We all remember one of EA Sports most popular racing franchises when we hear the name “Need for Speed”. If you are a huge fan of racing, or even just like to play the games to get some aggression out of your system at 100+MPH, then you will be pumped to know that the game is being made into a movie by DreamWorks and should be ready for theaters in 2014. According to online sources, the movie will be directed by Scott Waugh, the screenplay written by George Gatins and his brother John Gatins. The movie will be based largely on the entire series of games instead of just one particular title.
At first when I heard the news I was like, “Whatever, just another movie that will feel like you are playing a game, but you are not”, plus it won’t be as exciting as controlling a super fast race car flying down a track you are not familiar with. But when you start to realize what big names are attached to DreamWorks (Steven Spielberg) and you start to get a different picture in your head. Since the game franchise is so popular, the following is likely going to check out the movie, even if you have not played all of the titles.
According to one report, Need for Speed is one of EA’s largest video game franchise shipping more than 140 million copies of the game and that number is worldwide. When you take a look at how much a game typically can cost, depending on the system it is played on, that is a lot of money. Over $4 billion in total retail revenue to be exact. Seeing that sort of popularity with a game it is no surprise that a director wants to put together a movie and take in a little piece of that pie for themselves.
Steven Spielberg commented on the deal, saying “I’m excited about getting back into the creative trenches with John and George Gatins and my partners at EA to bring to life an exhilarating script based on an epic video game that seems to have been made for the movies.” Well, of course he is excited, he gets to watch one of the most popular video games get made into a movie, by his company and the money is going to flow right into his pockets. I would be a little pumped up about it as well. According to the original report, the movie will begin shooting sometime at the end of this year and should finish in time for a 2014 release.
