A film adaptation of the long-running video game saga Gears of War has been in the works for years now, but there's been a significant cold front over the last few years with little to nothing in the way of updates. But now, the drought has ended. During a livestream for the upcoming release of Gears of War 4, Microsoft announced that a feature film adaptation is being developed with producers Dylan Clark (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Scott Stuber (Central Intelligence), who has been attached to the project for the last three years.

For those unfamiliar, Gears of War is a military sci-fi third person shooter that centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad, originally soldier Marcus Fenix, in their last-ditch fight to save the human inhabitants of the planet Sera from an invasion of unstoppable subterranean creatures known as the Locust Horde. It remains unclear at this point if the film will be a straight adaptation of the games or if it will be a new story set within the universe and large canon of the Gears of War universe.

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Image via Microsoft

Speaking with Variety, Rod Fergusson, studio head of game developer The Coalition, explained that a film adaptation was the logical next step in supporting the franchise and working with Universal presented the perfect opportunity. He also expressed a commitment to adapting the property to work in the film format rather than just catering to fans -- something most game adaptations have struggled with in the past.

“I think you have to let the movies be the movies,” Fergusson said. “They’re two different mediums, and two different audiences in some cases, and I think some video game movies in the past have failed because they tried to make a movie for gamers. If you have this great IP with a deep backstory and lots of lore that you can make interesting stories out of it’s great, but if you just go after the gaming audience then it isn’t going to be a successful movie."

Gears of War 4 will be released on Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on Oct. 11.

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Image via Microsoft