don't see it making a come back.

[Aanchir]

 

At this point, Hero Factory's cancellation is near-certain. All the same, an HF movie could work if they ever decided to bring it back as they did with BIONICLE.

Well I'm not sure about that, I mean HF didn't really have the sales of say bionicle or ninjago so I really don't see it making a come back.

 

Yeah, I sort of have to agree here. It seems to me that the next time the LEGO Group needs a constraction theme besides BIONICLE, they're more likely to try and develop one from scratch than turn back to one that performed only moderately better than BIONICLE did in its weakest years and nowhere near as well as BIONICLE did in its peak years.

[Zeb]

 

 

At this point, Hero Factory's cancellation is near-certain. All the same, an HF movie could work if they ever decided to bring it back as they did with BIONICLE.

Well I'm not sure about that, I mean HF didn't really have the sales of say bionicle or ninjago so I really don't see it making a come back.

 

Yeah, I sort of have to agree here. It seems to me that the next time the LEGO Group needs a constraction theme besides BIONICLE, they're more likely to try and develop one from scratch than turn back to one that performed only moderately better than BIONICLE did in its weakest years and nowhere near as well as BIONICLE did in its peak years.

 

Guess that means that in years to come we won't be getting Hero Factory 2025 leaks. But yeah, Lego is more likely to try something new. Which I hope they do when Bionicle ends again. (Yes, Bionicle is going to end again at some point. Maybe it'll be another 10 years, but it's going to happen at some point, right?)