Army of Two film on the way

It's a bit of a surprise to hear of a new game adaptation being announced so soon after Max Payne flopped both critically and commercially. On the other hand, game-to-film adaptations are becoming so numerous these days it's becoming almost noteworthy when a gaming company tries to maintain its integrity and not attempt a transition to the big screen. Latest on the slate is Electronic Arts' Army of Two, which, by all reports, isn't all that great in the first place. However, the game has sold more than two million copies.

Army of Two is focused on two-player cooperative combat, to the point where even in single player mode it necessitates an artificial intelligence-controlled companion. The film adaptation is being written by co-writer of The Bourne Ultimatum Scott Z. Burns and being produced by Scott Stuber. "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 told Variety. "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... 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."

The film should be in production sometime in early 2009.

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