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Universal's Gears of War Movie Hires XXX 3 Writer
The in-development Gears of War movie has a brand new writer. Coalition Studio partnered up with Universal Pictures over two years ago to get the video game movie adaptation off the ground. The lack of news surrounding the film makes a bit more sense now that F. Scott Frazier has joined.
The first installment of the Gears of War video game franchise debuted in 2006, and introduced gamers to the ultra-violent futuristic war IP. The main story focuses on P.O.W. Marcus Fenix leading an army in defense of their homeworld Sera from the series' antagonistic creatures, the Locust Horde. There have been four installments of the main franchise so far and the fifth is due to be released sometime next year, but all this success hasn't translated to movement on the movie version of the story. The last update shared news that Avatar 2's Shane Salerno was writing the script, but now a new writer has boarded the project.
The Wrap reports screenwriter F. Scott Frazier has now been hired by Universal to pen the screenplay for Gears of War. Frazier's most recent credit is the threequel to Vin Diesel's franchise xXx: Return of Xander Cage. His filmography also includes the Felicity Jones and Nicholas Hoult action film Collide, and a John Cusack and Malin Ackerman action-thriller The Numbers Station.
Frazier's aforementioned credits haven't had the best reception, with all three films holding rotten ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. The best received of the bunch is xXx, not just with its 47 percent RT stamp, but thanks to its impressive $346 million worldwide haul. Even though Frazier is now the second writer to reportedly join Gears of War, it's not clear what role (if any) Salerno's script will play. There's no mention of Salerno in The Wrap's report, so this could be a signal that Frazier is completely starting from scratch with the story.
Since Frazier is just now being hired and the script possibly being completely reworked, it would appear Gears of War is still years away from hitting theaters. There's been no reports of Universal and Coalition searching for directors, and that process likely won't happen until Frazier's script is complete. Once he's finished, a director can be found, and then the rest of pre-production can move ahead, such as finding Gears of War's cast. Dave Bautista is very interested in playing the leading role of Marcus Fenix, but it'll be up to the studios and the director whether or not he's actually considered. Again, we're still months - if not years - away from Gears of War reaching that stage, but at least it now has a writer.
