Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Tom Clancy’s The Division has enlisted Rawson Marshall Thurber as the film’s director. Set to star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, the movie will bring Ubisoft‘s popular video game franchise to the streaming service. According to Deadline, Thurber will replace previous director David Leitch, who is leaving the project due to scheduling conflicts with the movie Bullet Train. Thurber has previously directed films such as Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Skyscraper, and Red Notice. The director has a reputation for action films with a sense of humor, but it’s unclear whether or not The Division will also feature comedic elements.
The Division is about a pandemic that spreads through the use of paper money. The “Dollar Flu” begins on Black Friday, killing millions. As some of the biggest cities in the world are placed under quarantine to stop the pandemic’s spread, sleeper agents in the Strategic Homeland Division (The Division for short) are activated with the purpose of quelling the chaos. The plot of the film is expected to follow a similar storyline.
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The Division has proven to be a fairly successful video game franchise for Ubisoft, despite being fairly new. Released in 2016, the original game sold more than 10 million units across multiple platforms. Following the success of the first game, Ubisoft released a sequel in 2019. It’s hard to say whether or not the popularity of the series will lead to interest in the adaptation, but the game clearly has a strong fanbase!
Live-action video game adaptations have seen a spike in interest of late. The Division is one of several highly-anticipated projects based on video games, including Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, The Last of Us, and CBSUniversal’s upcoming Halo series. While video game adaptations once had a reputation for failing to live-up to the source material, it seems that trend has reversed more recently. Studios have put in a greater effort to faithfully translate the stories and worlds that appear in the games, often working directly with developers and publishers. The Division is being co-produced by Ubisoft Film and Television, which should bode well for the project!
Are you looking forward to Netflix’s adaptation of Tom Clancy’s The Division? Are you a fan of Ubisoft’s video game franchise? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
