Gears of War: The Movie -- 'nuff said

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 20th 2007 at 8:42PM }

The amazingly deep, rich, and compelling human drama that was Gears of War, where big beefy humans fight some bug/humanoid creatures, could seriously get the big screen treatment. Variety reports that New Line won the rights to the project which included a 21-page treatment by Stuart Beattie, who was the scribe behind Collateral (yay!) and Derailed (eh?).

Now before we get all excited about who should play Marcus Fenix, let's remember that Halo was on the same path and fell apart last year. Of course, unless the movie is looking to become this generations Lawrence of Arabia, certain things are missing from the Gears of War cast, like a female lead -- heck, even Master Chief had Cortana. New Line went all out years ago for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Could we see the saga of Marcus Fenix complete in the movies before we ever see it in the games?

Tags: beattie, gears of war, halo, marcus feenix, MarcusFeenix, movies

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Hannibal @ Mar 20th 2007 8:50PM

There's no doubt Anya will have a larger role in the games as they keep coming out, so why not have her as a female lead in the movie?

saboola @ Mar 20th 2007 8:54PM

I heard Carrot Top was gonna play Marcus.

Justin U @ Mar 20th 2007 9:00PM

I heard John Heeder *(Sp?)* was playing Dom.

Mr Flannery @ Mar 20th 2007 9:11PM

@ Justin U;
Why not google the guys name and get the spelling correct? I weep for the future.

Secondly;
Derailed was excellent. Clive Owen. Rock.

Matt B @ Mar 20th 2007 9:16PM

Cain't wait til its out on Blu-ray! :P

venkol@gmail.com @ Mar 20th 2007 9:20PM

Wow, I almost guarantee this is going to be pretty bad. I mean like Doom: The Movie bad. Why not just give it the kiss of death now and hire Uwe Boll.

Fioter @ Mar 20th 2007 9:26PM

You're comparing Lord of the Rings to Gears of War? Rings was a timeless, three novel masterpiece.. the Gears story could be told in two paragraphs.

A big MEH from me.

Shadow @ Mar 20th 2007 9:29PM

There is a female character in Gears of War, Anya. She didn't have a huge role but her voice was to be heard in every level.
The Halo movie hasn't fallen apart, its just been set back alittle bit.

miles foreman @ Mar 20th 2007 9:26PM

I heard James Van Der Beek was set to play Cole.

Jon @ Mar 20th 2007 9:31PM

The LotR reference was kinda stupid. Really. To even know the story of GeoW all you need is to check the manual. That's it.

This, and Halo (if made) will be like Doom and all the other crap.

Patrick @ Mar 20th 2007 9:33PM

Samuel l jackson as cole, THERE ARE MOTHAF*CKIN' LOCUSTS ON THIS MOTHAF*CKIN KING RAVEN!!!!!

Jon @ Mar 21st 2007 6:23AM

I can see Ron Perlman nmaking a pretty decent Marcus.

OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ Mar 20th 2007 9:50PM

Wait...there's a story in Gears of War?

Ben @ Mar 20th 2007 9:50PM

If they can do it with Doom they can do it with Gears.

Sure, there wouldn't be much of a story, the acting would be pretty bad and it wouldn't be considered a masterpiece of cinematography. And while it may not do enormously well at the box office it would probably scrape by for a weekend or two and there would be plenty willing to watch it on cable/rental.

they could even line it up to be released alongside the sequel of the game for joint-publicity goodness ;)

Ian @ Mar 20th 2007 9:57PM

Dude, it's "Fenix," not "Feenix." That reads as amazingly goofy.

carg0 @ Mar 20th 2007 10:04PM

yea, a movie should be interesting seeing as how there was absolutely NO STORY WHATSOEVER in the game itself...

Killer @ Mar 20th 2007 10:08PM

Matt B?

joking right? I can't really tell, because it's a typed sentence. In case you weren't, New line is both formats. If you were kidding though....Good one. lol

@ Jon, I know what you mean. you have to wonder though, is it becuase the movie really sucks or is it becuase we are so use the GAME. Movies based on the games we play, never turn out the way we want them to. If Doom wasn't a game, would it have been a good movie? Who knows because Doom was a game. It all so frustrating.

reid296 @ Mar 20th 2007 10:18PM

Ah, it'd be cool if they totally turned this into a comedy with Will Ferrell as Marcus or something like that. I'd watch it then. lol

Ryan @ Mar 20th 2007 10:27PM

I heard that Cliffy B. expressed his desire for Clive Owen to play the part of Marcus Fenix, No Joke.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/13053/Gears-of-War-Coming-to-the-Big-Screen/

Vincent Avatar @ Mar 20th 2007 10:27PM

It's safe to say that if Doom was a movie before it was a game, it would have been a really shitty movie. No two ways about it.

