Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “Traffic” and “Syriana,” will write and direct video game adaptation “The Division,” Ubisoft Motion Pictures announced Thursday.
The film will star Jake Gyllenhaal, who is also producing, and Jessica Chastain. Based on Ubisoft’s hit game “Tom Clancy‘s The Division,” the film is set in the aftermath of a small pox pandemic in dystopian New York. In the game, which set the Ubisoft record for highest first-day sales in company history, players attempt to rebuild, investigate and fight crime in the city. Plot details of the big-screen adaptation have been kept under wraps.
“The game has been an enormous success, in large part due to the visual landscape they created, their vision of a mid-apocalyptic Manhattan,” Gaghan said in a statement. “It’s immersive, wonderfully strange, and yet familiar, filled with possibilities. It’s also remarkable to be able to collaborate with Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal early in the process. We all feel the story Ubisoft created is more relevant than ever.”
Gaghan’s latest film “Gold,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Edgar Ramirez as an unlikely pair on the hunt for treasure in the Indonesian jungle, goes wide in theaters on Jan. 27.
“We are really excited to bring Stephen’s unique vision of the game to film audiences around the globe,” said Gerard Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures.
“We can’t wait for Stephen’s remarkable passion and talent to bring the astonishing world of The Division to life,” added Ubisoft Motion Pictures VP and head of development Matt Phelps.
Video game movies have a bad reputation because, honestly, there are very few that we'd call actually "good." At their best, at least so far, these big-screen adaptations have been fun and trashy entertainment. At their worst, they're among the worst movies ever made. So let's rank 'em! 40. "Postal" (2008) 39. "Alone in the Dark" (2005) 38. "The Wizard" (1989) 37. "The Angry Birds Movie" (2016) 36. "BloodRayne" (2006) 35. "Silent Hill: Revelations" (2012) 34. "Pokemon Heroes" (2003) 33. "Max Payne" (2008) 32. "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" (2009) 31. "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (2001) 30. "Pokemon 4Ever" (2002) 29. "Need for Speed" (2014) 28. "Pokemon: The Movie 2000: The Power of One" (2000) 27. "Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life" (2003) 26. "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" (1997) 25. "Hitman" (2007) 24. "Wing Commander" (1999) 23. "Double Dragon" (1994) 22. "House of the Dead" (2003) 21. "Warcraft" (2016) 20. "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010) 19. "Pokemon 3: The Movie" (2001) 18. "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" (2008) 17. "Ratchet & Clank" (2016) 16. "Tekken" (2010) 15. "Assassin's Creed" (2016) This is a movie that won't make a lick of sense if you haven't played one or two of the games it's based on. But I have played all of the games, and I found it to be a reasonably entertaining action flick. It's definitely pretty dumb, though. 14. "Resident Evil: Extinction" (2007) 13. "Resident Evil" (2002) 12. "DOA: Dead or Alive" (2007) 11. "Pokemon: The First Movie" (1999) 10. "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) 9. "Hitman: Agent 47" (2015) 8. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" (2004) 7. "Doom" (2005) 6. "Super Mario Bros." (1993) 5. "Street Fighter" (1994) 4. "Silent Hill" (2006) 3. "Mortal Kombat" (1995) 2. "Resident Evil: Afterlife" (2010) 1. "Resident Evil: Retribution" (2012) There have a been a lot of bad video game movies — and a handful of gems. Where does “Assassin’s Creed” land? Video game movies have a bad reputation because, honestly, there are very few that we'd call actually "good." At their best, at least so far, these big-screen adaptations have been fun and trashy entertainment. At their worst, they're among the worst movies ever made. So let's rank 'em! From “Cloverfield” to “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” here’s a bunch of movies that were total letdowns after enticing teasers got fans excitedAll 40 Video Game Movies Ranked, Including 'Assassin's Creed' (Photos)
The pinnacle of director Uwe Boll's string of horrendous video game movies (he has five that qualify for this list by getting theatrical releases somewhere), but to be fair it's probably still a better work of art than the game it's based on.
"House of the Dead" briefly tricked us into thinking Uwe Boll was a camp master, but his next video game movie, "Alone in the Dark," was such an incomprehensible slog that I have never been able to sit all the way through it after my first viewing in the theater.
Technically this is an adaptation of a novelty video game peripheral, the Nintendo Power Glove, rather than an actual game. And it's as much of a joke as you'd expect a feature-length ad to be.
I'm a negative person on principle, but even I was put off by the misanthropy of this kids movie. When neo-Nazis embrace your cartoon, you probably did something wrong.
In 2003, Kristanna Loken looked like she was gonna be somebody when she starred as a Terminatrix in "Terminator 3." And then she starred in two Uwe Boll movies, including this travesty.
Worse than the first "Silent Hill" movie in every possible way, down to actors who seem incapable of making facial expressions. Which is bad news, because most of the acting in a "Silent Hill" movie demands involves reacting to all the weird things the characters encounter.
