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Universal Pictures is trying to get its Gears of War movie going with the help of veteran screenwriter Shane Salerno, according to a report from Deadline. Salerno’s writing credits include a rewrite of Michael Bay’s Armageddon, TV series Hawaii Five-O and Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Salerno is also one of the writers helping James Cameron write the four planned sequels to Avatar.
In 2016, Universal and Microsoft, along with Gears of War developer The Coalition, announced plans to bring Gears of War to the big screen. The adaptation of the Xbox franchise is being produced by Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark of Bluegrass Films. Stuber’s production credits include Ted, Central Intelligence and Patriots Day. Clark's credits include the Planet of the Apes franchise and Oblivion.
The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson said at the time that the goal is to make it feel “authentic to Gears of War, but ... blow people's minds because it's actually a great movie first, and then it pays homage to the source material second.”
Between the two companies, Microsoft and Epic Games have tried to make a Gears of War movie happen for a decade now. Prior to Universal relaunching the project in 2016, New Line Cinema tried unsuccessfully to bring the franchise to theaters. That version of the project had multiple writers and director Len Wiseman (Underworld) attached.