"YOU HESITATE, PEOPLE DIE."

BruteDude @ Mar 23rd 2007 10:15PM

Could be awesome, I actually felt robbed by Gears of War. The whole first act should promise of being one of the greatest CONSOlE (i.e. excluding Half-Life) FPS stories ever told with the whole destroyed beauty, the desperation of the soldiers, horrors of war, one man's redemtion, ect. But after the 1st Act, (and your encounter with the stranded) the thing fell apart into get stuff to make big gun work and that was it. I felt like Epic thought that it was too demamding of the college frat boys to have them skip cutscenes so instead that dummbed everything down for them to, "go here to shoot these guys so you can get the big ass gun." But if the movie delievers of Act I's promise, sign me up.

Shmil @ Mar 20th 2007 10:38PM

i'd watch it, i wouldn't pay to see it, but i'd watch it, we need more 90's esque balls out action movies

AoE @ Mar 20th 2007 10:42PM

@Killer,

Actually I suspect most game-to-movie translations suck because most video game stories aren't so great to begin with. Story doesn't REALLY matter in the context of the game because we're not there to watch a story; we're there to play a game, and as long as the story's good enough to get us juiced for the next level and carry us through to the end of the game it's all good. Movies on the other hand are entirely passive, and with the exception of the ocassional film-geek who can enjoy a film based on cinematography alone, we're all pretty much there for the story. So it takes either an extremely good scriptwriter to inject all sorts meaning and story that isn't in the source material, yet make it seem like it was... or you end up with the dreck that we've mostly gotten.

Obviously there are exceptions across all genres, and at least one genre (adventure) where the story pretty much trumps gameplay; but Gears, and most every other game that's made the leap are action titles with little to offer story-wise to a passive medium like film.

Alex @ Mar 20th 2007 10:55PM

a Gears of War movie would be forced into a good attempt of game-to-movie adaptation because of the game's astonishingly high production value. My picks for who should be in delta squad: Marcus: Mickey Rourke, Dom: Christian Bale, Cole: Samuel L. Jackson or Ice Cube ,Baird: Mark Wahlberg, Lucas Black, or Paul Walker.

Sam @ Mar 20th 2007 10:58PM

I don't know about you guyz, but when I started playing Gears of War and saw Marcus Fenix for the first time, he looked just like WWE's World Heavyweight Champion Batista. So if they were to cast someone "big and beefy", I feel it should be played by the man himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bautista

gfx @ Mar 20th 2007 11:03PM

WTF! Why does there have to be a female lead.

Do we always have to go the damn political correct path for everything done today?

Let the movie be that, a fucking movie! Shit!

Matt B @ Mar 20th 2007 11:21PM

No Killer!

I wasn't kidding.

DWells55 @ Mar 20th 2007 11:23PM

@11. Patrick:
"11. Samuel l jackson as cole, THERE ARE MOTHAF*CKIN' LOCUSTS ON THIS MOTHAF*CKIN KING RAVEN!!!!!"
----------------------------------------------------

Patrick, your post made me literally laugh out loud. Thanks :)

Jake @ Mar 20th 2007 11:48PM

Alex,

I love your idea for Mickey Rourke as Marcus. Perfect. Vin Diesel has the voice and acting ability to fit the game as well, but he might need a wig because I don't see him playing Baird. I don't like your black guy picks, though, they're not buff enough. I'd rather see Michael Clarke Duncan, if he can make Cole noises. Maybe you could just get Jerome Bettis to try his acting out. Bus, Train, same difference. It's all mass transit.

Man, it is kind of weird that you can't make a movie without a female or male lead. You have to have both. They could just make up a character and have China or some other burnt out WWE star play her, lol. Perhaps they could give the Locus Horde parts to women with serious voice synthesization and tremendous make-up work. Or, they could just be revolutionaries and have a movie with no female lead. :0

Seriously, if this movie actually gets made my expectations would be pretty low, as they are with all game to movie creations, unless they had a big budget and some good actors. It does have production value, though. Bodies coming apart, huge guns, and some crazy 300-like cinematography and you have my admission fee.

As for whoever said the DOOM movie sucked, I agree with you under one condition. I absolutely loved the scene where they did a first person DOOM-like action scene at the end. I was laughing the whole time, in a good way. They could do something similar with the 3rd person roadie-run into a shotgun assplotion scene.

Actually, I'm getting excited about how cool this movie could be if it were done right. Unfortunately, it is 99% odds that either nothing will come of this or something horrible will. Here's to hoping I'm wrong.

mocax @ Mar 21st 2007 12:13AM

Which actress should play the Berserker?

