The Syriana and Gold director will take on this challenging adaptation.
Update: 01.19.17
We now know that the film adaptation of The Division starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain will be directed by Stephen Gaghan.
Variety is reporting that the Syriana director has signed on to helm the high-profile movie. He had this to say regarding the project:
“I’m excited to work with Ubisoft Motion Pictures and collaborate with their team at Massive Entertainment to bring The Division to the big screen. They’re great guys, exceptionally creative, and willing to take risks,” said Gaghan. “The game has been an enormous success, in large part due to the visual landscape they created, their vision of a mid-apocalyptic Manhattan. It’s immersive, wonderfully strange, and yet familiar, filled with possibilities. It’s also remarkable to be able to collaborate with Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal early in the process. We all feel the story Ubisoft created is more relevant than ever."
There is no release date set for The Division at this time.
Original Story: 08.02.16
Rumors regarding an official film adaptation of The Division have been circulating for months now, but today, Ubisoft Motion Pictures (a film division of the game development company) confirmed that they will be turning the controversial 2016 online shooter into a major motion picture.
We also now know that Jake Gyllenhaal (of Nightcrawler and Donny Darko fame) and Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, The Martian) will be assuming lead roles in the film as well as contributing to the creation process alongside their own film companies Nine Stories and Freckle Films. At this time, however, there is no director attached to the project.
Ubisoft Motion Pictures' chief executive Gerard Guillemot commented on the casting of Chastain and Gyllenhall by citing them as "two of Hollywood's most talented actors and (the) perfect creative collaborators to help bring Tom Clancy's The Division to the big screen."
Currently, there is no timeframe available for either the film's release or when it may begin production.
The timing of this announcement is somewhat odd considering that The Division was an incredibly popular game when it first released in March (it actually became Ubisoft's fastest selling title), but since then, The Division's player count has reportedly dropped by as much as 93%. Common complaints concerning the game revolve around its lack of overall content, inability to properly deal with cheaters, and poor enemy AI. Generally speaking, however, the consensus among former Divisionplayers is that the game just wasn't able to maintain the spectacle that it debuted with.
For their part, Ubisoft Motion Pictures seems to be at least partially aware of this issue as studio executives have previously commented that they feel it is necessary to retain complete creative control over these projects in order to ensure they turn into strong films in their own right.
Whether or not they will be able to do that with The Division remains to be seen, but film and game fans everywhere may get a better idea of the studios' adaptation abilities when their first project, Assassin's Creed, debuts on December 21st.