The director of The Fall Guy is in talks to take on Netflix’s Gears of War movie.
The Hollywood Reporter said David Leitch, who also directed Atomic Blonde (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and Bullet Train (2022), is in negotiations to direct Gears of War, the adaptation of Microsoft’s explosive third-person action game.
Leitch and Kelly McCormick are said to be producing alongside Gears developer The Coalition. Jon Spaihts (Dune) is reportedly writing the script.
It’s been two-and-a-half years since Netflix picked up the rights to Gears of War, but it sounds like the gears are finally in motion now. An adult animation series is reportedly also in the works and set to follow the movie. Pending the adaptations’ success, even more Gears would follow.
The big question is of course who will play Gears protagonist Marcus Fenix? Wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista has made it extremely clear that he really, really, really, wants to play Marcus Fenix. He also has the seal of approval from Gears co-creator Cliff Bleszinski.
It’s boom time for video game adaptations, withThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, A Minecraft Movie, and the Sonic movies all breaking records. Beyond that, there’s the Uncharted movie, the Mortal Kombat movie, Resident Evil movies, and plenty more.
In March, Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer said the failure of the TV adaptation of Halo hadn’t put Microsoft off more adaptations of its video games. Microsoft had learned from Halo, Spencer said, and was gaining confidence in the space. And so, expect more to come.
“We’re learning and growing through this process, which is giving us more confidence that we should do more,” Spencer said.
“We learned from doing Halo. We learned from doing Fallout. So all of these build on themselves. And obviously we’ll have a couple that miss. But what I’d say to the Xbox community that likes this work is, ‘You’re going to see more, because we’re gaining confidence and we’re learning through this.’ ”
Back in video game land, The Coalition is working on prequel Gears of War: E-Day. It does not have a release date.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
