With decades of sub-par video game adaptations behind us, we're still awaiting that elusive film which will break the so-called video game movie curse. That hasn't stopped Hollywood from attempting to exploit a large variety of popular video game properties, including Microsoft's Gears of War franchise. New Line Cinema picked up the rights to make a Gears of War movie ten years ago and even snagged Len Wiseman (LIVE FREE OF DIE HARD) to direct the project. After years in development hell, New Line had to let go of the rights to Gears of War which were later picked up by Universal.
It was announced last year that a GEARS OF WAR movie was in development and now Deadline has reported that the project is moving forward with Shane Salerno tackling scripting duties. For the past several years Salerno has been working with James Cameron on crafting the four AVATAR sequels, but is also known for scripting ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM, SAVAGES and SHAFT. Salerno is also attached to pen the script for Ridley Scott's adaptation of Don Winslow's "The Cartel." Rod Fergusson, studio head of game developer The Coalition, has said that they film would not be based on any particular game and would instead be a new story set in the Gears of War universe.
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, 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?'
The universe of Gears of War takes place on the fictional planet of Sera, "where a squad of beefed up commandos living in a bombed out post-apocalyptic society battle swarms of alien creatures called Locusts." I've never played any of the Gear of War games, but I seem to be in the minority as the franchise has grossed over $1 billion and is played by 45 million gamers worldwide. The latest game in the series, Gears of War 4, was released last October.