Gears Of War Movie To Be Written By Dune Scribe Jon Spaihts

Jon Spaihts (Dune, Doctor Strange) has signed on as screenwriter of Netflix's Gears of War adaptation, according to an announcement from Netflix. Netflix first announced an animated series and feature-length film were coming to the streaming service back in November 2022--with "more stories to follow."

"Gears of War is one of the all-time great action games, with vivid characters, a beautifully designed world, and a combat system that drives home the lethality of war and the importance of standing by your squadmates," Spaihts said in a statement. "It wants to be cinema, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to help that happen."

The Gears of War games focus on a divided society facing the monstrous Locust horde--a deadly, subterranean threat. The task of leading humanity's last stand falls to Delta Squad, a ragtag fireteam led by disgraced Sergeant Marcus Fenix.

It should also be said that when the adaptation was first announced last fall, Dave Bautista began a public campaign to play the lead in the Gears of War movie. No casting announcements have been made yet, but Bautista is so serious about this that last year, Bautista shared in an interview that he actually turned down a role in Fast and Furious for a shot at becoming Marcus Fenix in a Gears of War adaptation.

The upcoming Gears of War movie is the latest attempt to adapt the popular game, which redefined the tactical third-person and co-operative shooter genre. New Line Cinema briefly held the rights to a film adaptation in 2007, and Scott Stuber, now head of original films at Netflix, came on as a producer in 2013 with Epic Games. In 2018, Universal hired F. Scott Frazier to write an adaptation, but no other moves were made on that project.