Painkiller gets film treatment

By Robert Purchese Published 2 August, 2007

Heaven's got a hit man.

Film studio Guy Walks Into a Bar has snaffled up the rights to make a version of Painkiller for the big-screen.

Developed originally for PC in 2004, the game was based around Daniel Garner, who finds himself caught between heaven and hell and used as a pawn in the war between them. Sucker.

It tried to position itself somewhere between Serious Sam and Doom, but failed to attract many pats on the back. Kristan reckoned it "blew its wad too soon".

Adapting it for the big-screen will be the unfamiliar penman Ben McCaw, whose credits include Gideon's Vault - an Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition finalist. The aim is to recreate the fast action and hellish atmosphere of the game.

No stars or a director have yet been mentioned. Uwe Boll might be a little busy.

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 (8) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • EmiliasHorse #1 5 years ago

    Can I say Meh?


    Oh I just did...whoops

  • menage #2 5 years ago

    Anybody remember Doom. And that game had more story than this one. I need Painkillers if I were to watch it.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 5 years ago

    5/10? I thought the game was great. But then again Battle out of Hell was the addon, right? The addon indeed was not really all that good but the main game was fantastic in singleplayer I think.

    Movie could be fun too if they don't try to make anything serious because Painkiller simply isn't.

  • Machetazo #4 5 years ago

    Somewhat interested at this time - if the production quality is high enough, I'd watch it.
    Edited by 1 at 02/08/07 @ 15:39

  • EmiliasHorse #5 5 years ago

    Did the Xbox version ever get a release?
    I remember it kept slipping and then the 360 launched, kinda lost interest in all things Xbox 1 after that.

  • ExplodingClown #6 5 years ago

    Ugh, this'll be a turd. Thought the game was pretty fun in a Serious Sam kind of way, but if this movie ever sees daylight it'll most likely just be an anaemic retread of 'Evil Dead 2'.

  • huxathon #7 5 years ago

    A greatly underrated game. Although a film will totally pointless unless they recreate the final level which was a great piece of design. All wars suspended in a single moment...great.

  • Snooz #8 5 years ago

    If Uwe Boll is busy I'd happily take on the job as director, give me some artistic freedom and I'll make atleast something that looks like a film.

    Actually enjoyed the demo of painkiller, which i found quite long and therefore didn't need to play the game anymore. Actually I think i finished the demo twise just because that pole-shooting-thingy was such a funny thing to use.