There has been interest in turning ‘Dead Space’ from a video game into a movie franchise for over three years now and finally it sounds like progress is being made! While news of the film actually being made sounds like it’s heading in the right direction, one comment on it has me a little worried. I’ll get to that in a moment.

First up is that EA and Dreamworks finally finished production for “Need For Speed” which is another EA property that will be released on March 14th of next year. The success in how they were able to put that together has pushed the buck burnered “Dead Space” project to the front of the pack.

They’ve had a version of a script for ‘Dead Space’ done for quite some time now that we haven’t heard much from. (Sadly it’s not one by John Carpenter.) At Comic-Con, though,  at a panel discussion on videogame movie adaptations we finally got some news! EA’s Patrick O’Brien (who oversees all of their film adaptations) and Justin Marks sat down and the question of the ‘Dead Space’ film came up. The script was written by Philip Gelatt (‘Europa Report’) and  Justin Marks (‘Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li’ ) and it looks like Neal Moritz (‘R.I.P.D.‘, ‘Fast & Furious’ films, ‘Total Recall’) will co-produce it!

What did O’Brian have to say on things?

“We decided we have to pitch the projects as scripts. EA was batting 0 for 5 before we began funding scripts. We’ve had our knocks in the studio system. “You can’t control every aspect unless you put up the entire budget.”

When “Dead Space” was originally released in 2008 it met high levels of praise and has spawned 2 sequels since. In the game you play as Isaac Clarke who battles a version of the undead created by a demonic alien power. It has a high level of both mystery and darkness that permeate the game and fully draw you into the action and suspense.

It was a LOT of fun.

O’Brian wasn’t the only person to chime in though and Justin Marks had a few words to say on the matter too. These are the ones that may have me worried though.

“You would be making ‘Event Horizon’ or ‘Alien’. I’ve already seen that movie. Instead, the challenge is to tell the main character’s story in a way that’s new and intriguing.”

I am all for new and intriguing. I really am. The problem is the suspenseful moments that made the game work are right out of the same feeling as ‘Event Horizon’ and “Alien’ so I’m hoping he only means the character aspects will be different. I love horror set in space and the first ‘Alien’ movie is what initially sucked me into being a huge fan of the horror genre in general. I want “Dead Space” to be an amazing film and capture that same experience you were able to live through the video game.

Are you excited about a Dead Space film? Do you think they’ll be able to pull off that same level of foreboding that they were able to capture in game format?

Source: Variety.