Gears film gets Legendary boost

By Robert Purchese Published 28 July, 2008

Hollywood studios splitting the bill.

Legendary Pictures, responsible for Batman Begins and co-financing The Dark Knight, has agreed to put up half the money for the upcoming Gears of War film.

The other half is already being spotted by New Line Cinema, according to Variety, which began the movie adaptation early last year.

Those attached to the project so far are Die Hard 4.0 director Len Wiseman and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan, who will be redrafting the original script by Stuart Beattie (of Collateral and Pirates of the Caribbean fame).

The cast is yet to be revealed, if there indeed is one yet, and the Gears of War film is expected in summer 2010.

Epic, developer of the Gears of War game, has appointed designer Cliff Bleszinski as creative go-between to ensure the film remains as faithful as possible to the original IP. Tom met the man formerly known as "Cliffy B" at E3 recently, and said he was very nice.

Legendary Pictures was also responsible for action film 300 and is behind the helm on upcoming comic-book adaptation Watchmen.

Interestingly, Legendary Pictures boss Thomas Tull is one of the co-founders of Brash Entertainment, a videogame publisher specialising in movie tie-ins. [That's not interesting. - Ed]

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JonFE #1 4 years ago

    Can Gears succeed where Halo has -presumably- failed? I still remember the fanfare of the Halo movie, yet, sadly, nothing has come to fruition so far.

  • Zomoniac #2 4 years ago

    I WANT THE HALO MOVIE!

    What's more, I think they should do the entire thing CGI, it would be better.

  • Mudo #3 4 years ago

    Still not convinced this isn't a joke.

  • anomagnus #4 4 years ago

    @ JonFE

    The problem with the Halo film is that bungie wants total creative control, they don't want Halo turned to shit on screen by some director thats never even played it, putting out some shit to suit his vision. So, no studio will stump up the cash.

    I admire them for that. I'd rather have no Halo film than some piece of shit from a director that doesn't know what the fuck is going on.

  • The-Bodybuilder #5 4 years ago

    The gearsmmovie seems to be rolling, much so than the halo movie (MS hiring a director before a studio had even picked up the enormous bill?)

    If gears IS successful (both critically and financially), you can bet hollywood will try thier hands at milking the gaming industry again (after sucking the blood of comics).

    BTW, love the new gears 2 cover.

  • miiiguel #6 4 years ago

    JonFE, tottaly disagree with you, I think Halo succeeded in not turning into a BS movie. I say only the brave do resist.

  • DanWhitehead #7 4 years ago

    The problem with the Halo film is that bungie wants total creative control, they don't want Halo turned to shit on screen by some director thats never even played it, putting out some shit to suit his vision. So, no studio will stump up the cash.

    I admire them for that. I'd rather have no Halo film than some piece of shit from a director that doesn't know what the fuck is going on.

    Not really. Between Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp they had a producer and director who were very dedicated to the property. The problem is that Bungie's insistence on not deviating from their "bible" means that there's very little room to actually adapt Halo into a movie. Alex Garland got paid a seven figure sum to essentially transcribe the first game, and the studios realised they were paying a fortune for something that came across like a straight-to-video Aliens rip-off. The costs became astronomical and no studio wanted to risk that much money on a videogame film with a faceless lead character. The most financially successful videogame movie is Tomb Raider, which benefited from an A-list star and less costly special effects, and even that didn't make enough money to cover the estimated cost of Halo.

    The biggest hurdle in getting the Halo movie made is Master Chief. He's a character designed for gaming, not for a narrative movie.

  • Tomo #8 4 years ago

    >>> The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan, who will be redrafting the original script by Stuart Beattie (of Collateral and Pirates of the Caribbean fame).

    How gutted must you feel if you're Stuart Beattie?

  • PlugMonkey #9 4 years ago

    "The problem with the Halo film is that bungie wants total creative control, "

    I 'd always though of this as probably the main hurdle:

    "and no studio wanted to risk that much money on a videogame film with a faceless lead character."

