Yet another video game is getting adapted into a movie, as Variety reports that Sniper Elite is the latest franchise to make the jump to the big screen. Director Brad Peyton, who previously made the video game adaptation of Rampage starring The Rock, is attached to direct.
Developer Rebellion is involved, with its CEO–Jason Kingsley–serving as a producer on the film. Jean-Julien Baronnet, who produced the Assassin’s Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender when he was CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures, is also producing the Sniper Elite film through his company, Marla Studios.
The movie follows the story of the Allied sniper, Karl Fairburne, in London during the blitz of World War II. He is trying to save Winston Churchill from a Nazi killer. Rebellion says the movie will feature “clever, stylish action with strong characters and incredible, twisted situations.” Fairburne is the main character of the Sniper Elite video game series.
The Sniper Elite film is being billed as a “Sherlock Holmes meets The Bourne Identity thriller.” There will also be “lightness” in the scrip, with Baronett describing the snipers as being “lovable.”
“The problem is that we love both snipers,” he said. “If you have a sniper that wants to execute his mission, but has human feelings, who has sensitivity, who is a professional but has to deal with his own humanity, that’s where it becomes interesting.”
Peyton is co-writing the script with Gary Graham, who previously wrote the I Am Legend reboot for Warner Bros. (which was never made). It is still very early days for the Sniper Elite movie, as the producers are now looking to make a deal with a Hollywood studio or a streaming company, and no casting announcements have been made.
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