It's taken some time, but Hollywood is slowly learning how to craft a decent video game adaptation. During the early 90s, when video games were becoming a titanic force in entertainment, Hollywood immediately started licking their chops as they imagined all of the ways to carve up the medium into lucrative adaptations aplenty. And for basically the next 20 years, every video game movie or television show Hollywood created was awful.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? Trash.
Super Mario Bros (1993)? Charming, sure, but good? Absolutely not.
Mortal Kombat (1995)? Alright, well, even a broken clock is right twice a day. I'll give you that.
After the success of Detective Pikachu, the Sonic franchise, and shows like Riot Game's Arcane, studios are starting to understand if you respect the source material, video games fans will show up for your adaptation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix, the home of Arcane, is about to try its hand at bringing the Gears of Wars franchise to life with an upcoming feature film and animated series.
Gears of War, one of the biggest video game franchises on the Xbox platform, is heading to Netflix.
The announcement comes after long months of negotiations in a competitive environment, with the streamer nabbing the media rights and partnering with The Coalition, the Canadian game developer behind the franchise. It also comes on the franchise's 16th anniversary; the first Gears of War game was released on Nov. 7, 2006.
Netflix has grand ambitions for the title and a plan that includes first adapting the video game saga into a live-action feature followed by an adult animated series. If everything turns up roses, more stories would follow.