This is the fifth "Pokemon" movie. That's all I have to say about it.
Most videos games aren't really suited for film adaptations, but "Max Payne" is an exception as violent melodramatic noir. To its credit, the movie version goes for that, but ultimately it's just not very good.
Usually, bad video game movies are the "boring" kind of bad, but the second attempt at a "Street Fighter" movie almost manages to achieve "accidental camp classic" status at some points. But the rest of it, unfortunately, is just an affront to humanity.
Exactly the sort of half-baked melodramatic garbage you'd expect from the awful "Final Fantasy" series.
This one has time travel, I think? Look, don't worry about the plot.
A story-less racing game franchise like "Need for Speed" should be the easiest kind of game to adapt, because there's actually nothing to adapt. So all you have to do is make a cool car-based action movie. But this movie can't even get that right.
I always have trouble remembering which "Pokemon" movie is which, and this one's distracting double colons in the title doesn't help.
The follow-up to a pretty OK first movie that felt rushed, "Cradle" basically just tried to copy the first movie but with a lower budget. That's a very video game approach to take, but not a good result.
Feels like a cheap knock-off of the first "Mortal Kombat" rather than an actual sequel.
Was this even really a movie? It's hard to tell, honestly, considering it felt like half its plot was left on the cutting-room floor.
Remember that brief moment when Hollywood wanted to make Freddie Prinze Jr. into a thing? Ironically, he's been pretty good acting in actual video games lately.
I'm sure someone out there has strong feelings about the "Double Dragon" movie, but I definitely do not. But hey, Scott Wolf.
Of all the Uwe Boll movies on this list, "House of the Dead" is the most watchable because it manages just the right balance of filmmaking ineptitude and inexplicable-yet-funny creative flourishes. In this case, the random splicing of clips from the "House of the Dead" gameplay between shots.
"It's like 'Lord of the Rings' if there weren't any Hobbits to explain everything to," my friend told me after we watched it. Sounds about right, considering its barrage of nonsense fantasy concepts that it just assumes the audience already understands.
It's not good, but has Hollywood cred because it's bad in the way that many attempts at summer blockbusters are bad. The video game connection feels incidental, though.
This is the one where a girl gets a Pokemon to be her dad after her real dad disappears. So it's one of the better ones.
Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Ron Perlman, Burt Reynolds, Matthew Lillard, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies. Probably the most amusing fantasy cast you could imagine, turning an Uwe Boll nightmare into something that's extremely watchable ironically. Watchability goes a long way on a list like this where most of the movies are terrible.
We finally got to see what it would look like if you took a bunch of random cinematic scenes out of a game and cut them into a movie. And surprisingly, it's not that bad!
A perfectly OK movie about people beating the crap out of each other, to match a perfectly OK video game series about people beating the crap out of each other.
This one has zombie birds. I can't imagine why anybody would dislike that.
Fans of the game series don't like this movie because it doesn't follow the same plot as the source material. But honestly, this movie has a better story than any of the games. And it's one of the better modern zombie movies.
One of the rare examples of a live-action video game movie fully embraces its source material. Sure, that source material is trashy and exploitative, but it always came with a wink. This movie comes with about a thousand winks.
There's no such thing as a good "Pokemon" movie, but there is such a thing as a "Pokemon" movie that might make you cry. This is that "Pokemon" movie.
Thus far, this is the mainstream ideal for what a video game movie could be: a fun, light action flick that operates as a real movie. It's perfectly enjoyable.
As an adaptation of a stealthy game series it's just OK, but as an inventive R-rated action movie it's actually really enjoyable.
The second "Resident Evil" is where the film series found its true identity as delightful trash action pictures rather than horror films. It was a good move.
When it comes to horror sci-fi action, you could do worse than having The Rock as the bad guy who goes psycho at the end.
Everybody hates this movie, but I'm not sure there's any other way to adapt the "Mario" games than with a dumb comedy like this. Those games don't exactly have normal story elements like "dialogue" or "themes." Anyway, this film works on sheer novelty value alone today.
It's "Batman: The Movie" meets "Rambo," and somehow it actually works.
One thing video games have going for them above other media is visual inventiveness -- if nothing else, they usually look cool. "Silent Hill" manages to tap into that, while also being a pretty decent movie otherwise.
The '90s were a bad stretch for movies overall, with seemingly every other film being a bad action movie or a bad supernatural thriller. "Mortal Kombat" feels very much like a product of that sort of time, but thankfully it knows exactly what kind of trash it is.
Paul W.S. Anderson directed the first "Resident Evil," then left the director's chair to someone else -- until he returned for "Afterlife." There's a marked leap in technical wizardry with this one, turning the franchise from B-level afterthought to B-level greatness.
It's goofy, gory, excessive action shot absolutely impeccably. A trash masterpiece, and easy choice for the best video game movie ever.Before 'Suicide Squad': 9 Great Trailers for Terrible Movies (Videos)
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