Micky Coyne

It had been a while since there had been a high quality game that was building on Samus and her canon. I remember that [Yoshio] Sakamoto was personally coming back to direct the game and was a driving force behind the next chapter in her story. This was a big deal. And so that led us creatively to focus on her back story. Both as a nod to Sakamoto but as a way to help introduce Samus to a new generation of gamers. So while they (young gamers) may have heard of Metroid or even Samus they might not have been aware of the deep history Sakamoto and [Satoru] Okada had established for her. My partner, and the writer, Jesse Gazoulo, pulled in this great quote from Shakespeare “the past is prologue.” And that really became the line that tied the story we were trying to tell with the ad and the deep history of the franchise.

Originally the script followed the comic that came out in the 2000s. [the origin manga from 2003] We were told that it was a cannon and a good place to pull details from her past. We originally had chosen moments that were a bit more straightforward. Her parents were killed. Her training with her mentor. Her first mission etc. Sakamoto saw the script and word came down that the scenes you see in the current films were what he wanted. The two scenes we had written that stuck were her parents being killed by Ridley (though we wanted to depict her parents actually being killed and instead we were asked to show the moment after where Ridley almost killed Samus), and the scene in the warehouse where she has the suit and is killing the alien pirates.

Sakamoto requested the scene in the cave, the thumbs down with her commander, and the moment the baby Metroid is killed by Mother Brain. It was a struggle between talking to diehard fans like you guys who would get all these references and making a film that was comprehensible to gamers who weren’t as close to the material. Don’t get me wrong, proud of the final product, but I do kinda wish we had kept the training scene over the thumbs down and I would have loved to show the parents getting killed. The former would’ve added more action and the latter more emotional impact. But Sakamoto is a genius and it’s his franchise so who am I to disagree?

There were a lot of special effects. So I feel like we had about 4 months to pull this off. Nintendo was generous and connected us with Team Ninja and provided the in game 3D models. This was rare. Usually they keep that under lock and key. So that helped a lot. But The Mill (our post production partner) had to rebuild everything pretty much from scratch and had used those as reference more than anything. We shot in Prague in old abandoned Soviet factories, a real cave, an empty field, and on top of a garage at a mall. The rain is real! It was freezing out. I felt bad for the extras and actors.

Very very little. They had this game under wraps. Another reason we focused the ad on her past and not the story in the game. They were so secretive.

Boy it’s been years. I’m sure there were more. But I vaguely remember these two:

We had an idea where you’d watch a baby pirate or foot soldier grow up. We’d see his parents, homeworld, friends etc. Watch him go through training camp, bond with fellow bad guys. And then on his first mission, step off the ship, power up his gun and then immediately get his head blown off. As his body slumped and fell away it would reveal Samus pointing her cannon at the camera. We’d then cut to action sequences from the game. Still love that idea. I think they bought the right campaign. But there’s humor in there that I like a lot.

We also had this great cover of Eye Of The Tiger, and wanted to show Samus losing a fight. Really getting her ass kicked. Face in the mud. Everything is going wrong. And then rallying, digging deep and then finding the strength to rally and of course win the day.

We had so little information about the game, we were trying to play with what little we knew and try to reveal or show her character while flying blind. It was tricky!

They were great! Like I mentioned before they gave access to the 3D and game assets. Bought a really cool film. And Sakamoto weighed in a lot. So all of that was really exciting.

I mentioned this above. But I would’ve liked to swap out the thumbs down scene and would have liked to make the parents dying part of the opening scene. Both for emotional impact and clarity. I think everyone (it’s a classic super hero trope) understands that tragic orphan origin story. And what we have in the opening scene is one step removed. I think establishing that on clearer footing would’ve helped with narrative.

It was never direct. I think we presented directly to him once. But Japanese corporate culture is very different than in America. Here it’s more of a conversation. While there you present up to your superiors and they are very quiet and you get almost no reaction in the room. The feedback comes later through from their assistants and is usually pretty final. So Sakamoto would review the work, scripts, boards, pre-vis and final product. But that all happened very far away.

One funny story, the night the spot was shipping we were doing the final voice over record, and had the actress who plays Samus in the English translation of the game read the VO for the film. In America, you have to read a legal disclaimer that says what the game is rated. We didn’t think much about it, and of course had her read the final line “rated T for teen”. But when we shipped it to Nintendo for final review, they informed us we could never break character. And that we had to have a different voice read that one line. Without getting into the intricacies of SAG rules, this essentially meant it would cost another $40-80k to pay that talent to read that line. It was also like 11pm at night and we had to ship the film in less than 1 hour to get it out on time. So they put me in the booth had me read the line and sent two copies to Japan with the caveat that my dumb voice would cost an extra $40k minimum. Well, I’m not sure if they hated my voice or the price tag or both, but in the end they decided to make an exception and kept the original actress and cut me. I was soooo close to buying a new car! Ha.

It’s been a long long time. And I do remember it came down to two women. And I remember feeling strongly that Lenka had the better look and better acting chops. I don’t remember much about the other woman. But you always have to have a solid back up, just in case. Just in case the upper brass at Nintendo doesn’t like your first choice. Or there’s a contract issue or your first choice gets booked or sick etc. My memory is that we all agreed she was the clear winner and we had a strong reco for Lenka. Nintendo and Sakamoto agreed and she did great! So it all worked out.

Boy that I don’t have a lot of details on. They all did great. And I remember how cute little Samus was on set. She was also super brave and a real trooper. I think we threw that poor child into that pad like 15 times. But the other actors weren’t asked to do much. No speaking lines. Just really had to hold a look. So we were casting strictly on how close they looked. They looked like the original characters.

I agree! We used Human, a music house in Los Angeles. Their team really crushed it. My creative director David Kolbouz really pushed us to find something unsettling and dream-like. And Human had just done the music for this Halo spot, which was KILLER. So we went to them to really push it. And, well they delivered. I also remember our editor Paul Martinez really finding the right tone with a piece of scrap music from another movie. It was a collaboration. But I do remember when we all heard the first version of this song. It was lightning in a bottle. We knew it was it and really honed in on it.

It was! I mentioned this above. In the first version of the script we really leaned on the manga to fill out the scenes. And that was one of the key scenes.

Yes, what “Other M” meant and represented was all meant to be hinted at in the final scene. Was “M” mother? Meaning Samus was the mother of baby Metroid? Was “M” Mother Brain? A new Metroid? Gotta have some kind of cliff hanger to get people to buy the game, right? 🙂

It had a ton. And it was a long process with a lot of back and forth with the client. And while I’m proud of the version that hit the airways, there’s another version I have on my Vimeo account that I think is a bit stronger. I asked the guy doing the mix to make a version for my reel as I preferred it. You don’t win every battle in advertising!

Yes! Pete Harvey (who replaced Jesse when he left to take on a new job at Martin) and I directed her. She was great. And real pleasure to work with. Love her performance. Serious and deep. With subtleties. You can feel her character’s grief and strength. Lovely lovely performance.