Need for Speed movie being pitched
EA wants to make it into something like The Fast and the Furious
Electronic Arts is actively looking to turn the Need for Speed franchise into a movie. The mega-game publisher will turn to John Gatins, who worked on DreamWorks' Real Steel, to develop a pitch for the movie with George Gatins.
EA rep United Talent Agency (UTA) will pitch the package around Hollywood to studios like Warner Bros., Sony and Paramount. Right now, Paramount is considered a frontrunner and the price for the rights is expected to be in the low-seven figures.
Need for Speed's latest incarnation, The Run, was something of a tribute to Cannonball Run. The game featured a plot like a Hollywood blockbuster and starred actors Sean Faris (Never Back Down, Yours, Mine, and Ours, The King of Fighters) and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, Firefly, Life).
UTA has worked with EA since 2008 and has shopped around a variety of their franchises, from Spore and The Sims to Mass Effect and Dead Space.
Even if some of the results range from a little weak to Uwe Bole, I understand why a popular story driven game franchise with a strong universe full of rich lore may make a good target for a film. I understand why Halo or Uncharted would make a strong pitch, and why Tomb Raider was begging to be made. Something like Call of Duty or GTA is a harder sell because despite the size of the fanbase, there is no one consistent cast through the series, I believe there are a few recurring characters in MW, and there are rumours that GTA V will tie in several old protagonists, but generally each game is a standalone fiction. That said, I would still understand why someone may give it a go.
But I can't see what is in Need for Speed that could make a movie. Hot Pursuit was an excellent game with no story, just great "racin' an' chasin'". Shift was a more conventional racer, again no story. The Run was story based, but seems almost universally reviled. The only real thread is illegal street racers and cop chases, but you don't need the franchise for that.
Now a Dead Space film would be far more interesting a proposition.
Posted:A year ago