Report: Heavy Rain movie rights sold

By Oli Welsh Published 20 May, 2010

Former New Line bosses close to deal.

Deadline reports that Unique Features is the top bidder in an auction of the film rights for PS3 thriller Heavy Rain.

Unique Features is a relatively new production company formed by heavy hitters Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, former heads of New Line Productions and the men who said yes to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films.

Shaye and Lynne apparently used their own money to bid for the rights to David Cage's serial killer mystery; they were so enthusiastic they did not want to wait for approval from a studio backer. The deal "should be sealed shortly," according to Deadline, which points out the similarities between Heavy Rain and the David Fincher film Seven, a New Line hit under the two men.

It was recently reported that New Line had a long-standing option on the million-selling Heavy Rain, but if true, it seems that has not been renewed.

Heavy Rain's storytelling ambition has certainly caught Hollywood's eye, with film director Neil LaBute singing its praises.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • UncleLou #1 2 years ago

    Great game, loved it, but a film seems even more unnecessary than usual, seeing how a) it already is more or less a film, b) interactivity is the whole point, c) the story isn't good enough per se to work in a "linear" film.

  • RobotRocker #2 2 years ago

    Oh good. All the JASON and none of the effort of pressing X

  • Kill_Crazy #3 2 years ago

    I can see this working as a film but, the problem i see, is that we all know who did it.

  • Doctor_What #4 2 years ago

    New Line did some great films with these guys. It's in good hands. It could be film-of-game that doesn't suck!

  • LondonSquare82 #5 2 years ago

    This could be interesting, though as Kill_Crazy pointed out we all know what happens now we've played the game. Hopefully the film won't focus so much on FBI agent Norman Jayden being unable to walk up a muddy hill though.

  • sonicyoda #6 2 years ago

    I'm interested to see how they make the baby changing/feeding/rocking to sleep as engaging in the film as it was in the game.

  • GamesConnoisseur #7 2 years ago

    Of course they would not translate player-centric bits such as the interactivity of baby changing which we all loved... cough cough. But wondered at the now well known plot points being maintained? As its would kill the whodunnit elements of watching thriller type of films?

    UncleLou said it all.

    Seem to me that the rights are bought purely on hype and strength of importance of the game to console entertainment rather than AS a story itself.

    Can understand better if they perhapsfocus instead on the characters, and the applications of ARI specs to a new detective type of TV series. Fugitive based TV series even.

  • ParanoidZombie #8 2 years ago

    There's already a movie called "Jason X", FYI.

  • M_of_the_sys #9 2 years ago

    I'm particularly looking forward to the cooking an egg scene.

    My ideas for the cast (on looks not acting ability):

    Scott Shelby - John Goodman
    Norman Jayden - David Duchovny?
    Ethan Mars - David Duchovny?
    Madison Paige - Jacqui Ainsley

  • UncleLou #10 2 years ago

    Scott Shelby - John Goodman

    Er, Sam Douglas seems like a better option. ;)

  • M_of_the_sys #11 2 years ago

    Er, Sam Douglas seems like a better option. ;)

    Lol. Fair enough. Motion actors for all of them. I only picked Jacqui Ainsley for eye candy. ;)

    Honestly though, the moment I saw Scott Shelby, I thought 'John Goodman'.

  • Sunyavadin #12 2 years ago

    Why the hell they didn't do this in the first place and wasted time releasing the film on a console before cinemas is beyond me....

  • M_of_the_sys #13 2 years ago

    @Sunyavadvin

    Generally favorable reviews and 1 million plus copies sold might be why.

  • Ceelion #14 2 years ago

    This is the perfect change for them to film every outcome, and randomly splice them together so there were multiple versions of the film, just like the game. It would be like the ending of The Butterfly Effect, but you know, only better. I'd happily part with money to see different versions of the same film.

    I just don't want to see the canon ending over and over again, which I imagine would be killer is caught, everyone lives happily ever after.

  • Schaep #15 2 years ago

    Why would they do this? I loved the game, but the story was incredibly weak with a cartload of plotholes.

  • jefranklin18 #16 2 years ago

    The concept of the game's story is good and this is what has been bought. Although there are 2500 pages of dialogue already written, I imagine that as a minimum it will be give to a story editor to clean it up into a decent semblance of a movie. The reason that Revenge of the Sith was better than the other 2 prequels is that Lucas actually employed a script editor for the final one.

    It will be interesting to see what they do with the film.

  • Darkedge #17 2 years ago

    the story was cliched but might make a better film than the supposed 'game' it was.
    Wait a min, no, no it won't - Alan Wake however did a better job of storytelling even if the lipsync was rubbish

  • Kaminari #18 2 years ago

    Lame scenario from a wannabe director.

    And what I find ironic is that David De Grutolla will not direct the film adaptation of his own "cinematic game". Sorry Dave. Moviemaking is a serious business, you know.

  • LazyNinjaUk #19 2 years ago

    Sad reality will be that the game is still a better movie than whatever gets shat out of Hollywood.

  • lockload #20 2 years ago

    But heavy rain is not a good story though is it? it has massive plot holes for a start

  • Slipstream #21 2 years ago

    Urgh! Someone at hollywood thought the game was a great concept so it ought to be a movie it seems.

    Well...the concept is built exclusivley for gaming, I really hope New Line didn't shell out for these rights because they assumed gamers wold get the same experience 'watching' the film as they did actually 'playing' the game, it just wont work like that.

    As for "We know who done it..." Well of course, it would be a fatal mistake to stick to the plot of the game for many reasons, so I doubt the would.