“Gears of War” video game franchise headed to big screen

PanARMENIAN.Net - Microsoft’s “Gears of War” video game franchise is headed to the big screen, Variety said.

The film adaptation, announced during a livestream for the upcoming release of “Gears of War 4,” is being developed with Universal Pictures under the eye of veteran film producers Scott Stuber (“Ted,” “The Kingdom”) and Dylan Clark (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”). A movie based on the popular third-person shooter franchise has been rumored for years, but Rod Fergusson, studio head of game developer The Coalition, said now was the right time to make the leap to film.

“As a way to support the franchise the next logical step was to make the movie,” Fergusson told Variety. “We’d done comics and novels in the past but the opportunity to work with Universal to bring the movie to life was perfect.”

It’s unclear at this point whether the film will be a straight adaptation of the games, which originally followed soldier Marcus Fenix in his fight against an invading threat known as the Locust, or if it will be an all-new story set in the universe.

“I think you have to let the movies be the movies,” Fergusson said. “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,” he continued. “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?'”

You don’t have to wait until the film to jump back into the “Gears of War” universe. “Gears of War 4” will be released on Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on Oct. 11.