Len Wiseman Officially Signed to Direct 'Gears of War'
Another video game adaptation in the works...
Back in March of 2007 it was announced that New Line Cinema was going to make a film adaptation of the popular Xbox360 video game "Gears of War." Stuart Beattie (Collateral and Derailed) wrote a 21 page treatment and was then comissioned to write a script. Since that time we heard rumors that Len Wiseman would direct, but they had ultimately faded out. Then, a year later, ComingSoon.net had a report from producer Wyck Godfrey saying, "We've got our script on and a director we're about to attach. We'll hopefully make that early next year for the summer of 2010." My how things change.
As a matter of fact, they may have had a script back in March, but it is getting rewritten by Chris Morgan (Wanted and Fast and Furious). Oh, and that Len Wiseman rumor, it turned out to be true even though it had been dormant for about a year. Wiseman and Morgan will develop the story treatment.
This isn't the first team-up for Wiseman and Morgan as they both worked on Shell Game, a sci-fi action thriller following a detective who is faced with a moral dilemma as he investigates the dangerous black-market business of immortality. That film is set up at Sony and got underway as a result of the fallout of the Escape from New York remake Wiseman was set to helm with Gerard Butler starring. Escape, rightly, went bye-bye.
As for Gears, it's quite an intense video game that I actually finally finished earlier this year. It is set on the planet Sera and thrusts players into a battle for survival between humans and a race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet known as the Locust Horde. Players assume identities of soldiers on Delta Squad as they fight to save Sera's inhabitants. It's gory, gruesome and filled with effects, both creature and weapons related.
Personally I thought "Gears of War" was cinematic enough and don't think it really needs to be turned into a feature film. Cliff Bleszinski, the "Gears" design director at Epic, told The Hollywood Reporter the tricks to adapting a game are simple: "Hollywood needs to take the source material seriously, win over the avid gamers and make it work for an audience that is young and old, male and female."
If by "take the source material seriously" he means "hire some real actors who can actually act," then yes, he is on track.
There is no word on when we should expect the film, but gamers can expect a sequel to the game in November 2008.
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