Jake Gyllenhaal is back in the video game movie business. After attempting to launch a franchise with Prince of Persia, Gyllenhaal is attached to The Division, the newest title in the Tom Clancy family of videogames that Ubisoft has produced. The game is Ubisoft’s fastest-selling title, and likely to launch a franchise all its own.
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Variety reported the deal, looking for Gyllenhaal to both star in and produce the movie, though they note the film doesn’t yet have a writer or director, nor a studio – Ubisoft plans to sign another player or two into the equation before shopping it to studios.
The videogame The Division launched earlier this year with huge sales, looking to capitalize on the recent move to the massively multiplayer online environment that has moved beyond traditional RPGs and into other genres like action and shooters. In the game, players take control of a member of the titular “Division,” an elite unit of sleeper soldiers who are activated after a pandemic devastates Manhattan. They team up with other players, each acting as one of these soldiers, as they fight the “Cleaners,” people who think the only way to completely eradicate the virus is to essentially burn the whole city down (armed with the firebombs and flamethrowers to do it – and after they pillage said city, of course), plus deal with rioters/gangs/looters and other paramilitary organizations that rise up.
All that, plus trying to put together a proper command center to actually move the city forward out of this dark time, and you have a pretty compelling story for a film.
This is only Ubisoft’s most recent film adaptation project, with Assassin’s Creed starring Michael Fassbender hitting theaters December 2016 and Splinter Cell with Tom Hardy attached to star in pre-production.
