Despite the seriously skewed hit/stinker ratio of video game adaptations on the big screen, the hunger for new titles to lob into the mighty maw of the Hollywood development wormhole continues unabated. And now regular Warner Bros. partner Legendary Pictures is adding **Mass Effect to the ranks of titles being primed as movies.
The Heat Vision Blog reports that Legendary and producer Avi Arad have snapped up software team Bioware’s title, which first launched in 2008 and focuses on Commander Shepard, who explores the galaxy in the SSV Normandy. His adventures include conflicts with many alien species, shifting alliances and an epic story that includes a race long thought extinct.
With plenty of plot potential in the game, its supporting material and the sequel, which arrived in January of this year, **Mass Effect **is considered “ripe for translation, as it boasts depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story,” according to Legendary’s Thomas Tull.
**I Am Legend **writer Mark Protosevich, who more recently did some script polishing on Thor, has been handed the task of wrangling this sprawling game world into a screenplay. And while it’s very early days yet, it’s likely that the final product will need to be fairly big to encompass enough to keep fans of the game happy. Whether it makes it through the development stage is, of course, another matter. Other titles, such as BioShock, are touted with plenty of fanfare, and then seem to wait for ages as scripts are hammered out…