Gears of War talk

A movie based on Epic Games’ smash videogame franchise GEARS OF WAR has been gearing up (ahem) for a while, with Len Wiseman (LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, UNDERWORLD) directing the galactic ground war.

The project is slowly grinding forward, although it sounds like they’re still trying to figure out how to approach the material.

As producer Wyck Godfrey tells Making Of, it sounds like they basically want to make a prequel to the games: “The hard part is to make it into something that doesn’t feel like a world torn asunder and people just in battle. I think we really want to focus on the idea of a world that’s running well and then it’s Emergence Day. Kind of make it impactful and immediate and like what those 48 hours are as people survive Emergence Day.”

For those who haven’t held an XBox 360 controller and carved through horrific gray beasts, the games are actually set in the aftermath of Emergence Day, a substantial time after the monstrous race known as the Locust crawled from beneath the ground and taken over the distant planet Sera. Ex-con soldier Marcus Fenix leads a ragtag group of troopers across and under the once-affluent world, using various heavy firearms and chainsaw bayonets to chop the invaders into gunk.

Godfrey also says it will be “more like CLOVERFIELD or something like that” — you can see the full comment and context below. Writer Billy Ray (BREACH) is the latest taking a crack at the story after Chris Morgan (WANTED) and Stuart Beattie (G.I. JOE) each wrote previous drafts.