Gears of War movie being "scaled back"?

By Ellie Gibson Published 7 April, 2010

Wiseman no longer directing, says report.

The Gears of War movie adaptation may not turn out to be the big blockbuster that was planned, according to the LA Times.

The newspaper quotes "sources" as saying that the story and budget for the movie have been "scaled back". In addition, Len Wiseman - who previously directed Live Free or Die Hard and Underworld - is no longer set to oversee the project.

"The studio has now cut the budget, going from a film that would have cost more than $100 million to one that will cost a good chunk less than that," reports the Times.

"It's also reined in the story, turning it into a more simple, straight-ahead invasion story instead of a sprawling epic. Producers are looking for a new writer to handle all this, but haven't found one yet. And Wiseman, while technically still attached, will likely not be a part of it when all is said and done."

There had also been talk of Kate Beckinsale, who is married to Wiseman, appearing in the movie - but now that deal appears to be off the table too.

Neither Epic Games or film studio New Line have commented on the report.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Armoured_Gideon #1 2 years ago

    Uwe Boll crouched in catlike readiness by his phone...

  • Spanky #2 2 years ago

    Who was Kate Beckinsale gonna play in this homo erotic epic? Dom?

  • booner #3 2 years ago

    Shame, it's actually quite a good storyline, which will now end up as bad as the DOOM film :(

  • deadmonkeyuk #4 2 years ago

    District 9 has shown sci-fi can be done on a smaller budget, but that film had a great producer/director and special effects team behind it, something it looks like GOW will not have. An animated movie or live action shorts may work better than a low budget feature film.

  • CaptainQuint #5 2 years ago

    This will be about as good as a Resident Evil movie.

  • geeza2020 #6 2 years ago

    wasnt this going to be a steaming pile anyway? Its Gears of War for gods sake. Its not like it had a strong story or anything anyway.

  • nuanimal #7 2 years ago

    Len Wiseman's not going to be directing anymore? I am smiling now :o)

  • The-Bodybuilder #8 2 years ago

    Whatever chance this movie had (a small one) is now gone.
    Straight up B-Movie it now sounds.

  • Spanky #9 2 years ago

    Roger Corman could probably make a good fist of it, once he's done with Sharktopus that is.

  • CaptainQuint #10 2 years ago

    Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay would be the best directors for this. And that's a compliment.

  • Weezer #11 2 years ago

    Chop the budget further still, set it in modern day New York and make it a rom-com with Owen Wilson and her out of Friends... no, the other one. Have Owen as a Gears fanatic whose online addiction threatens their relationship - with hilarious consequences! Call it "You Grind My Gears' and job done: another promising franchise pissed away by Hollywood fucktards.


  • Redeye #12 2 years ago

    Expect the headline "Gears of War movie going straight to DVD" at some point in the not-too-distant.

  • The-Bodybuilder #13 2 years ago

    LOL @ Weezer.

  • ignatiusjreilly #14 2 years ago

    @Redeye

    I expect the headline "Gears of War movie cancelled" instead.

  • Murton #15 2 years ago

    "Whatever. I've yet to see a good video-game-to-film adaptation."

    ^^ This. Though some game-to-movie adaptations aren't actually bad movies, it's just that they do the games they're allegedly based on an injustice, usually by straying miles away from the setting of the game.

  • schnide #16 2 years ago

    "Shit film going to be shit in a different way or just not made" shocker.

  • kongzi #17 2 years ago

    "From the director of Live Free or Die Hard.."
    that already wasn't a tagline to be proud of. And yes, all game-adaptions actually ARE bad movies anyway. And gears of war isn't exactly a fresh and compelling concept storywise, either.

  • Skooch #18 2 years ago

    Like rats from a sinking ship...

  • metalangel #19 2 years ago

    @Captain_Quint: only without Mila Jovovich's nips and minge.

  • tomjoadsghost #20 2 years ago

    So is this now featuring AJ Styles in his triumphant return to the role of Marcus Fenix or what?

  • asphaltcowboy #21 2 years ago

    Oh dear... sure fire sign that this isn't going to be good... Actually had a small hope for it before!

  • chrisola #22 2 years ago

    It doesn't have to be epic.

    It's called 'Gears of War' -- so you could have a fairly small scale story in the movie about a single squad of Gears and their particular battles, with the bigger war referenced in the background.

    Give it to the crew behind District 9, with a 50-60 million budget and go from there.

