As the Gears of War video game franchise celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, fans would be happy to know that the long-planned movie based on the series is finally back on track.
The fifth installment of the franchise, Gears of War 4, will be launching on Oct. 11, and it will be joining the other titles, books and comics that have been released for the series. While such content was being churned out, however, the planned movie for Gears of War has been stuck in limbo since the year that the first game of the franchise was launched.
New Line Cinema acquired the rights to make a Gears of War movie back in 2007. Nothing else was heard of regarding the project until 2012, when there were rumors that work on the film was being restarted.
Nine years since the idea for Gears of War movie was first announced, it seems that the film is finally making the first steps toward completion. In a live stream for Gears of War 4, The Coalition head Rod Fergusson announced that the developer, along with Microsoft, has forged a partnership with Universal Studios for the Gears of War movie.
"As a way to support the franchise the next logical step was to make the movie," Fergusson said in an interview with Variety.
According to Fergusson, the film is in its pre-production stage, with Dylan Clark and Scott Stuber of Bluegrass Films as its producers. The movies that have been linked to Clark include Oblivion and the Planet of the Apes franchise, while for Stuber, they include Central Intelligence, Ted and the upcoming Patriots Day.
There is no release date yet for the movie, however, with additional details such as the writer and the director not yet finalized. There are also no details on whether the movie will follow the storyline found in the Gears of War video games or if will be an adaptation of the franchise's plot.
The video games originally followed soldier Marcus Fenix, as he fought back against monsters known as the Locust Horde, which emerged from underground and wiped out most of the planet. The upcoming game for Windows and the Xbox One, Gears of War 4, will focus on Fenix's son, JD Fenix.
Will fans see Fenix on the big screen with the Gears of War movie, or will there be an entirely new cast of characters? Fergusson did not reveal the answer, but he did say that the failure of some movies based on video games were because they tried to make movies for gamers.
"I think you have to let the movies be the movies," said Fergusson, adding that Gears of War has a deep backstory and lots of lore to draw inspiration from.
