On Thursday, Variety shared the news that screenwriter Billy Ray (State of Play) was set to take on the real life story of Captain Richard Phillips, the man who was held captive by Somali pirates for five days earlier this year. As interesting as it would be to see Captain Phillips’ dramatic escape brought to the big screen, there was a line at the bottom of the Variety article that was far more interesting: “He [Ray] is currently writing “Gears of War” for New Line.”
Wait? Gears of War? Last time we heard, that movie was being written by the team of Len Wiseman (Underworld) and Chris Morgan (Wanted, Fast and Furious), with Wiseman as director. What happened? Brendon Connelly over at /Film speculates that Wiseman turned to Billy Ray after the duo worked successfully on the forthcoming film, Motorcade. Motorcade, if you’ll recall from our previous coverage, has been in development for sometime with Tom Cruise as its originally intended star. The film will now feature Ryan Reynolds (he is everywhere nowadays!) and will not be directed by Wiseman, but by 24 director John Cassar.
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So, what does Billy Ray bring to the table for Gears of War? Well, let’s take a look at his track record thus far. To date, Ray has been the writer behind a number of successful thrillers, including Breach and State of Play. However, both of those films existed in the very realistic world of spies, betrayals, and myriad clandestine government activities. Gears of War is about the super bad-ass soldiers of Delta Squad who fight off the evil Locust Horde on the fictitious planet Sera. In other words, it’s not exactly Ray’s forte.
Does that mean the film won’t be any good? Of course not. Does it mean there won’t be any scenes of aliens being cut in half by machine gun/saws? Maybe yes, maybe no. All I know is that Billy Ray is a pretty good screenwriter with some solid movies under his belt. I’m hopeful that whatever he brings to the film can elevate Gears of War beyond a mere video game movie to something a bit more.
What do you think of the news that Billy Ray has come on to Gears of War? What would you like to see out of a Gears of War film more than anything else?
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11 Comments
You utter bastard! You had me so scared! I thought you meant Billy Ray Cyrus!
I think it’s probably a smart move. It’s not as if game to film adaptations are the pinnacle of movie-making. Any chance to break the cycle and produce a decent film from a game is worth a shot and getting a respected writer with good films under his belt can achieve that. It’s not as if it’s hard to add the elements he normally doesn’t use, the only drama I foresee is Gears may need a lot of cgi which may or may not work.
Never saw state of play. Was it action oriented enough for this guy to do gears of war?
why is this movie moving forward and not halo come on guys this should be way behind halo on the scale of bankable movies.
Holy crap! I almost crapped in my pants when I thought it was Mr achy breaky heart is on this movie! Lol!
Btw which Billy Ray???
The games were fun but now a film???
I just don’t see this as anything more than a “Doom” type film.
Maybe I’m way off?
Thank the good lord they got a serious writer..
@Rob, maybe its a good thing its not his forte..
actually the video game to screen adaptations have proven to be nobodys forte!!
And if this does well or looks good maybe that halo movie will be kickstarted.. or vice versa
I’m all for Billy Ray taking over this project…as long as someone like Len Wiseman is set to direct. Wiseman can tell what will work and won’t work in a script, therefore I imagine he would make sure Ray was writing the movie he was supposed to. On the other hand, a lesser experienced director would probably take Ray at his word and shoot whatever was in the script, regardless of whether or not it worked.
The plot for GoW is excellent in my opinion and ripe for an on-screen portrayal. I would love to take a crack at directing something like this because I think whoever does it should definitely be a gamer. And I personally love this game.
I love the game(s) and I believe it would make a great film if done right. A good script could be made if it is not just all over the top action. Find the right actors, the right effects and it could be done well. I’d like to see Peter Jackson direct. He made great films with the LOTR Trilogy, bring out the characters, make you care about what happens and make the action realistic as possible.
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