  • sneetch #23 2 years ago

    Are there any genuinely good movie adaptations of games? Most of them reek of low budget hack jobs.

    I though Max Payne taken in isolation wasn't a bad movie, it was definitely a bad Max Payne movie, but not a bad movie.

  • asphaltcowboy #24 2 years ago

    ER, no. Max Payne was awful, game adaptation or not. From the press stuff they did I'd thought they'd nailed it. The posters, artwork and promotional stuff they sent out look amazing. The film was utter, utter garbage though :/

  • Pasco #25 2 years ago

    "Whatever. I've yet to see a good video-game-to-film adaptation."

    You might argue that the Dead or Alive movie was not a good one but it was a good video-game-to-film adaptation. It captured the spirit of the games perfectly. And most of the fights were better than in the Matrix movies if you ask me.

  • metalangel #26 2 years ago

    Really? I thought WeLiveTogether.com captured the "spirit" of Dead or Alive better. ;)

  • djed #27 2 years ago

    I've yet to see a good video-game-to-film adaptation.

    My dear friends, let me enlighten you

  • IronGiant #28 2 years ago

    Waste of time and money, just make an all out animated movie instead!

  • darleysam #29 2 years ago

    Well hey, it could've been good.

    Nice to see you tried, Hollywood.

    edit: I'd love to see it produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neil Blomkamp, but after their work with Halo fell through so badly, I don't think either of them would touch a video game movie again.
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/10 @ 13:20

  • Weezer #30 2 years ago

    Hitman: pleasantly surprised. Not a bad film at all... if you compare it to any braindead actioner.

  • Miths #31 2 years ago

    @metalangel

    I quite enjoyed both a couple of years ago :p.

  • Ranger101 #32 2 years ago

    As with Hollywood, there will always be adaptations, alterations and consolodations (of characters). Say hello to:

    Gears of War 2: The Legend of Marcus Dom

    An action-packed movie about one (american hispanic) man and his war against the gears... OF WAR!

  • sonicyoda #33 2 years ago

    Video game films are dead. How many films have been announced recently that are stuck in development hell? Soulcalibur, Castlevania, Halo and now this. That Tekken film keeps getting pushed back as well.
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/10 @ 15:08

  • Psi #34 2 years ago

    Thank god, we just don't need this.

    Films about Videogames are like Videogames about films. Best avoided at all costs.

  • MORZTAN #35 2 years ago

    @ Armoured_Gideon

    You made me smile on this piss poor day... Thank you :)

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #36 2 years ago

    @Sonic - the tekken film is done - it's about to go to DVD iirc...

    Whoever said it (sorry I forgot) got it spot on with 'expections' - whoever said there aren't any 'good' games to film these days is expecting a direct translatation of both gameplay and story - thats NEVER going to happen at all...

    Mortal Kombat 1, Silent Hill, Hitman, the first Resident Evil (when it was horror based not 'action movie'), DoA and Tomb Raider were good live action versions of their game counterparts, yea they weren't 'word for word' perfect - but they damn well gave it justist.

    I've actally looking forward to PoP and Tekken KNOWING they aren't the 'proper' plotlines to what we saw in the games however as long as the films don't end up utter cheese (DOOM, Streetfighter, MARIO) then I'm fine with it - I think sometimes gamers forget it's not always aimed at us, but for the general public to have some idea what the sires is about, taking on avg 8 upto 40 hours of plots and subplots from a game and packing them into an hour and a half, you can't really expect a 'live action clone' most gamers want.

  • Bulbatron #37 2 years ago

    They should make it a wholly CG movie like Resident Evil Degeneration was, then they could make it look right and get the proper voice talent in to voice any characters who appear from the games.

  • espibara #38 2 years ago

    G U T T E D

    Would have been great to see Emergence Day on the big screen and the all mighty scrap that followed but never mind.

    I guess the problem is the R rating needed for the film. How can you have a planets population getting slaughtered and us fighting back with chainsaw wielding assault rifles and its still be PG-13???????
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/10 @ 20:20

  • Goldrake #39 2 years ago

    Good thing Kate Beckinsale is off, she is far too big a star to be in this, they would change the story to give her more space.
    As for the film, it might still turn out ok, Gear 1 was not epic as Gears 2 so this could still be a good way to start.
    Shame for the loss of a good director, I enjoed the Underworld movies.