Well if we can’t have a Halo movie, we’ll take Gears of War.

New Line Cinema have bought the rights to a movie version of the top-selling Xbox 360 game Gears of War.  The screenplay will be written by Australian Stuart Beattie, one of the writers on the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.   Movie adaptations of games do not have what I would call a stellar reputation (think Doom, Resident Evil or *shudder* Street Fighter), but New Line have a good reputation and Pirates, while not being a cinematic masterpiece, was definitely good fun to watch.

There’s no word yet on what the story-line will be, but there is suggestion that it will be a prequel to the game. The Variety article notes

Epic developed an extensive backstory in hopes of utilizing it for a film as well
as potential novels

I don’t know if there’s anything to this, but I find it kind of ironic that Peter Jackson was going to direct the now halted Halo movie, while New Line have picked up Gears.  Jackson and New Line are in the middle of a rather ugly dispute over royalty payments from Lord of the Rings, which has had the added effect of stopping the development of the rumored Hobbit movie.