Gears Of War:New Line Cinema acquisisce i diritti

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New Line nabs 'Gears of War'
Studio wins rights to videogame
By DAVE MCNARY, BEN FRITZ

'Gears of War'
New Line has won feature rights to 'Gears of War.'
New Line has won feature rights to Microsoft's hugely popular vidgame "Gears of War" with Stuart Beattie writing and Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey producing via their Temple Hill banner.

CAA conducted the auction, which featured a 21 page treatment by Beattie, who wrote "Collateral" and "Derailed."

"Gears" has sold over three million units and is hugely popular on Microsoft's Xbox Live service, which allows players to compete against each other online. Though it was released in November and is available only for the Xbox 360 console, it quickly became the fourth best selling game of 2006 in the U.S.

Story, which is only modestly developed in the game, is about a world reeling from an invasion by aliens known as the Locust. A small group of elite soldiers, including the main character Marcus Fennix, who is rescued from prison at the beginning of the game, fight to retake the planet Sera for its surviving humans.

"Gears" is Microsoft's most succesful game since "Halo," which had an ill-fated attempt at movie development. After developing a script itself, Microsoft sold the project to Universal and Fox in 2005. Peter Jackson signed on to executive produce and Neill Blomkamp to direct, but the pic fell apart this past fall after the studios balked at the final budget.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=13&cs=1

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