The Capital Wasteland

• ‘The Capital Wasteland’ is an idea for a film adaptation of Bethesda’s 2007 game of the year ‘Fallout 3’

The Source: Fallout 3 is a game set in post-apocalyptic Washington D.C which has been dubbed ‘The Capitol Wasteland’ after a nuclear war broke out across the globe.

The game is stylised as retro futuristic, being set in a dystopian future whilst being time locked to 50’s era pop culture.

The player goes through the game as ‘The Lone Wanderer’ on a quest to find their father after he leaves the nuclear fallout shelter known as ‘Vault 101’ and the player is forced out into the wasteland to find him.

Features The game is heavily user orientated, allowing the player to choose every aspect of the character, from gender to personality. As this cannot be translated into film with one protagonist, the film will feature two so that the options can be explored. The combat system in the game ‘V.A.T.S’ , where time slows down and accuracy is improved, is also an iconic feature which would be adapted into the film.Also, the soundtrack to this game is made up of music, prior to and post World War 2 which would also feature in the film.

Narrative

• The film will follow twins, one male and one female, on their quest to find their father ‘James’. The story begins with them being born in Vault 101, a nuclear fallout shelter. They are raised inside the vault for 18 years, being strictly told that the outside world is inhabitable and to leave the vault would be suicide. On their 18th birthday James leaves the vault and the overseer of Vault 101 tries to have the twins killed, forcing them to leave. They emerge in the wasteland and explore, looking for answers as to the whereabouts of their father and why he left, which takes them all across the D.C ruins, while they look for answers and try to survive the radiation, raiders, super-mutants, and enclave military.

Proposed Cast Evan Peters (Brother) ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’

Liam Neeson (James) Taken, The Grey

Charlotte Sullivan (Sister) The Colony Denzel

Washington (Three Dog)The Book Of Eli

Constraints

• Video game adaptations have a reputation of being disappointing, both with the fans of the source and at the box office. This is due to film makers being either over ambitious with the project or neglecting the source material.

Opportunities ‘The Capitol Wasteland’ will be successful as iconic features of the original material will remain present, and the locations are easily adapted into a post-apocalyptic settings through use of modern technology. Also, with box office hits such as ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and films such as ‘The Book Of Eli’. The genre of post-apocalyptic movies is growing, and this film will capitlalise on that before the market becomes oversaturated. Often video game adaptations lack of success comes from aspects of the film not translating well to film, however the locations, costume and characters can all be feasibly achieved with this project as it is based in the real world with real world materials.

Live-action Examples

Target Audience

• ‘The Capital Wasteland’ is targeted primarily towards young males and fans of the sci-fi, post apocalyptic, genre aged 15-25 due to their pre-existing love for that style of film.

• Fans of the source materials are also being targeted due to the content of the film referencing the original and utulising aspects of the game and depicting them in live-action.

• Another secondary target audience is young women as the main protagonists of the film appeal to both male and female consumers.