What would a box office movie of Alpha Centauri be like?

[Hydro]

I wonder if SMAC would be good like a Battlestar Galactica-like series? Like BG, SMAC has strong characters and a great backdrop (Planet). But SMAC lacks a Bad Guy. Perhaps the aliens?

There is far too much to do if you want to include more than a slice of the story. If it is stand alone it would probably have to focus on one faction. My preference would be the Gaians, of course!

Hydro

[Illuminatus]

I see no way in which a feature movie would work, mini-series is a minimum, even for an introduction. My suggestion would be,as suggested, BSG-like series (which has an identical theme - survival of mankind) centered around an old idea of mine.

Unity is not hit by anything and Spartan conspiracy is resolved in a peaceful way after a violent stand-off (they are promised an autonomous settlement on the Chiron). The crew doesn't splinter and the colonization seemingly goes according to original mission plan. Garland and Lal struggle to keep various would-be faction leaders in check while trying to establish colonial settlements, explore Chiron, and deal with the realization that Sol system humanity has came to an end. Prominent characters are profoundly affected by knowledge that they have both opportunity and duty to direct future of mankind in proper direction. They clash, plot and are increasingly misgiving about the direction the mankind is heading.

Spartans are waiting their opportunity to assert full independence, Yang tries to manipulate himself in a position of power and stresses the mistakes of Garland and Lal while Zakharov heads an increasingly self-reliant power bloc of engineers and scientists. Morgan, although an outsider, is challenging the power structure through his personal appeal. Meanwhile, many colonists seek Miriam's guidance and she is increasingly becoming convinced of her own divine mission. Lastly, Deirdre turns to understanding and appreciation of native life but is being forced to take matters in her own hands.

It is only a matter of time and convenience before the colonization mission violently fragments up.

[Lord_Icewind]

Hey, I like that "What if...?" kind of idea. The mission went well (at least initially); they landed, worked together...but they started to get further and further apart.
I'll give it some thought, but my fav right now for a mini-series is the last idea proposed :3

[Alinestra Covelia]

I don't know if a movie of SMAC could really be done. You might be able to compress the Unity revolution and reactor malfunction story into a few short hours, but it's really hard to do that without narrowing the faction leaders to just a few as protagonists.

SMAC might work better as a series. The first season could focus on the Strange New World motif, with hard science fiction as the main draw, and a secondary draw being the personalities. The next few seasons could go more in depth with the Planetmind subplot and the Progenitors, if needed.

One thing I think would have to be done would be to make sure each faction has some degree of sympathetic portrayal, and a few presented drawbacks too. The original SMAC tended to make out the Hive, the Believers, and the Spartans as the main antagonist factions simply through their more expansionist gameplay. But don't forget that Miriam was presented as a deeply philosophical science-skeptic in the original Michael Ely short fiction, and not as the raving technophile she is in-game. Also, in the original fiction, Santiago is the primary cause of the rebellion, and Sheng-Ji Yang seems to be taking measures to stop the riots - but Garland only sees a video feed of Yang killing one rebel soldier, and from that he judges Yang to be a murderer and broadcasts his condemnation of Yang's (arguably minor, arguably entirely justifiable) crime.

Each philosophy of the original seven factions has something to recommend it, especially in the extreme circumstances they face on Planet. A good adaptation of this, whether in text or in video, would do well to examine that issue and treat it in a mature and complex fashion.

It's okay if the end decision is "this faction just doesn't work, after all". We came to much the same conclusion about communism in the 20th century. But the right way to do that is not to carry out McCarthyist condemnations - it's through assessing their strengths and weaknesses and arriving at a conclusion based on logic and facts, not on emotional or gut responses. SMAC is much bigger than that.