You may remember the mock-up trailer that circulated last fall, promising an unofficial Final Fantasy VII fan film. At the time, director Gionata Medeot told me he wasnât worried about Square Enixâs lawyers stepping in and trying to take it down.
Well, today the team launched a Kickstarter to raise $400,000 for the project, which is now a 5-6-episode webseries based on Squareâs popular role-playing game. They say theyâve got the blessing of series creator Hironobu Sakaguchiâand the rights to use music from Final Fantasy VII
âWe have been in contact with SE for several months, and have attained full music rights,â producer Dan Purcell told me in an e-mail today. âWe have not however been endorsed or backed by SE. We have passed all necessary steps, including Kickstarterâs review process.â
Music rights or not, hereâs hoping the lawyers donât decide to go after them. Iâve reached out to Square Enix for comment, and will update should they respond. (In the past, Square has gone after fan-projects like Chrono Resurrection but allowed OCRemix to remix Final Fantasy VI tracks for their most recent CD.)
https://lastchance.cc/hell-yes-its-oc-remixs-mondo-musical-tribute-to-fina-639369286%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
This project sounds really interesting. To quote the team:
Final Fantasy VII: The Web Series is a fan project dedicated to bringing the characters, events, and excitement seen in the iconic videogame Final Fantasy VII into a live-action web series. Both the game and the series follow Cloud Strife, a former elite soldier turned mercenary, who joins the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE in their campaign to stop the huge mega-corporation Shinra from draining the planetâs life energy. The threat, however, looms larger than anyone can predict. Over 10 million copies of the Final Fantasy VII videogame have been sold globally, and the game still captures the imagination of gamers all over the world. Our web series is a tribute to Squaresoftâs (now Square Enix) genius, and season one is going to be 5-6 episodes of about 15 minutes each, totaling 80-90 minutes.
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Weâre not creating this web series for ourselves. Weâre creating it for you. The Final Fantasy community is built from the most dedicated and passionate fans around. We know, because weâre fans, too. And we want to share our vision with you. But we need your help. Yes, we could pull a fan video together using an old handicam and some homemade costumes, but Final Fantasy VII deserves so much more than that. Itâs been part of our lives for over a decade, and we want to make sure it gets the adaptation it deserves. And by backing our production, youâll be an integral part of that. We want to reassure you that every red cent of this Kickstarter is going straight to the film. No one on this team (except for the actors and crew hired by Team2X) is making any money off this. Itâs all for the love.
So, yes, itâs fanfiction. But itâs ambitious, well-produced fanfiction. And judging from the cinematic trailer, it could very much be worth watching.
For more on the seriesâcasting, writing, etc.âcheck out their Kickstarter.
