Capcom's third-person shooter isn't out until January, but Pitt's production company seems to think it has potential at the box office. Plan B Entertainment now holds the rights to a theatrical version of the game under its Creative Partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment. Said theatrical version would likely follow the story of game protagonist Will, who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle and wakes up in the mysterious Void, where an ancient alien race plots to take over civilization.

According to the Capcom press release, the movie version is being developed with Brad Pitt himself in mind for the starring role.

"As a game, Dark Void was developed with a wide-screen mentality - a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale," said Germaine Gioia, senior vice president, licensing, Capcom Entertainment. "Plan B recognized the potential of our newest property and are as excited about bringing Dark Void to life in cinemas as Capcom is to bring the interactive experience to home theaters."

Sounds great! I've been waiting a long time for a sequel to The Rocketeer.

That is according to Jeremy Bolt, who is Anderson's co-producer on Resident Evil: Afterlife. Visiting that film's set, the site ShockTillYouDrop.com says it spoke to Bolt, who "told us this morning that Paul W.S. Anderson is still circling video game adaptation Castlevania at Rogue Pictures and that they are waiting on a script."

"Bolt added that he and Anderson would like to adapt Konami's Metal Gear Solid for the big screen at Columbia Pictures," ShockTillYouDrop.com added.

You can check out Paul W.S. Anderson's filmography here but he ain't no Bergman. Please note that none of this confirms Anderson has anything to do with the Metal Gear project.

Paul W.S. Anderson Still Circling Castlevania [ShockTillYouDrop.com]

Desmond - er, Drake - er, North - told the Official Playstation Magazine UK's podcast that not only is Jackman who he'd like to see take on the treasure hunters role, but the film's producers agree too.

Jackman is who I'd like to see. I think the producers would like to see Jackman too, because he has that tough guy exterior, but [...] there's also a lot going on behind his eyes. A lot of emotion and sensitivity on that brusque exterior, and he has great comic timing. He's a phenomenal actor. I just hope I get a part on the movie so I can work with Hugh."

For his part, North said he'd of course "love to do the movie; obviously I'd love to do it as Nathan Drake," however, "I've done film and television and I understand the reality of the business."

Those who follow me on Twitter know I've spent a ton of time in Borderlands lately, but I am also playing Uncharted 2 and for my money, North's work is the best of any big-budget game I've played. And this isn't his first rodeo (Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed). North does have screen credits, but he's right that he's not a marquee name. And it's a shame. He's a heavyweight in video game voice acting and if this business ever delivers a big Hollywood breakthrough for a game actor or actress, he'd be very deserving.

Nolan North Hints Heavily At Hugh Jackman Assuming The Role Of Nathan Drake In The Upcoming Uncharted Movie [PushSquare via Joystiq]

Raimi chats with MTV news about being faithful to the source material and presenting characters and settings that will be familiar to World of Warcraft players, while still delivering an original story. That's where Robert Rodat comes in.

"I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible. But we would have our writer, Robert Rodat, really craft an original story within that world that feels like a 'World of WarCraft' adventure. Only obviously it's very different 'cause it's expanded and translated into the world of a motion picture."

He makes sense. Rodat is known for creating compelling characters in the midst of wartime situations, and the World of Warcraft certainly has its fair share of both.

It bears noting that Saving Private Ryan is one of many pop culture references included in world of Warcraft, with a Saving Private Imarion quest located in Hellfire Peninsula, the first zone on the other side of the Dark Portal. We've gone full circle or something.

'WarCraft' Movie Taps 'Saving Private Ryan' Screenwriter [MTV Multiplayer]

"I'm always looking for unique worlds to go to in animation," said the director, Chris Wedge. "From every perspective - visually, thematically and comedically - the world of 'Spore' provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen."

Variety says Patrick O'Brien, of Electronic Arts' EA Entertainment division, will executive produce the picture with Lucy Bradshaw, the vice president of Spore developer Maxis.

Spore joins a number of other EA titles that have reached deals with Hollwood, including The Sims (Fox); and Army of Two (Universal). Dante's Inferno, Dead Space and Mass Effect also have been set up for production.

EA sets up 'Spore' at Fox [Variety]

The Bits, Bytes, Pixels and Sprites takes a look at who'd be best for the fourth installment of the franchise, which, as video game movies go, has sucked less than the norm. Then again, Uwe Boll does blow the curve on that.

Chris Evans, (above) aka Johnny Storm from the (to use a Stan Lee favorite, yeccch) Fantastic Four series is their Redfield choice; Karen Dyer, who voiced Sheva Alomar in the game, is the no-brainer for that role. Kelly Hu is shrewdly chosen for Ada Wong, based on past video game work and some strikingly good looks.

Chew it over, mull it, or just flame it to death. Whatever, there's gonna be another Resident Evil film, and as past efforts have shown, these things don't act themselves.

Casting Call: Who Should Play Who in Resident Evil: Afterlife [The BBPS]

The complaint filed by Kasanoff's Threshold Entertainment seeks to protect the company from losing intellectual property rights to certain Mortal Kombat characters and the ability to create movies and television shows based on the series in the event of the sale of Midway assets to a third party, such as Warner Bros. The suit contends than no such protection is currently on record, and any sale occurring without such protections in place could result in the unjust losing of said rights.

The suit goes on to contend that it was Kasanoff who made the series into the brand it is today, taking the property and characters such as Liu Kang and Sonya blade far beyond the relative obscurity of arcades, delivering a household recognition that the series would have never seen otherwise.

