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Sony Pictures partners with Ubisoft for 'Watch Dogs' movie

Sony Pictures partners with Ubisoft for 'Watch Dogs' movie

By Bryan Bishop

Source Variety

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Watch Dogs gameplay trailer
Watch Dogs gameplay trailer

We're still months away from the release of Ubisoft's highly anticipated title Watch Dogs, but a movie adaptation is already barreling along. At Sony's Gamescom press event today, it was announced that Sony Pictures and production company New Regency are working together on a big-screen adaptation of the paranoia-themed action game. Hannah Minghella, president of production for Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures, told Variety that "The game has intense action and adventure, but the story focuses on information and the control of information, which we think will lead to an exciting thriller."

It's just the latest development in Ubisoft's motion picture plans. The company already has several projects set up at various studios: Fox has an Assassin's Creed movie, starring Michael Fassbender, slated for the crowded summer of 2015, while New Regency is making a Splinter Cell film with Tom Hardy. Warner Bros. is also in on the action, developing a movie based on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon with none other than Michael Bay.

The Watch Dogs film is one of three newer adaptations the company is looking to set up (Far Cry and Rabbids are the other two games being shopped around). As Variety reported previously, Ubisoft is pursuing a rather Marvel-esque strategy, maintaining creative control of the properties rather than just licensing the rights out to the highest bidder. Of course, deals and development don't make a movie a certainty, but if Watch Dogs delivers on the hype it's generated thus far, it's a safe bet that Sony will be looking to capitalize on the property as soon as it possibly can.

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