CliffyB to Executive Produce 'Gears of War' Movie
For: Game Invasion
Vice President of Epic Games, Mark Rein, in New York for Midway's latest Gamer's Day, seems to be just as excited about the pending 'Gears of War' movie as he is about the studio's upcoming 'Unreal Tournament III.'
It was recently announced that New Line Studios will produce a movie based on the mega-hit, Xbox 360 exclusive with "Collateral" and "Derailed" writer Stuart Beattie penning the script.
"This is all totally new for me," Rein said. "Jay Wilbur (Epic Game VP) worked with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) who negotiated it for us. We had a meeting with the agents, went through all the possible offers, who was interested and what the terms would be. It was fun. We had a dinner where we went through these term sheets and were like, wow!"
When asked if Epic will have someone protecting the 'Gears' franchise while the movie is in production, Rein smiled and said, "Cliff [Bleszinski] is going to executive produce."
This is especially terrific news for those of us who have come to adopt Marcus Fenix and company. With many great games giving birth to many bad movies, it's exciting to actually have the game's designer as the film's executive producer.
"It will be done well," Rein said.
Anyone who has played 'Gears of War' knows that it is not a one-man show. While Fenix is the game's main character, it is the story of a band of fighters on one freakishly hell-bent mission. Rein addded, "CAA came to us and said 'we have a writer who loves your game and he's been researching all the background and the story and he has some really good ideas."
"I'll leave you with this," Rein finalized. "After people see the movie, they are going to want to play the game."
When pressed on whether he meant that moviegoers would want to play 'Gears' or the much-rumored sequel, Rein would not comment.
