“The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics.”
Wow, so the guy who wrote the Bourne Ultimatum, Scott Burns, is writing the script for Army of Two? And he wants to give it a serious treatment? Wow, and I applaud that. So will this film be like Tango and Cash, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Starsky and Hutch, (fill in favorite action buddy film)? lol
Although I am highly skeptical of what the end product will really be. Unfortunately, hollywood is on the kick of defining PMC’s and PSC’s as evil. Would they and could they actually give the subject fair treatment? I wonder what the investors have to say about what the ‘correct’ money making view on PMC’s and PSC’s should be?
Because really, that is what matters. They want to sell movies, and being brave by doing an accurate and fair treatment of this industry, is not in the cards. What is in the cards is selling a product that the viewing population can identify with. That is why I am skeptical. We will see, says the blind man. We will see. –Matt
*****
P.S. If hollywood wants any input, I will totally help out. But unless the end product on the screen and in theaters everywhere, is up to my standards and to my industry’s standards, then you can guarantee that we will not support it. (people will support what they help to create)
But as for advising on the details, like equipment or types of operations that PMC’s and PSC’s do, or whatever, I can help. For the record, I have not heard from anyone on this project yet, but just so they know, us security contractors are not that ambiguous and we are willing to help. It’s just we don’t like helping folks, who turn around and stab you in the back. We get that enough in our own industry. Hmmm, maybe that is why no one has contacted me yet? (or maybe it’s because they know that we don’t wear those masks or that most contractors and contracts are extremely boring-lol)
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EA: Army of Two movie on ‘a different path’ to games
By Wesley Yin-Poole
14/09/2009
Leaving Bourne script writer to ‘do his job’.
The Army of Two movie will run on a “different path” to that of the games, EA has said.
In October last year the Army of Two movie was confirmed to be in the works at studio Universal, with Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z. Burns in charge of penning the script.
In the original report, Variety claimed that EA was “attached as a producer”, giving the US company “a whole higher level of involvement in how the end product turns out”.
However, speaking to VideoGamer.com, EA Montreal vice president and general manager Alain Tascan said that while EA was “working with” Burns, it was taking a hands-off approach to the creation of the script.
Tascan said: “We’re working together. We explain what the world is about, what the missions are about, and then we leave the guy to do his job.
“The way you tell a story in eight hours, 12 hours, and develop the characters, is completely different than two hours,” he added.
“We just give him our reference and then he’s working. We read a few parts of the script and it’s very promising. Obviously he has his own style, and we want to keep some big moments we had in the game, but it’s like, I don’t want to say parallel, it’s like a different path. He respects our world and we respect completely the movie, but we don’t want to attach the things together.”
Tascan said EA’s hands-off approach was in part due to lacklustre movies based on games that followed their source material too closely.
“So far, when movies try to really respect the games they’re not always the best quality,” he said. “That’s the truth. But we feel we have top quality partners as a producer and a writer, so hopefully we will have a top quality in the results.”
In the Variety report Burns revealed some interesting titbits on his approach to the script.
“The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics.
“I told EA right off the bat I wasn’t a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn’t want to simply replicate the game.”
Army of Two: The 40th Day, developed by EA Montreal, is due out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP on January 8.
What hopes do you have of the Army of Two movie? Let us know in the comments section below.
Story here.
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EA’s ‘Army of Two’ joins Universal
Scott Z. Burns to write script
By MICHAEL FLEMING, BEN FRITZ
Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to the Electronic Arts videogame “Army of Two.” The studio is looking to fast-track the project to begin production in 2009 and has set “The Bourne Ultimatum” co-writer Scott Z. Burns to write the script.
Scott Stuber will produce with EA, marking the first time the vidgame giant has taken a film production role.
The “Army of Two” vidgame has sold more than 2 million units since it launched in March. A sequel is believed to be in the works. Game is a two-player action contest in which a pair of private military contractors fight their way through a web of intrigue.
“Because people experience the game in pairs, playing two guys who go against the world, Scott and I agreed this format presented an opportunity to make a great buddy film,” Burns said. “The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics. I told EA right off the bat I wasn’t a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn’t want to simply replicate the game.”
It’s the third EA project to go the film route recently. “The Sims” is being developed at 20th Century Fox with producer John Davis, while sci-fi game “Mass Effect” has been optioned by Avi Arad Prods. It’s another big game title for Universal, which acquired “BioShock” for a film that Gore Verbinski will direct.
Burns most recently scripted the Steven Soderbergh-directed “The Informant” and is producing with Lorenzo di Bonaventura a Peter Landesman-scripted drama about the rescue of 15 Colombian hostages for Warner Bros. He was also a producer of the docu “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Stuber produced for U the upcoming releases “Role Models,” “The Wolfman,” “Traveling” and “Repossession Mambo,” and he’s about to begin production on “Couples Retreat” with Vince Vaughn. Stuber’s also teamed with Guillermo del Toro on “Frankenstein,” Christopher Nolan on “The Prisoner” and Timur Bekmambetov on “Moby Dick.”
Story here.