I’d like to see a Frank Reade, Jr. film! Those are some airships! And what could be more Steampunk than The Steam Man of the Prairies!
Steampunk has to be an alternative history in order to “make sense”. It has to be set in an era that is somewhat technologically advanced, but went in a different direction. Such as setting it in 1920, but the internal combustion engine and powered flight were never invented, and electricity was never seriously exploited, and which, if you so choose it to, could cause the culture to still have remnants of Victoriana in its aesthetic.
As soon as you accept that, anything is possible.
I think the main reason is to make a movie would be expensive and to date all the movies that could be conceivably be considered sort of Steampunk have been flops.
A better question is why aren’t there more Steampunk Video games. Seems like the market share would be bigger.
There aren’t many steampunk video games, perhaps, but there are a lot of video games with steampunk–WoW, for example has all of the gnomish/goblin stuff.
I think the problem, as touched on by a few people, is that the best way to do Steampunk is Alternative History (along with, often, Alternative Physics), the problem there is that you then have to spend some sort of time/energy explaining where and how things have diverged, more than you have to do in a pure Fantasy or Sci-Fi environment.
I’m thinking back to the old Sky Galleons of Mars/Space:1889 boardgame/RPG, and trying to think about how to make a movie without spending way too much of the 90 or 120 minutes explaining the environment is difficult, leaving too little time for story.
That leaves Secret History, like Wild Wild West or parts of Warehouse 13. I’m hard-pressed to say it was the Steampunk that caused Wild Wild West to be a bad film, but I also think Secret History is itself a genre with somewhat limited appeal.
I agree with Alessan: it’s too new and there’s no smash hit novel to latch on to.
I suspect the related genre of pre WWI magical technology would have more pull. Full Metal Alchemist, already a sizable manga/anime/vid game franchise, could have legs. Someday, perhaps in another decade, methinks the Folio’s Agatha Clay will be optioned.
I think Steampunk works better when its an aspect of a much larger world- say, a fantasy setting where there are places/nations that are steampunk-y. Then you dont have to spend as much time explaining it, since the broader theme/setting is easier to explain and more generally accepted.
Or a sci-fi movie where aliens have spaceships that look like dirigibles and everything is covered with brass knobs and gargoyles and stuff. Or a steampunky race of vampire people that are stuck in some pseudo-victorian era because they are immortal and their aesthetics/technology is also (conveniently) in stasis.
League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen grossed $179 million on a $78 million dollar budget; movies that aren’t as good a return on investment get sequels.
The most steampunk-y movie that I have seen is Mutant Chronicles.
On TV, Warehouse 13 has some nice steampunk elements.
I don’t have an answer to the OP, but would welcome more examples.
Yes; think what happened after Star Wars. Not just a bunch of sci-fi films, but ones that aped various aspects of the style of Star Wars like space fighters. If some film full of steampunk makes it big enough we’ll probably have it popping up all over for a long time.
Girl Genius does seem to me like something that would work better as an animated series rather than a single movie. It has long and convoluted continuing plots, a large & complicated world & backstory that would be awkward to properly boil down for a movie, and isn’t neatly segmented into semi-independent chapters that would work well as a single movie. Although a live action movie with a CGI Castle Wulfenbach & fleet would be really cool to see…
I would really like to see Windpunk - science fiction set in Golden Age Netherlands (mid 1600s). Sailcarts, land yachts, massive windmills powering vast networks of technology, etc.
Has anyone mentioned Steamboy yet?
I think steampunk is a natural fit for animation. Steamboy wasn’t a success but I think it was partly to due with distribution, also it wasn’t as good as it was anticipated to be, although definitely worth a look.
Some of Hayao Miyasaki’s work has a definite steampunk element, The Flying Island Of Laputa being the one that comes to mind.
Steamboy had major problems. One was the plot being made up as the movie was being made up itself (characters completely shifting during the movie with little to no explanation). The stupid thing is that the End Titles got it totally right. It was exactly what an high adventure Super Hero/Steampunk movie should (and could) have been. Unfortunately, the movie has just ended.
From what I have gathered, you cant base a movie just on esthetics, and most examples offered in this thread have some really shitty plots.
Myazaki’s one of the very rare to have used Steampunk regularly, and got it working.
Have you checked out the Sean McMullen’s Greatwinter Trilogy? I can’t exactly recommend it - I gave up halfway through the first book, mostly due to his, um, unique characterizations - but it does have some really cool ideas. Wind- and pedal-powered trains, human calculators, alcohol-burning ultralights. I really wanted to like the books, but I couldn’t get past his writing. YMMV.
Well, it all started from CalMeacham explaining why Sky Captain wasn’t steampunk. His explanation was that it was different in aesthetic, different in technology use. As part of his explanation of how they were different, he made the point that Sky Captain was an attempt to display the visual feel of the 30s with a motion picture, whereas steampunk is not trying necessarily to capture an authentic 1880s mindset.
Then Alessan replied that they’re both fantasy, so neither is historically accurate. So CalMeacham tried to explain what he was saying was not about historical accuracy of what is depicted, but rather historical accuracy about the feel of the science fiction of the time. Or something.
That doesn’t have to matter to you, but it’s something that CalMeacham observed.
You get that in the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.
I had no idea it made that much. That must be world wide right? The funny thing si I am one of the few that actually liked it too.
For the record, I would love to see a Space 1889-esque movie. I think you can do it with little exposition. You just plunk people down into the world and run with it. I still think the stumbling block is getting someone to fund that type of movie.
Yep; $66+ million hereabouts plus $112+ million overseas equals $179+ million worldwide.
You mean like this?
Safe for work, unless the darkness of space gives you the vapors…
“Steampunk is for people who want to be Goth but look better in brown” -Goth acquaintance. Waiting for months for a reason to quote that.
For some reason, I’m reminded of the Centauri from Babylon 5 who were technologically advanced (at least comparable to the 23rd-century humans) but whose culture looked Napoleonic.