MP and Copyright

[Raellus]

I'm thinking of writing a book and/or screenplay using the basic premise of the MP game as it's starting point.

Basically, during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government initiates a program to cryogenically freeze small teams of reconstruction experts for "activation" a few years (2-10?) after a nuclear war. The project is put on ice with the end of the Cold War but is ramped up again as tensions rise in the early 21st century. Several teams are frozen in various bunker-like installations around the country (there are also a few equipment caches). There's a malfunction at one or two of the complexes and... my team awakes 100-200 years behind schedule.

That's all I plan on using- just the basic premise- and with significant modifications. The world in which my protagonists emerge will be entirely my own creation. It seems like certain premises are basically open source and the MP premise is not entirely original in its own right. I just don't want to get tagged for copyright violation somewhere down the line.

Any advice? Should I contact the publishers? Consult with a lawyer? Forget about it all together? I'm not asking for legal advice, just a little general guidance. Thanks.