Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “Traffic” and “Syriana,” will write and direct video game adaptation “The Division,” Ubisoft Motion Pictures announced Thursday.
The film will star Jake Gyllenhaal, who is also producing, and Jessica Chastain. Based on Ubisoft’s hit game “Tom Clancy‘s The Division,” the film is set in the aftermath of a small pox pandemic in dystopian New York. In the game, which set the Ubisoft record for highest first-day sales in company history, players attempt to rebuild, investigate and fight crime in the city. Plot details of the big-screen adaptation have been kept under wraps.
“The game has been an enormous success, in large part due to the visual landscape they created, their vision of a mid-apocalyptic Manhattan,” Gaghan said in a statement. “It’s immersive, wonderfully strange, and yet familiar, filled with possibilities. It’s also remarkable to be able to collaborate with Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal early in the process. We all feel the story Ubisoft created is more relevant than ever.”
Gaghan’s latest film “Gold,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Edgar Ramirez as an unlikely pair on the hunt for treasure in the Indonesian jungle, goes wide in theaters on Jan. 27.
“We are really excited to bring Stephen’s unique vision of the game to film audiences around the globe,” said Gerard Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures.
“We can’t wait for Stephen’s remarkable passion and talent to bring the astonishing world of The Division to life,” added Ubisoft Motion Pictures VP and head of development Matt Phelps.