By Deadline is reporting that director F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, Men In Black: International) is set to direct a film based on THQ Nordic’s Saints Row franchise. Greg Russo (scripter writer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot) will be handling the script for this latest video game adaptation, with production duties being split between Fenix Studios, Koch Media, and Occupant Entertainment.
Producer Gary Glushon will oversee the development of the film for Fenix Studios. Felipe Marino and Joe Neurauter will produce for Occupant, while Moritz Peters will be handling production for Koch Films. Writer Russo has a background in video game adaptations, having penned the scripts for reboots to the Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil franchises (though no footage or plans have currently been announced for either project).
How this came to be is pretty easy to explain. While Saints Row hasn’t seen a new entry in over four years, Koch Media owns Deep Silver (the publisher that currently holds the Saints Row IP rights). It was likely a case of asking with little to no interference between offers. It would be incredibly difficult to decline an offer when your parent company is demanding it, for instance.
As for what a Saints Row film will be about, who can say? The plotline to the series gets progressively zanier as it goes along, culminating in a battle to get out of hell. I doubt that anyone wants to see yet another gangster film, but jumping straight into something like Saints Row: The Third may be a bit too much to swallow for audiences. Seeing as how character Johnny Gat is the only constant in every entry, we’ll likely get a story about his rise in the ranks of the Saints with a segue to the beginning of the original game.
