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The story. The game. The movie?

One of the most haunting gaming experiences of all times, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, a psychedelic Sci-Fi thriller inspired by Harlan Ellison's short-story by the same name, has been brought back to life by the relentless Nightdive Studios, and is now available for only $5.99 on GOG.com. This is one of those times in the history of our classic catalog, that really calls for a special celebration! You know how we like to celebrate, right? By giving you something special! This time, we offer you the chance to get a very special I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream original box set, containing the CD edition of the game, a user manual, and--*drumroll*--a mousepad signed by Harlan Ellison, himself!.

<img src="http://www.gog.com/upload/images/2013/09/58b2f21fe5f1266ecd36ad84036ebdaee50b2d73.jpg">

We propose a competition. Or two, actually, as we have two such sets to give away at this time. How Night Dive managed to acquire them is quite the mystery, as Mr. Ellison isn't known for being a particularly social person (not unlike many other brilliant writers), but the fact is we have them, and we're quite happy to part with them (that's a lie), as long as they end up in the hands of our creative users (that part's true).

How to get your hands on this gaming treasure, you ask?

So, there was the short story, then there was the game. By the rules of entertainment convergence a movie should have happened at some point, right? Well, somehow it didn't. We want to correct this, at least partially. We want you, to design a movie poster for "Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Motion Picture" (PG-13!). Please include essential info on the poster, like: who's the director? Who's playing who? Who's voicing the sinister AI? You know, stuff like that. The author of the best looking, most creative poster gets one of the box sets.

Don't feel comfortable enough with your photoshop skills? Don't fret! There's still the second box set you can get. All you need to do is to write up a short voiceover for an imaginary trailer that would go with the said movie. Again, including the name of the director and your own cast is a good idea.

Post your entries in the forums, below. We'll choose one best entry in both categories. The submission deadline is Wednesday, September 25, at 10:00AM GMT, which gives you almost a full week to work on your entries. Depending on the number and the quality of entries, we might award some runner-up prices. As usually, the contest is not region-limited. Please make sure to remember about the "PG-13" rating of our imaginary movie. Turn on that creative thinking, and get cracking on your entries. Good luck!

EDIT:
The results ARE IN! Go to this forum post to see who won!
Post edited September 18, 2013 by G-Doc
I was a huge fan of the original story, and of Harlan Ellison's work in general, before ever playing the game back in the 90s. I know this is just a contest but I would love to see this as an actual movie! I figured it would work best as a deeply dark, stylized, animated film, which is how I interpreted my entry. But all the actors I chose could easily be played live action! Anyway, I hope you like my twisted submission! ^^
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Post edited September 19, 2013 by morhlis
Cool idea, but no way I could do it in five days, thanks to being short-handed at work and not having any days off. :-(
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Wainamoin3n: Here's my take on the subject matter. Hope you like it :)
I love the desert chrome!

But PG-13?!? If they did that to the actual story it'd have to be R. Anything less would be an abomination and would make me hate those filmmakers as much as the machine hated those humans. Hate. HATE!
Post edited September 19, 2013 by Firebrand9
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Wainamoin3n: Here's my take on the subject matter. Hope you like it :)
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Firebrand9: I love the desert chrome!

But PG-13?!? If they did that to the actual story it'd have to be R. Anything less would be an abomination and would make me hate those filmmakers as much as the machine hated those humans. Hate. HATE!
Thanks! I actually included that PG-13 logo as a pun on the initial requirement :) It's supposed to contrast with the opening line right at the top ;)

@tomimt - Thanks, glad you like it!
Post edited September 20, 2013 by Wainamoin3n
I would like to change my movie poster, so I made this:

http://i44.tinypic.com/dw3y3p.jpg

I couldn't attach to the forum because the file it's too large (it's about 3 MB), so I uploaed it on Tinypic.

It's nothing special or good, but it's better then the other "painted" poster I did :D
And the teaser



After the final war....

(Black screen)

there isn't a world anymore.

The humanity is detroyed, but five "men" still exist.

(Black screen)

One sadic game.

(Black screen).

Fight for yourself...or you will desire to die

(Black Screen).

From the director of Tetsuo the Iron Man and A snake of June, Shinya Tsukamoto.

(Black screen)


Bryan Cranston as Gorrister

Vincent Kartheiser as Ted

Pam Grier as Ellen

Ron Perlman as Benny

and

Ben Kingsley as Nimdok

Based on a short story by Harlan Ellison

I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM

21-12-2012
Ok.
I 've seen many interresting creations so far...
Here's mine!


Edit: Director & cast added...
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Post edited September 22, 2013 by chrys0bal
The movie comes out in 1982 and everyone completely ignores it. It was directed by David Cronenberg, who at the time wasn't yet a household name. It features a cast of mostly no-name actors, almost all of which go on to either leave the industry or have bit parts in television shows, with the exception of then-unknown Michael Ironside, who went on to make an actual career out of it.

