Despite the fact that neither Kane and Lynch or Hitman 2 have seen the light of day yet, screenwriter Kyle Ward is still apparently the go-to guy for videogame adaptations. His next gig translating pixels into pages will be the action-horror franchise **Devil May Cry.
The first in the series of button-mashing fighters was released in 2001, and spawned three sequels, with a fifth game announced at the end of last year. Plot-wise, they involve silver-haired son-of-a-demon Dante, a paranormal private detective who has superhuman ass-kicking, ten-string-laying abilities and is sworn to avenge the death of his mother and the corruption of his brother Virgil at the hands of the underworldly. Dante and Virgil. Do you see?
Ten million game sales in, developer Capcom has branched the property out into comics, toys and anime, so a movie at some point was a no-brainer. Fittingly, given that Devil May Cry began its life as a Resident Evil game before leaping off in its own direction, the film version is in the hands of Screen Gems, the Sony offshoot behind the Milla Jovovich Resi movies.
Across the four existing games (the first of which, chronologically, is the third) there's a lot of plot to play with, so hopefully Ward will be able to crowbar some storyline in between the swordfighting and the shooting. No start date or mooted cast yet, but Screen Gems are banking on this as their next ongoing series, so expect regular developments.