During a livestream event for the upcoming release of Gears of War 4, it was announced that a Gears of War movie is being developed by Universal Pictures. Producers Scott Stuber (The Kingdom) and Dylan Clark (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) are overseeing the project which currently doesn't have a release date, writer, or director. In other words, it's still early days, so we'll have to be patient.
Rod Fergusson, studio head at The Coalition, had this to say about why now is the right time for the franchise to make the leap to the big screen. "As a way to support the franchise the next logical step was to make the movie. We’d done comics and novels in the past but the opportunity to work with Universal to bring the movie to life was perfect." As for whether or not it will be a direct adaptation or tell a new story with different characters, he remained vague, but it sounds like it may be the latter.
"I think you have to let the movies be the movies. They’re two different mediums, and two different audiences in some cases, and I think some video game movies in the past have failed because they tried to make a movie for gamers. If you have this great IP with a deep backstory and lots of lore that you can make interesting stories out of it’s great, but if you just go after the gaming audience then it isn’t going to be a successful movie. That’s one of the great things about working with Universal. We’re finding that line where we can say it has enough lore and canon that it feels genuine to the game while at the same time going beyond that and asking ‘OK what makes a great movie?'"
That sounds like the best approach and is similar to what Ubisoft has done with Assassin's Creed. What are you most looking forward to seeing from the Gears of War movie? Share your thoughts below.