The director of Moon is going to war. Duncan Jones, the director of Moon and Source Code, has just signed on to direct Warcraft, a movie based on the extremely popular Blizzard video game world Azeroth, featured in games such as Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and World of Warcraft. Legendary Pictures has the license, and a new script by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond).
The aim is to begin shooting the genre-bending action fantasy by the end of this year for a possible 2015 release. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 by Angie Han
The Assassin’s Creed adaptation suddenly got a lot more interesting when Michael Fassbender was cast as the lead, and now it’s adding some intriguing talent behind the scenes as well. New Regency and Ubisoft have hired Michael Lesslie to pen the screenplay. If Lesslie’s name doesn’t seem familiar, that’s probably because he’s relatively unknown as a screenwriter. Instead, the 20something up-and-comer has gained acclaim as a writer of plays and the occasional short film.
Posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
In 2007, Activision changed first person shooters forever with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The fourth game to carry the “Call of Duty” name, it was the first set in modern times. The release became a cultural phenomenon, due in large part to its incredibly exciting online multiplayer experience Since then, the release of each subsequent game has been met with the kind of fanfare usually reserved for the biggest summer blockbusters. Call of Duty became a video game mega blockbuster, grossing billions of dollars.
The franchise is so well-known, in fact, that a movie based on it seems like a slam-dunk. A new article profiling the head of Activision, however, may ease the minds of COD fans around the world worried about what a film would look like. A Call of Duty movie is not something Activision is interested in. Read more after the jump. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 by Angie Han
Josh Trank will probably be spending most of the next few years on the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot, but even as he gets that figured out another of his projects has taken a step forward. The trades are reporting that writer Seth Lochhead has just been tapped to pen Shadow of the Colossus, a video game adaptation that Trank attached himself to last spring. Lochhead is best known for scripting 2011′s Hanna, the offbeat fairy tale actioner directed by Joe Wright. Read more after the jump.
Posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 by Russ Fischer
UbiSoft is leading a change in the video game industry when it comes to crafting film adaptations of games. The company has taken the reins of its own licenses and is actively developing several features with deals that attract top talent. Michael Fassbender is producing and starring in Assassin’s Creed, and Tom Hardy was recently attached to a film based on Ubi’s Splinter Cell series.
Now Ubi is developing a film based on the Ghost Recon game series, a set of tactical military shooters that is another one of the company’s Tom Clancy-branded franchises. And for the kids (or anyone who wants a little lunacy) the company is also working on an animated TV series based on the series of games that began with Rayman Raving Rabbids in 2006. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2012 by Angie Han
Episode VII isn’t coming out for a few years yet, but 2013 promises lots of non-cinematic Star Wars releases, including a new comic book series, a novel by Timothy Zahn, and an expansion to The Old Republic. After the jump:
Posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 by Angie Han
It’s hard to believe it’s only been three years since Rovio Entertainment launched a little mobile game called Angry Birds. In that time, the franchise has become totally ubiquitous. I’m not just talking about the countless special editions of the game itself, either. I can’t walk into a drugstore without seeing Angry Birds-branded candy and plush toys for sale, and Angry Birds t-shirts are a common sight on the subway or the sidewalk.
Now, the cute but vicious creatures are pushing into new territory with a planned movie. Rovio has announced that a 3D CG-animated feature adaptation will hit in 2016, with John Cohen (Despicable Me) producing. David Maisel (formerly of Marvel Studios) remains on board as executive producer. More details after the jump.
Posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2012 by Germain Lussier
Update: Today Variety reports that Universal has picked up rights to Armada, and is developing a film with Scott Stuber’s Bluegrass Films (Ted, Safe House) and Dan Farah’s Farah Films. The Hollywood Reporter then offers the following, Last Starfighter-esque details on the plot: “ARMADA centers on a group of MMO players who play a game titled Armada that are recruited by a govt agency to use their unique skills, honed by playing the game, to fight a larger threat.” The rest of the original text follows after the break.
Often there’s an entertainment story that doesn’t have an express movie angle, but we feel our readers should take notice anyway. This is one of those stories. In the movie world, most people know the name Ernie Cline because he wrote and conceived Fanboys, Kyle Newman’s tale of a group of friends breaking into Skywalker Ranch to see Star Wars Episode I. While the film isn’t particularly well-regarded (it surely has its fans but went through Hollywood hell) I’d be lying if I said that premise didn’t please my geeky desires.
Cline followed that idea with an even bigger and better one. That was Ready Player One, a futuristic tale stuffing social networks, the ’80s, video games, music and movies into an action-packed story about the race for the world’s biggest fortune. If you love the things we write about on this site, the book was written for you. Warner Bros. owns the movie rights and the project is still in development.
None of that is what this story is about. That’s all preamble to give context to the following info. Ernie Cline has been given a seven-figure advance for his next book, Armada. Story details are still secret but Variety says the story has “a high-concept hook that offers the ultimate wish fulfillment to every video game fan on the planet.”
