Epic Games just may help bring its “Gears of War” franchise to a movie screen near you.
After years of speculation, starts and reboots, even scripts dating back to 2007, Hollywood is once again interested in bringing the $1 billion action game franchise to the big screen, Variety reports.
Creative Arts Agency, one of the world’s biggest, represents Epic and “is eager to meet with producers in the coming weeks,” Variety’s Marc Graser and Justin Kroll report.
Apparently Hollywood isn’t concerned about the departure last week of Cliff Bleszinski, a huge creative force behind the Gears franchise, which will produce a fourth game next year.
They link a number of major Hollywood names to the Gears back-and-forth, including at least one recent script from Stuart Beattie, the writer for “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
Variety says New Line, the original Gears backer, wants to focus on the forthcoming “Hobbit” films from Lord of Rings’ Peter Jackson so a Gears project could land elsewhere.
Last week, news broke that Microsoft – interestingly, the publisher of Gears – is taking a “Halo” movie direct to the web. Variety notes that Beattie “wrote a draft” of that film, and Creative Arts represents Beattie.
Are the pieces of the Gears movie puzzle falling into place?
What role might Epic play?
“Epic is expected to consult on the Gears pic to make sure it ties into the canon established by the games and books,” Variety says.
Hmmm. Sounds like a good role for a retired-for-now Bleszinski, whose personality enabled him to become a sought-after promotional voice for Gears and other Epic titles across the videogame industry.
[EPIC ARCHIVE: Check out 10 years stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]
