I was actually unaware that Data East went bankrupt, but I too, found myself wondering last week how much the rights to Bad Dudes would be. I would imagine they couldn't be that expensive, but who knows? The fact that someone else own's the rights now probably complicates things greatly.

Or maybe it doesn't. A new owner may be more likely to license the rights out to a campy movie than the company that actually made the game.

If they have a mailing address, you could always try that.

And companies will occasionally reply to you. When MK: Deception was only announced for PS2 and XBox, I e-mailed Midway to express my discontent that it wasn't coming to Gamecube. Months later, when Midway announced the GCN version, they actually e-mailed me to let me know about it. I thought that was pretty cool.

I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume that if DarkMaze is somehow able to obtain the rights (and that's a big if since the company that owns the rights is located overseas) that you or I or anyone on the boards would necessarily get the chance to be involved. You forget that we all live in different states such as Illinois, Massachusetts, and Canada.

But lately I've been thinking about how to make it work as movie too. I like my Reagan kidnapping scene because it's cheesy and stupid, but I was thinking the Bad Dudes should be reluctant heroes in the vein of Snake Plissken. I had in mind a scenario where the Bad Dudes are hanging out a D.C. bar frequented by U.S. military personnel, including many of their top special forces. One of the Bad Dudes gets in a fight with a special ops guy over a girl and a fight ensues in which the Bad Dudes beat up everyone in the entire bar. Eventually armed police and/or federal agents show up and the Bad Dudes are taken into custody.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is faced with a crisis. They can't admit that Reagan has been kidnapped without appearing weak in front of the Soviets and jeopardizing the uneasy peace between the two super powers. Remember, the Cold War was still going strong at this point in history. And if they mobilize any siginificant number of troops, Soviet spies will eventually figure out what's going on. In order to save the president without embarassing the administration, a small elite ops force must be sent in. Unfortunately, the Bad Dudes have beaten the shit out of all their best men. And so, the Bad Dudes are offered a deal: rescue the president or spend the rest of their lives in jail.

After that, it'd just be an action-packed chase through all or most of the game's locations.

Also, there needs to be blatant Coca-Cola product placement. A refreshing can of Coke can heal most serious wounds.