The IESB are reporting that Len Wiseman is no longer involved with the Escape from New York remake, which at first glance would imply that he plans to work on GoW. However, through IESB’s contacts, it is now rumored that he is not involved in the video game adaptation either, and, more alarmingly, that New Line Cinema might pull out altogether:

Wiseman is also off the video game adaptation and New Line Cinema will most likely not move forward with the film at all. Our source is saying that the studio has concerns with ballooning budget of the film.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens on this one folks. Thanks for the heads up Philip.

Oh my word, that was fast. Latino review, who also posted an early treatment of the Halo Movie back in the day, have posted up a sneak preview of the Gears of War movie adaptation. How much of this will appear in the final film remains to be seen, though it seems fairly reputable and Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean, Collateral) has done a good job. I’m going to say this now – this storyline will change before the film is released, likely when a director is assigned to the project and he begins asserting his vision.

The article at Latino is pretty long so I am going to provide a summary here. Read the rest of this entry »

On March 20th Variety reported that New Line had picked up the feature rights for Epic’s Gears of War. Stuart Beattie, the mind behind Pirates of the Caribbean and Collateral, is said to be working on the big screen adaptation of the game alongside producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey working under the moniker “Temple Hill”.

Rumors suggest that with smooth video game and movie development Epic would look to make a simultaneous release of two new features to their latest franchise.

For those not in the know, Gears of War became the 4th biggest selling game in 2006, is currently the most popular Xbox 360 online title and won game of the year at “Game Developers Choice Awards and the Interactive Achievement Awards.”

Specific storylines are as of yet unknown, although Epic VP did state, “We wanted to make an entertainment property that’s not just for games but for other media.”

With script development will come the tentative search for a director to spear-head the project. The parties involved are looking toward a 2009 release date, should things go smoothly.

For gamers, the positive point to note is that lead game designer Cliff Bleszinski (we all know him as Cliffy B) will be executive producer and “development consultant” to Epic.

“Our first and foremost philosophy is to do no harm, so we debated heavily the idea of doing a movie at all. [...] But we feel we stacked the deck in our favor by working with the best players.” says Epic VP.

EDIT: Yahoo adds,

Screenwriter Beattie’s involvement with the project didn’t come over a high-priced meal on Sunset Boulevard, but with a simple message sent over Xbox Live. Beattie told Reuters that while playing Gears of War one night, “This New Line exec Jeff Katz dropped me a message in my Xbox Live account saying, ‘If we bought the game you’re playing right now, would you write it?’ And this was back in December. It shows you how on-the-ball New Line was. I’m going to write off my Xbox Live this year, accounting-wise.”

and again:

Beattie believes that if you tell a good story, audiences will respond, and he thinks the game’s setting and scope will help in that respect.

“For me, it’s a great, rich and unique world that I have never seen before, and it’s a genre that has only been hinted at in films like ‘Aliens,”‘ he said. “The epic sci-fi war movie has yet to be done, and that’s what ‘Gears’ is.“

Official Movie Announcement

Let’s see where this goes.