Late next year, Universal Pictures’ Everest – based on the real events of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Clarke – will release in theaters, but it’s not the only film about Earth’s highest mountain currently on the way. Bourne Identity director Doug Liman is set to helm a different Everest film for Sony Pictures about the first man to reach the top, titled The Summit. Tom Hardy will play mountaineer George Mallory, who made it all the way.
But with that film still in limbo looking to begin production in 2015, Liman and Hardy have decided to collaborate on another project in the meantime, an adaptation of the popular video game franchise, Splinter Cell. Last we heard, American Hustle‘s Eric Warren Singer was writing the script. Now it seems it’s getting a new draft from their former The Summit scribe instead.
Deadline reports that Sheldon Turner has been hired to pen a new draft of Splinter Cell, with an anticipated August shooting date and 2015 release. With Michael Fassbender already on board for Assassin’s Creed, publishing company Ubisoft is clearly sparing no expense in casting some of the best talent in the business.
The award-winning series Splinter Cell, so far totaling seven games with another expected next year, follows Sam Fisher (Tom Hardy), a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed “Third Echelon.” The primary focus of the game is stealth, preferring lock picking, acrobatic maneuvers, entering areas undetected and sneak attacks to high-octane action scenes.
These aspects of gameplay should make for a more unique video game adaptation, one dependent on character, story and suspense more than action. Turner thankfully has experience with creating both story and characters, having most recently worked on the Academy Award-nominated Up in the Air as well as X-Men: First Class.
Though the fact they’re set to begin filming in about four months is a bit troubling, perhaps Turner’s draft will merely flesh out and edit Singer’s previous work. Turner was credited for creating the story of X-Men: First Class alongside Bryan Singer, so his experience in providing the basics of character and plot for a script should really help to nail down the film before it begins production.
Are you happy with the change in screenwriter to Turner after Liman was brought on board to direct? Or would you rather they have stuck it out with Singer?
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Splinter Cell is expected to release in 2015.
Source: Deadline
My Source:
http://screenrant.com/splinter-cell-movie-up-in-the-air-writer/***
I grew up reading the Splinter Cell novels (although I missed out on all the games because parents), so I'm pretty excited about this. Long live Splinter Cell!
