Movies
‘Dead Space’ Video Game Being Adapted for Big Screen Terror
Good news, bad news, which you want first? The good news is that the Electronic Arts hit video game Dead Space (an experience that reminds me of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon) is on course to become a sci-fi/horror film. The bad news is that Eagle Eye and Disturbia helmer D.J. Caruso is attached to direct. Eagle Eye is nearly unwatchable (27% on Rotten Tomatoes), so handing him such a beloved new video game franchise is a little scary. More on the announcement can be found inside.
EA will produce the film with Temple Hill partners Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey. The producers, EA and Caruso have been listening to takes from prospective screenwriters, and once they set a writer and EA signs off on a creative direction, they will auction the property to studios. That will likely happen in early September.
The last EA property to follow that course was “Dante’s Inferno” — a journey through the depths of hell; Universal made the deal after a four-studio bidding battle.
“Dead Space” is set in the 26th century in deep space, where an engineer who responds to a distress signal from a mining ship finds the vessel infested with monstrous creatures called Necromorphs. The creatures are human corpses, reanimated by an alien virus.
EA launched the game in 2008 and is working on the second and third installments.
“Dead Space” becomes the fifth EA title to percolate as a feature property. Aside from the “Dante’s Inferno” film that will be produced by Strike Entertainment partners Eric Newman and Marc Abraham, EA is in business with Universal on “Army of Two,” with Scott Z. Burns (“The Bourne Ultimatum”) scripting and Scott Stuber producing. EA’s “The Sims” is being developed by producer John Davis and “Mass Effect” by “Spider-Man” producer Avi Arad.
Temple Hill’s Bowen and Godfrey are producing “Gears of War,” a live-action adaptation of the Microsoft and Epic Games’ vidgame for New Line, with Len Wiseman attached to direct and Chris Morgan scripting.
Caruso is also developing “Defender,” the Gary Witta-scripted DreamWorks drama that Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci are producing.
Recent comments from producer Jason Blum suggested that a retool was in order when last year’s The Exorcist: Believer wasn’t as successful as Blumhouse and Universal hoped. That certainly seems to be the case, though, as Deadline reports tonight that Mike Flanagan is in talks to direct the next Exorcist movie.
Director David Gordon Green was initially on board to direct an entire trilogy of new movies in the franchise, with The Exorcist: Believer intended to be only the first film in that three-film sequel series. Originally set to hit theaters on April 18, 2025, sequel The Exorcist: Deceiver was delayed when Green left the project.
If talks come to fruition, Flanagan will take over, likely steering the franchise in a new direction.
The first film in the trilogy was released theatrically on October 13, 2023, with Leslie Odom Jr. starring alongside a returning Ellen Burstyn from the original classic.
In Believer, “Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom, Jr.) has raised their daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own.
“But when Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before.”
The final moments of The Exorcist: Believer brought Linda Blair’s Regan MacNeil back into the fold, seeming to suggest that the legacy character could return in future installments.
As for Flanagan, the horror filmmaker has Life of Chuck on the way. Flanagan previously helmed Stephen King adaptations Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game, he’s also known for titles including Ouija: Origin of Evil and Oculus, along with The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Midnight Club and other series.
Stay tuned for more as we learn it.
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