Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer has signed on to direct and executive produce Spy Hunter, an adaptation of the classic 80s and 90s arcade video game, for Warner Brothers.
Fleischer becomes the latest in a decade’s long line of people who have tried to bring the game to the big screen. John Woo was the first director to give it a try with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson attached before Paul W. S. Anderson took a run at the material. Just a few years ago Chad St. John had worked on a draft of a screenplay, but that has been abandoned in favor of Fleischer bringing in a screenwriter to work from his story.
Although I was a fan of the game way back in the day – I would joke that I learned to drive a car from playing Spy Hunter – I am a bit unsure over its prospects as material on which to base a movie. Basically, you’re just driving a car, trying to evade capture from evil spies chasing you. Not much plot to build a screenplay on. But if you add much more plot onto it, at what point does the project become any old action film, albeit one with some pretty good car chase set pieces, a la Drive or the currently in development Autobahn?
Via Vulture.
