With games being a prime target of film studio execs for source material, it was only a matter of time before Epic Games' Xbox 360 hit Gears of War began its walk down the road to becoming a movie.
Variety is reporting today that New Line Cinema has acquired the movie rights to Gears of War. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will produce the film, which is being written by Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Collateral). No more details of the movie have been released, including crew and release date.
Gears of War, published by Microsoft Game Studios, has won several Game of the Year awards since its release last November. As of mid-January, the game had sold more than 3 million units worldwide.
The next task for the film is to actually get made. Several high-profile movies based on games are still in limbo but slowly moving forward, with Sony working on bringing Metal Gear Solid to the big screen, Jerry Bruckheimer bringing his brand of action to Prince of Persia, and Warner Bros. affiliate Legendary Pictures working on a World of Warcraft movie. Others, such as the big-budget endeavor to bring Halo to the cineplex, have stalled completely.
[UPDATE] Since the announcement, GameSpot has confirmed the report with Epic Games vice president Mark Rein and more details have surfaced. New Line is targeting a summer 2009 release for the game, and Variety predicts that a Gears of War sequel will be timed with the release of the movie.
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