In a way I suppose he is right. While those of us steeped in gaming would recognize those original digitized fighters anywhere, the movies did go a long way towards establishing the characters in mainstream culture.

If the suit is successful, it would suddenly make Midway assets a great deal less valuable to Warner Bros., perhaps halting the sale completely pending some sort of resolution. Check out the link below to view the full court document.

Kasanoff's Complaint Against Midway [Game Politics Document Dump - Main Article]

The news of Ward's hiring comes by way of IESB, who confirmed with 20th Century Fox that the young writer had been tapped to deliver a treatment for the second Hitman film. No stranger to video game films, Kyle also penned the screenplay for Kane & Lynch, another Eidos property currently undergoing the movie treatment.

Of course, movies get treatments all the time, so this is in no way confirmation that the movie is indeed coming, but seeing as the original took in $100 million at the box office and tons more in DVD sales, it's a safe bet that 20th Century Fox will do everything in their power to make it happen. Who knows? Maybe this time they'll go with a slightly more appropriate actor.

ESB Exclusive: Fox Hires a Writer for Hitman 2! [IESB.net]

Speaking in an interview with About.com during the premier of Terminator Salvation, producer Dan Lim explains that the new Lara Croft film will be an origin story with a strong focus on character development, which is definitely a new direction for the film franchise.

"We're rebooting Lara Croft...It's a great origin story that we're going to tell, a very character-oriented, I would say more realistic than the past Lara Croft movies...It's not full-on action. I would say it's like Terminator, it's character driven action. For me, the Lara Croft games and movies have gone a little too action-oriented. I wanted to have action, but with character."

But who is going to play the new Lara? When questioned about the casting, with About.com's Rebecca Murray specifically mentioning Angelina Jolie, Lin's response was "It is an origin story, so it is going to be a younger Lara Croft."

So no casting news yet, but with a younger Lara Croft it seems like Angelina Jolie might be on the outs. She can still pull off pretty, but young might be a bit of a stretch. Perhaps they'll pull a Spock and slip her in there by way of time paradox. Angelina Jolie is as good a reason for a time paradox as I can think of.

Dan Lin Interview - Terminator Salvation and Lara Croft [About.com via Tomb Raider Fanboy]
image

Keep in mind, however, that these dates are not cemented at all. Some of these films are still in very early planning stages and could possibly be scrapped down the road. For example, I doubt Cold Fear and Fear Effect will be coming out by the end of this year. I went ahead and linked them all to their IMDB page (you're welcome!), but some need pro passes for access. Let me know if there are any missing from the list, please.

View the full mega-list right after the jump!

Cold Fear (2008)
Fear Effect (2008)

Area 51 (2009)
Castlevania (2009)
Clock Tower (2009)
Halo (2009)
Kane & Lynch (2009)
The Legend of Spyro (2009)
Metal Gear Solid (2009)
Onimusha (2009)
Sabotage 1943 (2009)
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
Spy Hunter (2009)
The Suffering (2009)
Tekken (2009
Warcraft (2009)/World of Warcraft (2011)

Bioshock (2010)
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (2010)
Driver (2010)
Earthworm Jim (2010)
Gears of War (2010)
God of War (2010)
Joust (2010)
King of Fighters (2010)
Mortal Kombat (2010)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Resident Evil 4 (2010)
Splinter Cell (2010)

28 video games being made into movies... Will they suck? (Examiner.com)

Far Cry Movie Premieres Oct 2 in Germany [Big Download]

None of those are important, however. The role that most gamers will recognize her by is the English voice of Naminé from Kingdom Hearts II, the mysterious young blonde girl who shares a strange connection with Kairi and Sora. See? The movie is gaining video game clout already. Brittany should do a fine job of spending two hours or so running from room to room and hiding from the nasty men with giant scissors.

Clock Tower Strikes Brittany Snow [CanMag]

I'd discuss the whole 1.78:1 1080p AVC video accompanied by a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack bit, but quite frankly those words are gibberish to a man who picked up his surround sound system from Walmart while shopping for socks.

Resident Evil: Degeneration Gets Specs [Blu-ray.com via Capcom]

The tagline: "A brother dies. A hero is born. Get in line for adventure. Tetris is here."

Absurd premise. Tortured rendering of gameplay into live action. Wretched over-acting and every cliche known to man. I'm surprised this isn't a real game-to-movie adaptation, and is instead just a pretty slick Black20 sendup.

Tetris - The Movie [Black20, thanks to Piotr]

"I actually think that the phenomenon of 300 is really, in fact, a manifestation of the video game experience in kind of the collective conscience. The audience who came to see 300 was weaned on video games and what they saw in the marketing materials for 300 was a similar experience. They didn't show up because they were interested in the Spartans, or because they read Herodotus, or because they thought the Battle of Thermopylae was a great, untold story.

They showed up because they saw a movie experience that was the most similar to the game experiences that they've grown up playing. The movie works because it's violent and it's actually very video game-ish. Upon first reading this I thought to myself, "No, I went to see the movie because I like Frank Miller, silly movie man," but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. The fact that there wasn't a major video game released for the movie (the PSP version does not count) didn't really phase me because 300 was just the sort of visceral, intense experience I crave in a video game, only without a controller.

Hit up Gamasutra for more on the growing bond and blurring lines between video games and film.

Sony's Landau: 300 The 'First Video Game Movie Translation' [Gamasutra]