Gears of War Movie Overhaul: More District 9, Less 2012

Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski, known to legions of gamers as Cliffy B., dropped some juicy nuggets about the Gears of War movie at Comic-Con. The film has been a topic of much speculation, though as far as we know, it’s yet to really get off the ground. Bleszinski confirmed that while it’s still in the works, much of the work that’s been done so far – like the existing script – will be scrapped in lieu of a new approach.

This is the first the industry has heard about the movie since April’s news that would-be director Len Wiseman had left the project to work on other things. In addition, it was reported at the time that the movie’s story, budget and overall scope were being scaled back, and that New Line Cinema was looking to replace the script with something more manageable. This news confirms that they apparently haven’t made much progress.

At least Cliffy B. has given fans an idea of what direction the project is headed. The Movie Pool reports that he said it will be more like District 9 than 2012, meaning smaller in scope and budget, but bigger on story, emotion and intelligence- and, hopefully, soul. It’s got to have soul.

Interestingly, it’s common knowledge that the movie that became District 9 was originally meant to be the film based on the Halo series, one of Gears‘ main competitors on the Xbox 360. Based on the quality of that movie, it would have likely made a fine addition to the Halo lore, and its influence on the Gears film bodes well.

Of course, the sweeping, large scale catastrophe scenery of 2012 may seem like a suitable tone for the Gears universe, in which a devastated humanity on a fictional planet are endlessly hounded by an alien enemy. District 9, though, was infinitely more compelling, largely due to its more focused narrative. The Gears games, despite being mostly about space marines and chainsawing things, often pack a surprisingly emotional punch. A smaller budget will require the producers to get creative, and the film may actually end up as something besides a testosterone fueled special effects-gasm. Let’s hope so, at least.