Love him or hate him, Variety is reporting that Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson, has been confirmed to be co-writing and directing the upcoming Universal Studios backed Spy Hunter film. The film, which has experienced repeated set backs in the past, was originally set to star The Rock but it's not known whether he will be involved in this current iteration.

I really don't know how to feel about this. There seems to be quite a large margin of suck factor. But, what the hell do I know, I actually kinda liked the Resident Evil movie. Granted, it's in the same way I like Showgirls and Starship Troopers, but that's another story for another day... Flynn De Marco

Universal restarts 'Spy Hunter' [Variety]
[via Gamespot]

Pro wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was previously slated to appear as the movie version's titular spy and starred in the Midway game Spy Hunter: Nowhere To Run, a title originally planned to coincide with the theatrical release. It's unknown if Johnson, who really nailed his role in Doom as a guy who shoots stuff, is still attached to the project.

Anderson, mostly famous for the Resident Evil and Aliens vs. Predator flicks, is also hard at work ruining/remaking Death Race 2000. No word from Variety on whether these projects will interfere with his work on the Castlevania film.

We can always hope. Michael McWhertor

Universal restarts 'Spy Hunter' [Variety via Gamespot]

Look, we know many of you hate the YouTourette's Syndrome which occasionally leaves Kotaku ejaculating random video game themed YouTube videos all over our front page. But it's July 3rd and no one on the entire Internet seems to be working today, meaning there's not a hell of a lot of news. And yet Kotaku's bloggers must soldier on.

So enjoy this full-on Doom geek out session between Jon Stewart and The Rock. On the plus side, The Rock really seems to know and love the game, but on the negative, he brazenly lies to us about the quality of the Doom movie. Stewart should have shot him with that BFG. Florian Eckhardt

The Uwe Boll of actors Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson gave insights on the upcoming Spy Hunter flick. Penned by hot scribe Stuart Beattie, Dwayne says the film is "well-written" and "not complicated." (That's Hollywood talk for "It has lots of 'splosions.")

For those worried about a cruddy Spy Hunter movie, Dwayne, who starred in last year's campy Doom adaptation, offers these insights: "A lot of times the successful videogame doesn't always equate to a successful movie," and it "all comes down to the writing."

Woah. Dwayne is a genius.

The former wrestler also did all the motion capture for the upcoming PS2 and Xbox game Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run, while the the Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run flim is slated to reach the silver screen next summer. The cinematic adaptation should be interesting. (That's snark talk for "This movie's gonna suck".) Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Eurogamer]

Gamespot got their hands on some new screens of Midway's upcoming titles, including Spy Hunter: Nowhere To Run, before the official Midway Gamers Day, which hits next week. Other notable titles with screenshots and movies include the Rush franchise's bow on PSP, with requisite car-pimping, mission-completing, and hip hop-listening, as well as the next iterations of Rampage and MLB Slugfest.

Gamespot @ Midway
The Rock to Star in Spy Hunter Movie and Game in 06

The Rock and Conan O'Brien need I say more. Oh, one more thing, he's talking about Doom and it was friggin hilarious.

ConanOBrien [Dwayne Downloads, thanks David]

The Rock! The Rock is the man inside the Interceptor?
According to the man himself, Spy Hunter 3 will let you get out of the car and feed some badguys knuckle sandwiches, and when you do you ll look like The Rock.
In an interview with MTV News, Rock said that he has already done some motion capture for the future game.

Rock promises some brutal action. In fact he said his previous video game work had forced him to only show his softer side. "I've done some motion capture with wrestling games," he said. "In wrestling games I did the moves, which were great, and they're cool moves like DDTs and my signature moves. But you wouldn't do them to kill the person. Now the moves have gone from gear shift five to all the way up to like 10. So now the moves you do to kill. Neck snaps ... boom! It's awesome."

Rock will also be starring in the movie version of the game. And the up-and-coming Uwe Boll of actors promises it will be a doozy. The script is being written by the same guy who worked on Pirates of the Caribbean and is expected to hit in 2006. The game, though Midway is still very hush, hush about the whole thing, is expected to hit consoles around the same time.

Rock Promises Brutal Action In 'Spy Hunter' Flick, Spills Details About Game [MTV News, thanks Stephen]