GEARS OF WAR (In Development)

• GEARS OF WAR

Plans for a feature film version of the Epic video game Gears of War amped up last year and, now, Variety is reporting that Scott Stuber has come aboard the project as a producer.

Since its debut in November 2006, Gears of War has broken sales records on the Xbox 360, selling more than 4.5 million copies worldwide (it sold 3 million copies in the first 10 weeks after launch).

The game thrusts players into humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. The story unfolds as a ragtag group of soldiers use every last ounce of strength to survive the onslaught from the forces of evil, which begins on the historic Emergence Day.

Stuber, who most recently produced films like Ted, Battleship and Identity Thief, has a first look deal with Universal Pictures, but no distributor is currently attached to Gears of War.

Plans for a feature film version of the Epic video game Gears of War amped up last year and, now, Variety is reporting that Scott Stuber has come aboard the project as a producer.

Since its debut in November 2006, Gears of War has broken sales records on the Xbox 360, selling more than 4.5 million copies worldwide (it sold 3 million copies in the first 10 weeks after launch).

The game thrusts players into humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. The story unfolds as a ragtag group of soldiers use every last ounce of strength to survive the onslaught from the forces of evil, which begins on the historic Emergence Day.

Stuber, who most recently produced films like Ted, Battleship and Identity Thief, has a first look deal with Universal Pictures, but no distributor is currently attached to Gears of War.

THE KEEPING ROOM (Cast news)

• THE KEEPING ROOM

Sam Worthington has joined the cast of The Keeping Room, Deadline reports. The Avatar star will appear opposite Hailee Steinfeld, Nicole Beharie and Brit Marling (who replaces the formerly-attached Olivia Wilde).

 

Sam Worthington

Written by Julia Hart and to be directed by Daniel Barber (Harry Brown), The Killing Room tells the story of three Southern women – two sisters and one African American slave – who, left without men in the dying days of the Civil War, are forced to defend their home from the onslaught of a band of soldiers who have broken off from the fast approaching Union Army.

Jordan Horowitz of Gilbert Films and Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Judd Payne and Dete Meserve of Wind Dancer will produce. Gary Gilbert of Gilbert Films and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content will Executive Produce, and Nicole Romano and Trevor Adley of Anonymous Content will serve as Co-Producers.

MACBETH (Cast News)

• MACBETH

A new adaptation of William Shakespeare's period tragedy Macbeth is in the works and Screen Daily reports that Michael Fassbender has signed on to play the title role. Snowtown director Justin Kurzel is set to helm.

 

Michael Fassbender

The new film will retain the play's 11th century setting and is said to use the original dialogue as well. The story follows the devious Macbeth, a Scottish lord who will stop at nothing to become King.

Jacob Koskoff and Todd Louiso will provide the screenplay for Macbeth with Iain Canning and Emile Sherman producing.

THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS (In development)

• THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS

James Franco has signed on to direct and star in a feature film adaptation of Andre Dubus III's The Garden of Last Days, Deadline reports.

James Franco

Franco has quite a bit of experience when it comes to filmmaking, as he has helmed numerous short films as well as a few feature length films.

Published in 2008, the book is officially described as follows:

One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April’s usual babysitter, Jean, has had a panic attack that has landed her in the hospital. April doesn’t really know anyone else, so she decides it’s best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children’s videos in the office while she works.

April works at the Puma Club for Men. And tonight she has an unusual client, a foreigner both remote and too personal, and free with his money. Lots of it, all cash. His name is Bassam. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club for holding hands with his favorite stripper, and he’s drunk and angry and lonely.

From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masculinity. Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the reader by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus III’s best-selling “House of Sand and Fog” — and an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.

Franco, who recently starred in both Oz The Great and Powerful and Spring Breakers, will screen his directorial effort As I Lay Dying, based on the William Faulkner tome, at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hanna Weg, who provides the screenplay to The Garden of Last Days, will also produce alongside Gerard Butler, Danielle Robinson and Alan Siegel.