The few critics who do comment on it make note of how whatever the movie had going for it was ruined by the use of Gene Simmons as the voice of AM. The original choice to do the voice was Harlan Ellison, and all the lines were recorded and even committed to the "final" cut, but the producers went out and had a particularly coked up evening and decided they needed someone "hip" to try and get "butts in the seats" so they grabbed the first guy they could find on the cover of whatever magazine they spotted first when they went into that gas station on the way home.

The film is released on Betamax and VHS in 1983 and continues to be ignored. A Laserdisc release in 1992 (which makes no mention of the 10-year anniversary) still gains no attention, which is just as well since the cropping of the movie is wrong and Paramount decided it would be a great use of people's brand new 5.1 setups to process the audio from the movie's original mono sound to something with more "pop", but the effect is distracting because the technology to do this sort of sucks at the time.

It's not until 1998 when Paramount decides to take a bunch of random movies from their back catalog and flush them out to non-anamorphic, no-extras DVD's (with that huge red "WIDESCREEN COLLECTION" banner across the bottom) that the film starts to get noticed. It gains a cult following, and online petitions get started to have Paramount release a special edition re-release with an anamorphic cut of the movie and special features, a movement which picks up a lot of steam when it is discovered that a version without Gene Simmons potentially exists.

But Paramount promptly ignores the petitions and it's not until The Criterion Collection gets involved that the film is given a proper re-release on DVD, with Harlan Ellison and David Cronenberg commentary track, a new widescreen anamorphic transfer, restored mono audio, and both Gene Simmons and Harlan Ellison versions of the film by way of seamless multibranching. Also included is a documentary on the film and the cult phenomenon surrounding it called "The Last Film on Earth"

And as a bonus, Criterion did a bang up job with the cover art as usual:

http://chattypics.com/files/nm_p68u41pvvg.png

(it's not a movie poster so I don't know if it even counts, but enjoy)
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nm.jpg (304 Kb)
^^Nice read, I've had a ball.
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morhlis: I was a huge fan of the original story, and of Harlan Ellison's work in general, before ever playing the game back in the 90s. I know this is just a contest but I would love to see this as an actual movie! I figured it would work best as a deeply dark, stylized, animated film, which is how I interpreted my entry. But all the actors I chose could easily be played live action! Anyway, I hope you like my twisted submission! ^^
Wow, this is a really good entry. I was tempted to enter but I won't be able to top that.

Good luck!

By the way, I haven't played the game - is there any significance to the dots below the face? I thought they were braille at first so I asked a friend who teaches it and I'm told I am a dumbass.

Edit: I now notice all the entries have dots in them so I looked it up. I now realize why I am a dumbass. Not editing out so everyone always remembers.
Post edited September 20, 2013 by Goatbrush
Some really good ideas going on, but I think some have forgotten the PG-13 rating.
Post edited September 20, 2013 by Sachys
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Goatbrush: Wow, this is a really good entry. I was tempted to enter but I won't be able to top that.

Good luck!

By the way, I haven't played the game - is there any significance to the dots below the face? I thought they were braille at first so I asked a friend who teaches it and I'm told I am a dumbass.

Edit: I now notice all the entries have dots in them so I looked it up. I now realize why I am a dumbass. Not editing out so everyone always remembers.
Thanks a ton! Ellison's work is so dark I felt it needed an appropriately dark poster. I know it doesn't necessarily fit the feel of the game. True, the game is co-written by Ellison and he even voices the omnipresent and omnipotent computer AM. But to me the story is so visceral, so hateful, that I feel like the game and the story are two different interpretations of the source material. And I'm sure that's what Ellison wanted ^^

And in no way are you a dumbass haha! Hell, I first read the story when I was in high school and I thought it was braille too! I had to ask my computer science teacher and she explained it was a computer punch card pattern from the olden days.

But man thanks again for that vote of confidence!
Since the short story was first published in 1967, I felt that a more "Late 60's-Early 70's" style poster was in order, and I chose my actors and director accordingly.
This contest is awesome, though; people have produced some truly fantastic posters and voice-overs.
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dfskelleton: Since the short story was first published in 1967, I felt that a more "Late 60's-Early 70's" style poster was in order, and I chose my actors and director accordingly.
This contest is awesome, though; people have produced some truly fantastic posters and voice-overs.
What? Put Vincent Price in the film and don't show him on screen? :)
Kidding. Great entry, love the 'golden era of horror' feel.
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dfskelleton: Since the short story was first published in 1967, I felt that a more "Late 60's-Early 70's" style poster was in order, and I chose my actors and director accordingly.
This contest is awesome, though; people have produced some truly fantastic posters and voice-overs.
Those are some EXCELLENT casting choices! Vincent Price as the voice of AM is sending chills up and down my spine just thinking about it. But I'm trying to imagine this movie getting made in 1967. If it was it would have been a far cry from the source material haha. Definitely the violence, language, and sexuality would have been whitewashed. But damn, I can imagine the sort of Rod Serling feel it would have had. Kudos on this!