Gears Of War Shifts To Legendary, WB
GEARS OF WAR, set up at New Line since early 2007, is being financed by Legendary Pictures at Warner Bros., per VARIETY.
The videogame from Epic Games and Microsoft will be turned into a motion picture directed by Len Wiseman and written by Chris Morgan (first draft by Stuart Beattie). New Line had pegged it for a summer 2009 release, but WB has not yet dated it.
This is the first New Line project Legendary has signed onto since the mini-major folded into Warner Bros. earlier this year. Legendary has a deal to co-finance and co-produce at WB, and most recently co-financed box office champ THE DARK KNIGHT.
GEARS' lead designer Cliff Bleszinski is exec producing and consulting for Epic, who owns the rights to the game.
The story surrounds a world overrun by aliens known as the Locust and a team of soldiers fighting to retake the planet. A sequel is coming out in November for the action title, which is Microsoft's second-best selling franchise behind HALO.
Legendary is also developing a film based on WORLD OF WARCRAFT from Blizzard Ent. and Legendary head Thomas Tull is co-founder of videogame publisher Brash Ent.