Project Brief 1 – Space Heists.

You know what’s great? Heist movies.  You typically have the first act to assemble the team, a second act to plan the dirty deed and a spectacular final act where it all culminates in a mixture of joy, shock and in certain instances, laughter.

Say what you want about the Ocean’s franchise, but 11 still stands as perhaps one of my all-time favourite movies – the humour, Soderbergh’s direction, coupled with the surprising lack of physical violence (often rare for movies about stealing from people) proved effective in highlighting everything I like about the genre.

These ‘heist’ worlds generally take part in desolate, crime-laden cities.  Ocean’s is a rare exception where the lavish casinos of Las Vegas are the backdrop to the narrative.  In addition to this, revenge is a common ‘law’ in these worlds as well, and is often held to heart by the leader, or all the team involved in the heist.

Nonetheless, I feel combining these themes with a science fiction environment would be fantastic.  Imagine a space heist comedy filled with quirky, otherworldly characters, in a Star Wars/Star Trek-esque fashion.  Think Rogue One, but fused with the cleanliness and class of Ocean’s – this combination of elements would lend a fresh twist on an old trope.

Space also helps in increasing the scale of narrative – given how the universe contains a variety of planets with various environments and inhabitants, the world could expand beyond its initial size.  This could potentially lead to a sort of extended universe, with different scenarios and genres potentially being set on different planets.

What I would aim to achieve in this world would be to:

Establish a world that masterfully navigates around scale and manages to accommodate all the appropriate elements of a science fiction adventure.

Incorporate lavish backdrops, suggestive of powerful and opulent colonies.

Showcase themes like greed, vengeance but also reinforce the satisfaction of well-deserved payback.