New Line lets go of Gears of War adaptation giving other studios the chance to bite

Gears fans rejoice!

New Line has put the big screen adaptation of video game, GEARS OF WAR into turnaround. The studio originally set the project up in 2007. Everything seemed to be going fine since they did have Len Wiseman attached to direct. Stuart Beattie (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES) scripted the intial draft. All the pieces were there. Then one day the movement just stopped.

With New Line letting go of the GOW property and TWILIGHT producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey gone, Creative Artists Agency are now shopping the project to other studios as well as producers. Beattie’s script is the only thing that remains, and is being shown to potential prospects.

Now could this news result in something good or something awful? Letting someone else get the chance to adapt the property is a win all around as long as everything falls into the right laps. You never know who could attach themselves to the project. Then again, videogame adaptations have a long, sad history of being not so great. While there are certain videogame films we do love despite their flaws, no one ever really seems to get it right.

Another potential downer is that GEARS lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, also known as “Cliffy B” announced last week that after twenty years with Epic Games he was leaving the company. Le sigh. With the fate of his creative input for this movie unknown, that leaves the production possibly without the one person who knows the material the best.

While I’d love to see Marcus protect Sera from the dirty locust horde, I want someone with passion for the project (hopefully Cliffy B) to embrace it and take it to the places fans know it can go.