Dead Space film not dead, written by Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li screenwriter
The idea of a Dead Space film has been thrown around for several years now, but news out of Comic-Con suggests EA could be more seriously pushing the property towards becoming a film franchise. Maybe Dead Space 3‘s “disappointing” sales have something to do with the film’s resurgence, but EA has already put a Need for Speed film starring Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul in the can, so perhaps this is merely the future of all of EA’s franchises.
According to Variety, EA is planning to take more control over how its franchises are developed into movies, rather than just pitching, for example, the idea of Dead Space film. “We decided we have to pitch the projects as scripts,” EA’s overseer of film adaptations Patrick O’Brien said. “EA was batting 0 for 5 before we began funding scripts. We’ve had our knocks in the studio system.” The “0 for 5” apparently refers to failed attempts at getting Sims, Spore, Mass Effect, Army of Two, and Dante’s Inferno made into films. Dante’s Inferno. Ugh.
So clearly EA is now doing more than waving its fancy, triple AAA properties at movie studios like handkerchiefs and hoping they all trip over themselves for the honor of making EA’s films. Good. Hiring writers to actually craft scripts to pitch is a much better idea. Incidentally, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li scriptwriter Justin Marks is writing the Dead Space script. Welp.
Still, that doesn’t mean it will turn out badly. Whatever studio picks up the film will probably develop the script and do rewrites, like Dreamworks spent six months doing after picking up Need for Speed. Plus, let’s all remember that John Carpenter (The Thing) himself has expressed interest in directing a Dead Space flick. Any other directors you think might be good? Any actors in mind to play Dead Space‘s memorable characters? Wait. Does Dead Space have characters? Well, I at least vote Doug Jones to play all the monsters.
‘Dead Space’ Movie Alive and Kicking at Electronic Arts [Variety]
