It’s been awhile since the movie adaptation of the popular video game ‘Mass Effect’ has made news. Last reported, Mark Protosevich (‘Thor,’ ‘I am Legend,’ ‘Collider’) had written a script for the film but it looks like Legendary has decided to go a different route and has hired Morgan Davis Foehl to try his hand at it.

Foehl , who was an assistant editor on ‘Rescue Me,’ ‘Click’ and ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,’  before becoming a writer, has yet to scribe a script that has made it to the big screen but his previous work has been highly lauded in the industry. His script for ‘Whatever Gets you Through the Night’ earned him a spot on the 2009 Black List and his adaptation of the Top Cow comic book, ‘Crosshair,’ is currently in development with Summit.

Variety is reporting that Legendary liked Foelh’s take on the ‘Mass Effect’ project. Add in the fact that he’s a big fan of the game and has penned action scripts with a strong espionage bent, he seemed to be a perfect choice to rewrite the script in the studio’s eyes.

There has been some contention over what the plot of the film would be as Protesevich’s version, according to a Q&A page on the Legendary Pictures site last year, indicated that the story would focus on Commander Shepard’s journey from the original ‘Mass Effect’ game. In that first game, Commander Shepard leads a team on a mission in the year 2183 to defeat an ancient race of mechanized aliens, called the Reapers, that invade the galaxy every 50,000 years wiping out all forms of organic life. Whether elements of this original script will be used or if Foehl would take a whole new approach is still unknown but at least it’s in the hands of someone who is familiar with the concept of the game.

The first ‘Mass Effect’ game was released in 2007 and sold over 1.6 million units in its first four months of release. By the time ‘Mass Effect 3’ dropped in stores last March, it had sold almost that much (1.5 million to be precise) in its first week.

Legendary is taking its time with this project having always maintained that ‘Mass Effect’ wouldn’t be fast tracked into production and would only start filming when the right talent and script was in place. This is a smart move as ‘Mass Effect’ fans are very loyal and vocal about their support of the game. So vocal in fact that their unhappiness with the ending of the story in ‘Mass Effect 3’ sparked such a commotion leading to protests and online petitions that developers of the game ended up modifying and expanding the ending to appease them.

So it looks like the film is still on track. With the news that ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is also moving forward, it seems that the run of bad movies from good video games is coming to an end. What do you think?