Pick your jaw up off the floor, guys. Yes, it is geek darling Felicia Day in her elfin costume for her newest web series project, Dragon Age Redemption, inspired by the Bioware game franchise Dragon Age. Day is all hands-on for this project with writing the script, starring as an Elvish assassin, and co-producing the six-part series. Day is undoubtedly excited to reveal her next project:
“I’m a huge Dragon Age fan, and I have been looking for a follow up project to The Guild for quite some time. I was thrilled when the opportunity to work with BioWare materialized. Dragon Age: Redemption allows me to tell a fantasy story in a new way, using a universe I really love.”
In her blog, she talks about how this collaborative project came together out of the mutual passion for fantasy:
“I have had a TON of opportunities to work with amazing people in the last few years, but my ability to balance something other than The Guild was a real challenge. When I finally reached a place where I felt like I COULD do something else in between seasons, I was very very picky. I never want to go backwards, I always want to challenge myself and the web video space. So, nothing struck a nerve with me until the name “Dragon Age” came up. One of my favorite games, and they would let me write in it? Act in it? Be an ELF in it?! Really?! Um, can we shoot YESTERDAY?!
To pull off a full fantasy world on a web series budget is near impossible. But to do Dragon Age justice, I had to try. I called everyone I knew in my almost decade-long Hollywood career and asked them, “Do you want to work on something cool?” The awesome part of this is that they read the script that I wrote, (After ANOTHER DA playthrough and TONS of hours of research, I even read the novels!) and instead of recommending an assistant or a colleague, they agreed to work on the project themselves. Wow! Peter Winther, who produced a short I acted in years ago, who’s an amazing director and who loves fantasy novels as much as I do, agreed to direct, he got John Bartley, the DP from Lost to agree to do the project. My friend Dan Kaplow who produces United States of Tara came on board to produce with@kimevey and me. Greg Aronowitz, Guild favorite, did the production design and SFX makeup (and designed my outfit), Shawna@trpcic agreed to come do costume design, (we worked together on Dr. Horrible), I contacted Doug Jones on TWITTER and asked him if he would be interested, on and one and on. Down the line, every single crew member pulled all the strings they had to bring a world alive. And Kim and I treated them to a coffee truck every morning in exchange. It was kinda the least we could do, haha.
I will be talking about this project a LOT in the coming months, so I don’t want to talk about too much too soon, but I can tell you that I’ve gotten to work with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever worked with during this process, on the Bioware side and on the filmmaking side. I am the hardest-core fantasy fan there is, so every detail had to be as amazing as we could get it! And the results are turning out to be…well, you’ll see.
We shot 12 days in January, and keeping it under wraps was so incredibly challenging! I look forward to telling you about every aspect, and showing you some amazing episodes full of magic, stunts and…well, quippiness. Oh, and I’ll be on Jimmy Fallon to premiere the teaser exclusively, so be sure to spread the word and tune in! I have a beautiful dress I got just for the occasion!!!”
[Above: Felicia Day in Dragon Age Redemption]
In Dragon Age Redemption, Day plays Tallis, “an Elvish assassin who forms an uneasy alliance with others to capture a dangerous rogue mage.” Day fleshes out Tallis with this description:
“Tallis is headstrong, she fights dirty, and she has a really sarcastic sense of humor. I wanted to bring a modern sensibility to a fantasy character in a fantasy world.”
What will make this game adaptation a success? Day “puts every single effort into making this something that gamers will be proud of:”
“I am an organic gamer and I love games, and I particularly love this franchise… Even though we were constrained a lot as a Web series, none of the people who were involved took that as a constraint. They took that as a challenge.
Just being able to make a Web series that is tied with such a huge property … really the premier role-playing game out there, this is a dream project come true.”
Bioware co-founder Greg Zeschuk believes in Day’s passion for gaming to drive this project:
“We are really, really excited to work with people like her who have a passion and appreciation for the content and a really good history of quality. That’s who we want to work with.”
Catch Day on Wednesday night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where she will premiere a trailer for the series. Look for Dragon Age Redemption to premiere on the net this summer, post-Dragon Age II release. The demo for the game is due out online on February 22nd on Xbox 360, PlayStation3, and PC. The official release date is March 8, 2011.
[Source] THR, FeliciaDay.com, USAToday
