Someone made a similar topic about Bionicle, and I loved reading people’s ideas for a potential big-budget Bionicle movie. But what about Hero Factory?
I know not many people liked Hero Factory, so this is for the people (like me) who did like it. If you were a studio executive, and you were authorized to make a Hero Factory movie, what would you do with it? What kind of style would you go for, who would you cast, and how would you market it? And how would you prevent the project from being scrapped like the one Universal was developing?
Honestly, for me, it’d just be a very large overhaul of the existing HF story.
I have this kind of fantasy in my head that this alleged “edgier” HF story that was in the works would have been really cool, and that it would revolve around the slow dissolution of the very black and white divisions between Heroes and villains into a much more chaotic, morally gray world. Heroes would either abandon their programming altogether and go rogue or reaffirm their resolve and try to fight back. The Hero Factory itself would get destroyed, leaving the Heroes without a way to charge their cores or make more Heroes. Maybe a Villain Factory would get made and it would just pump out monstrosities.
My ideal HF would start out like the HF we got, but slowly turn into a more rebellion, heroes-hidding-in-the-shadows kind of thing. I think that’d be very cool.
For a movie specifically? Animated, obviously. I loved the stylistic detail of the original miniseries, so for me it’d just be that, but in movie form.
If I made a Hero Factory movie, I will probably make my own original story set in the HF universe. Bionicle has enough story material to the point where you can just directly adapt the story into a movie, but it isn’t the same with Hero Factory.
I think I would try continuing the story from where HF left over (with the mysterious villain behind the Breakout and the Brain Attack).
Otherwise, the movie would be pretty similar in style with my pitch for how to make the Bionicle movie, but the story and characters would be completely different. (And maybe I would add some Bionicle cameos/ eastereggs hidden throughout the movie just for fun).
Maybe not full dystopia, but just enough. The Hero Factory has seemingly made this world a better place, with more heroes than someone can shake a stick at. They’re all completely loyal to Makuhero City, but more importantly, loyal to the Factory itself.
I would want to sort of reboot the first year, since it has a great story to build off of. Stormer, Bulk and Stringer are three veterans from the original batch of heroes, and they are ready to retire. Until, they’re saddled up to three rookies, being Furno, Breeze and Surge. During this time, various criminals seem to know more than they should; they know when to attack Quaza shipments, know what firepower to pack, and most importantly, know how not to get caught. It seems very strange. Like…there might be a leak, even.
In all of Hero Factory history, there has never been a leak. Every hero is consistently placed under a refreshing ‘sleep mode’ which seems to wash away most emotions at the end of the day. The Heroes just think it makes them well-rested, but really, it erases individuality makes the heroes servants of the Factory.
One hero has realized this, and is working from the inside to destroy the Factory and save his enslaved brethren; Von Ness.
The story would go that Stormer and his group have to learn that the Factory leadership is manipulating the heroes, but they still have to protect it from falling into Von Ness’s hands to protect the civilians of Makuhero. Von Ness and the old leadership are cast out, and Stormer is instated as the new leader of the Factory, making sure that every new hero is allowed to be his own person, without fear of brainwashing or silencing.
That’s just my pitch, however. It’s rough, but I think it could work. I actually really, really liked Hero Factory and there is so much potential in the theme’s story.
Mine wouldn’t be so much a movie as more of a transmedia experience of sorts.
It would either be an app or something you’d have to go to a website for:
A “Choose Your Own Adventure” experience where you’re playing a janitor at Hero Factory, who, as he’s just about to finish his work hours and go home for the night, notices the door to the security camera monitor room is open a crack, and there’s light coming from inside it…
Depending what you choose, it could play different animated clips (as opposed to turning to different pages in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book) unfolding the story as you keep making decisions of which actions to take. (Maybe I’d also add in other play mechanics like sections where you have to walk through the dark, empty factory, or look up specific key words in a database.)
It would probably be a thriller-mystery-type story.
Here is my pitch, Black Phantom DID build the villian factory and all of the villians he build went and destroyed makuhero city! The entire city turned into a post-Apocalyptic wasteland, where villians outnumber heros 10 to 1.
Basically I’d just pull a Tibor Terrell and make HF the Musical.
In all seriousness, I’d probably go for more of an Incredibles-esque style of story. It can have some serious themes, but also be very clearly self-aware and a parody of it’s own genre. In HF’s case specifically, it should also have plenty of cheesy moments.
