New Line Cinema has acquired the feature film rights to Epic Games’ award-winning video game, Gears of War, with writer Stuart Beattie attached to adapt the project and Temple Hill Entertainment set to produce. The announcement was made jointly today by New Line Production President Toby Emmerich and Epic Games’ VP and co-founder Mark Rein.
Since its debut in November 2006, Gears of War has broken sales records on the Microsoft Xbox 360, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide, and has received numerous awards including Gamespot’s “Game of the Year” and the Interactive Achievement Awards’ “Overall Game of the Year.” The game thrusts players into humankind’s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. The story unfolds as a ragtag group of soldiers use every last ounce of strength to survive the onslaught from the forces of evil, which begins on the historic Emergence Day.
Beattie previously penned Collateral, and is credited with the screen story for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He has also written the screenplay for the upcoming David Slade thriller 30 Days of Night and 3:10 To Yuma, a film staring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Cliff Bleszinski, the lead game designer for Gears of Wars worked in conjunction with Beattie to define a treatment for the film, which will target existing fans of the video game and captivate a whole new audience. Bleszinski will executive produce the film on behalf of Epic Games.
Gears of Wars is being produced by Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey (I, Robot, Daddy Day Care) through their Temple Hill Entertainment production company. The project is being overseen for New Line by production executives Cale Boyter and Jeff Katz.
Creative Artists Agency represents Beattie, Bleszinski, and Epic Games. Beattie is also represented by Joan Vento-Hall of the Law Offices of Joan Vento-Hall.
