Ubisoft game The Division is becoming a movie and Jake Gyllenhaal has signed up.
Ubisoft's long-planned assault on the multiplex begins this autumn, with Michael Fassbender starring in Assassin's Creed out in December and Splinter Cell, featuring Tom Hardy, due next year. Looking further ahead, Ubisoft now has plans to adapt another of its hit videogames: The Division, the online shooter-RPG hybrid which came out in March.
According to Variety, Jake Gyllenhaal has signed up to star in the adaptation and will also produce, which makes it the actor's second game-to-film project to date -- he previously starred in Disney's tepid Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time in 2010.
A writer and director are still being sought for The Division, although the game's premise is a solid basis for an action thriller: set in a wintry Manhattan beset by a deadly pandemic, it's about a small group of agents whose job is to restore order and seek out the cause of the outbreak. The dark and violent concept could be really effective in the hands of the right filmmakers.
The Division is the latest project on Ubisoft Motion Pictures' growing slate, which also includes planned adaptations of Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon, Far Cry and Raving Rabbids. Of course, Assassin'sCreed needs to do well out of the gate first or that ambitious lineup could get overhauled...