Hellsing @ Mar 21st 2007 12:20AM

mocax,

Britney Spears could totally pull off the part now.

lessbiasedthanmost @ Mar 21st 2007 12:23AM

Bwahahaha, that's a good un.

The day I see this movie actually come to theaters is the day I'll have enough money to buy all 3 next-gen systems, and a 1080p tv.
And I still won't see this movie, one big reason...
Movies based on video games suck more often than not.

juggernaught @ Mar 21st 2007 1:26AM

i kno most of you dont like vid game movies but dont look at the obvious common factor (there all games) look at the underlying factor (theyre made by uwe boll). as long as directors that matter begin giving a shit about the game movies it'll be an alright movie. i mean pete jackson for halo movie, given he was supposed to produce it right? but thats still huge direction. i still dont kno why they wouldnt do the movie right out but like i always say "it all depends on the chef whether the steak is good or not"

Grendel Pr1me @ Mar 21st 2007 1:27AM

Uwe Boll is totally doing the Homer Simpson "oh, oh, oh" dance somewhere in Germany right now.

somaXD @ Mar 21st 2007 2:00AM

they would have to get John DiMaggio to voice over for fenix though, gotta have benders voice up in there or it just wouldnt work.

Mike @ Mar 21st 2007 2:14AM

All i know is that the guy who did Cole's voice should be the same guy who did his voice: The guy from the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker reebok ads. I'm sure they're still up on youtube and as you can see the guy is almost every bit as huge as the Cole Train. Hell, alot of Cole's lines are straight out of those ads lol...

Sam @ Mar 21st 2007 2:43AM

@34 I just saw that video on youtube and it was hilarious! His real name is Mighty Rasta and I use to watch him on My Wife and Kids, "The Calvinator." But I didn't know he was the voice of the Cole Train... I agree, he would be PERFECT for the role.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzToNo7A-94

Finite @ Mar 21st 2007 3:22AM

Does anyone else see this as a potential next generation "Predator?" I mean, as long as they add their own style and story to the movie and simply take the general premise of Gears, it could be quite good.

Just look at what they did with Pirates.

greenD0G @ Mar 21st 2007 4:57AM

You don't HAVE to have a female lead, there are plenty of action movies that don't.
I'm thinking PREDATOR, one of my all time favourite action movies and no real story, just plenty of bad asses running round the jungle shooting shit up.

I love the idea of Mickey Rourke as fenix, I agree with Michael Clarke Duncan as Cole,(Or Ice cube), I think Paul Walker would be cool as Baird, but Dom, hmm he's hispanic right? can't think of anyone...Antonio Banderas?? :)

David @ Mar 21st 2007 7:28AM

for all future video game movies... they need to have an actual gamer direct the movie. and they need to have all the cast play the game, at least once, if not more than once.

halo is one that could easily be turned into a movie and done RIGHT, if they, you know, did it right. same with gears.

PhrawzT @ Mar 21st 2007 7:35AM

I agree with somaXD. John DiMaggio should have a role in Gears.

However, I get the feeling that a movie based off the game would end up having nothing to do with the actual game. It will be some terrible perversion of the game where they find out that locusts are actually humans. You can expect that there will be a completely unnecessary love story so the producers can shove in a pointless sex scene.

If Hollywood wants to make a good Gears movie they can start by figuring out a way to fit in a cameo by Michael Caine.

ha @ Mar 21st 2007 7:05PM

PhrawzT, I was just thinking that. They always make one of the main characters have some sort of love interest. It pisses me off. I just know that fenix and anya will end up getting it on somewhere

Jake @ Mar 21st 2007 8:55AM

greenDOG,

Predator did have a female lead. She was basically pointless to the story and action, but was in there nonetheless.

But, her role is about as small of one as you'll see in a movie. I guess the Locust "leader" or whatever is female and could maybe count for the lead.

And to whoever said "Locusts turn out to be humans" will end up being a pointless non-game Hollywood twist, I bet when the whole story unfolds they end up being some kind of mutatated human.

Todd H. @ Mar 21st 2007 10:58AM

What about the lead guy from 300, he kicked A#@ in that movie!

albinogoldfish @ Mar 27th 2007 3:04PM

I was thinkin Clarke Duncan for Cole, until I saw that youtube video, I have changed my mind and I think Mighty Rasta would be awesome, seriously speaking though I dont think any well known actors should be in it, look at 300 for example, action movie with NO well known actors, but they did it right, thats the only way I see myself liking a movie like this, going into it lookng at the movie, not just my preconceived notions of any particular actor, just curiousity of how well they will do.