    Either Master Chief keeps his helmet on and anyone who hasn't played the game can't relate to him, or he takes the helmet off and immediately ceases to be Master Chief.

  • mcmonkeyplc #10 4 years ago

    MOTHER FUCKERS! How come gears gets legendary pictures and Halo gets nothing!?

  • Bitkari #11 4 years ago

    The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan

    More cinema for morons then.

  • miiiguel #12 4 years ago

    who cares?, I have the Legendary badge, long time ago.

  • space_ace #13 4 years ago

    /imagines chirs nolan directed gears, lol

  • CreepinJesus #14 4 years ago

    "...and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan"

    That had a writer!?

  • bushwod #15 4 years ago

    I predict this will be very very bad.

  • Xerx3s #16 4 years ago

    I dunno. The movie shorts from halo are kickass.If they make a film or a series of minifilms like that, it would be awesome.

    Especially the ending where one of the marines shoots a brute in the face with a rpg.

  • Zomoniac #17 4 years ago

    I still think it should be CGI. Watching the Halo 3 CG trailer and E3 07's Halo Wars trailer and comparing them to the live action shorts only further backs this up.

  • DanWhitehead #18 4 years ago

    Make a movie like this in CG, and most people will just think they're seeing adverts for a new game.

  • The-Bodybuilder #19 4 years ago

    Anyone that says this game should be a CG movie only validates that gamers only appeal to other gamers.

  • Genji #20 4 years ago

    How will this be different to any other action movie? Because the title is Gears of War?

    Not interested.

  • DanWhitehead #21 4 years ago

    All the characters will be 8 feet wide.

  • anomagnus #22 4 years ago

    i dont think the master chief needs to take his helmet off

    v in v for vendetta didnt (yea, it stank, but he was the only good thing in it)

  • Diabeu #23 4 years ago

    what about Rumble Roses movie??????

    pretty pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

  • Foregone Reality #24 4 years ago

    "Either Master Chief keeps his helmet on and anyone who hasn't played the game can't relate to him, or he takes the helmet off and immediately ceases to be Master Chief."

    Taking off the Helmet..It's the Judge Dredd predicament all over again.

  • Daymare #25 4 years ago

    There's a third solution: Master Chief is not the lead role but is instead a taciturn, enigmatic hero a main character bonds with. This way he keeps his iconic status while the audience gets the emotional side of story through the main, human character - preferably a woman.

    Edited by 2 at 28/07/08 @ 15:43

  • bonker #26 4 years ago

    "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan

    More cinema for morons then."

    Well, "Epic, developer of the Gears of War game, has appointed designer Cliff Bleszinski as creative go-between to ensure the film remains as faithful as possible to the original IP"

    Yes.

  • RedSparrows #27 4 years ago

    Or the film is told from Cortana's perspective. I think the relationship between the two could be fruitful. Maybe.

    Back to Gears...
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/08 @ 23:02

  • actionfitz #28 4 years ago

    "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan, who will be redrafting the original script by Stuart Beattie (of Collateral and Pirates of the Caribbean fame)."

    erm surely thats back-to-front?
    they get the writer of a shite Film to rewrite the script by the guy who wrote Collateral and Pirates of the Carribbean?

    :o

  • BobsUncle #29 4 years ago

    >>> The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift writer Chris Morgan, who will be redrafting the original script by Stuart Beattie (of Collateral and Pirates of the Caribbean fame).

    How gutted must you feel if you're Stuart Beattie?


    I agree. Collateral and POTC were actually good scripts so this first draft was likley also good, but then they give it to some idiot from some shitty 2nd sequel to a shitty series. WTF?

  • BobsUncle #30 4 years ago

    I want a Warhammer 40K movie anyway.

  • craziii #31 4 years ago

    the gameplay lasted about 4 hours on first play through, I guess the movie would last 20 minutes long? what are they going to fill in to make the movie length longer than 20 minutes? would be interesting to read a summary of the movie plot.