There’s still some hope for seeing the war between humanity and the Locust finally brought to the big screen, as Universal Pictures has hired a new screenwriter for itsGears of Warmovie.
The studio has brought inxXx: Return of Xander CageandCollidewriter F. Scott Frazier to work on the screenplay for the film based on the popular game franchise, according toThe Wrap. It’s unknown whether Frazier will be working on a new draft of the script or revising the script penned by Shane Salerno, theAvatarsequels’ screenwriter, who washired in May 2017to work on the film.
At this point, any news regarding the long-developing adaptation of the game franchise should probably be regarded with a grain of salt, as the project hasn’t made much progress since it wasfirst announced back in 2016. Planet of the Apes franchise producer Dylan Clark andGears of Warco-creator Rod Fergusson are both still attached to the film as producers.
Early reports indicate that theGears of Warmovie won’t adapt any particular game in the franchise, but will draw from the series as a whole for an original story.
First released for the Xbox 360 in 2006,Gears of Warchronicled humanity’s struggle to survive against the onslaught of a subterranean species known as the Locust and the mutant offspring of their species. The series is set in the future, on an Earth-like planet named Sera, and follows various members of an elite military unit tasked with thwarting the Locust invasion and saving the last remnants of human civilization.
Over the course of five major installments of the franchise, theGears of Warseries went on to become one of the most successful game franchises of all time for Microsoft and the Xbox consoles and became one of the most popular games on the Xbox Live multiplayer network. The most recent game in the franchise,Gears of War 4, was released in October 2016 and followed the son of originalGears of Warprotagonist Marcus Fenix, J.D. Fenix.
A fifth chapter in the series,Gears 5is expected to hit shelves in 2019.
