Netflix’s live-action rendition of the well-known video game “Gears of War” has moved a step closer with the addition of Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Jon Spaihts.
Spaihts, who is best known for co-writing “Dune,” “Dune: Part Two,” and “Doctor Strange,” will now tackle the challenge of adapting “Gears of War,” one of gaming’s most lucrative and acclaimed video game sagas, with over 40 million copies sold.
In a statement to Variety, Spaihts stated, “‘Gears of War’ is one of the all-time great action games, with vibrant characters, a wonderfully designed environment, and a combat system that brings home the lethality of war and the value of standing by your squadmates. “I’m pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to it becoming movie,” said the speaker.
Netflix and The Coalition announced their collaboration to adapt the “Gears of War” universe in November 2022. Together, they have the goal of turning the game into a live-action feature film first, then an animated adult series with the option for other stories. The “Gears of War” video games are focused on a society that is fractured and on the verge of disintegrating, fearing total annihilation at the hands of the terrifying Locust alien race, a lethal, underground threat. The last-ditch effort to save humanity will be spearheaded by the ragged fireteam known as Delta Squad, which is commanded by disgraced sergeant Marcus Fenix.
The Coalition expressed its excitement to collaborate with Jon and the Netflix team to bring “Gears of War” to life. “Jon is a superb storyteller who has a gift for developing grand, science-fiction realms, and he genuinely enjoys ‘Gears of War.'” We couldn’t have asked for a better partner to uphold our brand and tell our audience an authentic tale.
The most recent effort to adapt the well-known game, which is recognized with reinventing the tactical third-person and cooperative shooter genre, is Netflix’s “Gears of War” movie. A film adaptation was temporarily owned by New Line Cinema in 2007 before Scott Stuber, who is currently in charge of Netflix’s original content, joined Epic Games as a producer in 2014. In 2018, Universal recruited F. Scott Frazier to write an adaptation, but nothing else happened with that project.
With the screenwriter’s abundance of expertise adapting major genre IP, “Gears of War” fans, who are among the most ardent gaming fanbases, now have a lot to look forward to thanks to Netflix’s hire of Spaihts.
Most recently, Spaihts received an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay for “Dune,” a blockbuster adaptation of the epic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert that also starred Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth. The screenplay for the second instalment, which will be released in theaters on November 3, was co-written by Spaihts and Villeneuve. Moreover, he was originally chosen to serve as the showrunner for HBO Max’s “Dune: The Sisterhood” series, but he left to concentrate on “Dune: Part Two.” The Darkest Hour, Prometheus, The Mummy, and Passengers are just a few of his prior film credits.