By Tom Clancy’s The Division video game adaptation has been acquired by Netflix. This movie adaptation has been in development for some time now. It was originally put into production shortly after the first game in the series was released. It has been slow going since then. David Leitch did sign on as director of the movie last year, but it has been quiet on how the film was progressing until recently.
It was announced during E3 this week that Netflix had bought the rights to the film adaptation. Netflix has been buying plenty of movies and this could be another feather in their cap. Video game adaptations are tricky, to put it mildly. Detective Pikachu is the most recent success and could be a sign of change in quality moving forward. It helps that there are such stars attached to the film like Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain. These are quality actors that can elevate most material given to them. If they signed onto this project then there’s hope that the script had some heft to it.
Not much is known about the script so far. If it follows the game then the characters will be dealing with a deadly virus outbreak in New York City where a government agency known as The Division is attempting to investigate what caused the outbreak and help bring the city back from the brink. The writer of the film, Rafe Judkins, has some experience adapting video game stories into movies as well. He was one of the writers who tried to crack the Uncharted script for the upcoming movie before the script was rewritten. Let’s hope for more success the second time around.
This acquisition could mean that the production could be building up steam to start moving forward on filming. The talent surrounding this film gives me hope that the new age of video games adaptations could be on its way.
Tom Clancy’s The Division Video Game Movie Lands at Netflix [ScreenRant]