Motion picture company DreamWorks Studios has acquired the feature film rights to EA's Need for Speed racing franchise, and plans to release a movie based on the series sometime in 2014.
Movie producers George (She's Out of My League) and John Gatins (Real Steel) are developing an original story for the film with a screenplay based on the game series.
Scott Waugh (Act of Valor) is set to direct the film, which is currently being fast-tracked by DreamWorks such that production will start early next year.
The movie will capture the spirit of the video game franchise, said DreamWorks in a statement, while rooting itself in the tradition of car culture films of the 70s.
Veteran film director and DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg said that the franchise was "made for the movies," adding, "This is a big piece of business for DreamWorks."
The Need for Speed franchise started back in 1994, and has since seen around 20 releases across multiple platforms, ranging from spin-offs to sequels.
These announcements that say a popular game will be made into a movie even after the studio has paid a high price for the film rights are completely unreliabe. I will believe it when I see it--literaly.
"The movie will capture the spirit of the video game franchise, said DreamWorks in a statement, while rooting itself in the tradition of car culture films of the 70s."
So they are looking for making it a series with yearly sequels that come out every holiday season? Because I always thought this is the spirit of NFS.
But then it will be produced by one of the guys who produced Real Steel, so maybe it's something with talking Robot Cars, this would definitely let me consider watching it ;-)
Please do not use the plot of Underground 2 onward... Those plots are VERY, VERY, VERY bad. Maybe with exception of Most Wanted (that had cheesy plot but it worked)
It's particularly interesting because the franchise itself is extremely diverse. While we may disregard the more serious NFS: Shift titles as they existed on the "accessible-sim" end of the spectrum, each of the remaining NFS titles were still very different from each other from a story, gameplay, and narrative standpoint. From my perspective, it's hard to say that the franchise features a consistent "feel" or "spirit", other than accessible racing gameplay.
So they are looking for making it a series with yearly sequels that come out every holiday season? Because I always thought this is the spirit of NFS.
But then it will be produced by one of the guys who produced Real Steel, so maybe it's something with talking Robot Cars, this would definitely let me consider watching it ;-)