Seemingly not content with merely developing Bioshock, for Gore Verbinski to direct, Universal has picked up the rights to another best-selling videogame, with a view to movielising it.
The game in question is Army Of Two which, you may not be surprised to hear, is a shoot-em-up. But it differs from most games of its type in its approach – it’s very much a tale of two friends, private military contractors Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios – and its scope (the game takes place across a decade and a half).
Universal smells franchise, and has bagged Bourne Ultimatum co-writer, Scott Z. Burns, to write a script for a fast-tracked start in 2009. Peter Berg may also direct the movie, which is produced by Scott Stuber and – for the first time ever – the game’s maker, EA.
“Scott and I agreed this format presented an opportunity to make a great buddy film," Burns told Variety. "The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics. I told EA right off the bat I wasn’t a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn’t want to simply replicate the game."
Of course, given the critical failure of Max Payne, we’re still looking for a great videogame adaptation. Who knows? With Berg on board, the action should deliver in spades, and Burns knows his way around a thriller script. So fingers crossed for this one.