Video games may not be what they used to be in terms of a mass market imprint outside of a handful of recurring properties, but nonetheless they still have legs when it comes to Hollywood wanting to adapt gaming franchises for the big screen. The news is today that DreamWorks is about to acquire the rights to Need For Speed –a series of racing games that has been around for nearly two decades.
Seeing how every year there is a new catch in order to stay fresh, it would appear that whatever is planned remains silent at this time. When Deadline first reported the news, they claimed the video game saga is about a race from San Francisco to New York which is only describing the series’ most recent iteration entitled The Run, so it remains unclear if that could be the movie’s premise or simply sloppy journalism.
If DreamWorks does go the route of The Run, it would not be too shocking considering it is one of the only versions of Need for Speed to contain a well-scripted story. It also does not hurt that there is a CGI version of Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks throughout much of the game’s campaign mode. On the other hand, it might be a move to create a Fast and the Furious-like series which would mean fast cars, a large recurring ensemble, and plenty of heists.
Real Steel director John Gatins will be tasked with producing the effort and his brother George will be writing. This will be his first screenplay credit, but George has worked in feature films before as he does have an executive producing credit for 2010′s She’s Out of My League–a relatively profitable comedy starring Jay Baruchel.
[Deadline]