By now, several sources have already announced that Len Wiseman, the man responsible for Live Free or Die Hard and the Underworld movie franchise, will be directing the upcoming Gears of War movie.

The Hollywood Reporter has also confirmed that Chris Morgan, writer for upcoming movies The Fast and the Furious 4 and Wanted, will be writing the screenplay for GoW.

This project between Epic and Hollywood has sparked skepticism, especially among those who are unfamiliar with the game, exhibiting less knowledge on the subject than a badly written Wiki article.  Critics continue bringing up the utter failure of Doom as a movie, suggesting that GoW may wind up the same way; I suspect that to their untrained eyes, Doom and Gears of War are the same game, and it is unlikely that the non-gamer demographic will be giving the GoW movie any fair consideration unmarred by the failures of those that preceded it.

To be fair, video games have not transitioned smoothly onto the big screen, though the trend is profitable enough so that producers remain undeterred.  Skepticism is not unwarranted.  However, GoW design director Cliff Bleszinski remains confident in the matter, exhibiting an admirable amount of optimism in the face of naysayers:

"Hollywood needs to take the source material seriously, win over the avid gamers and make it work for an audience that is young and old, male and female.  Disney made a great movie out of a theme park ride, and somebody is sooner or later going to make a great one out of a video game.  Having someone like Len really helps the odds. I think we're going to create something special here."

So if Disney can do it, why can't Epic?  They've brought us great games, so let's hope they'll inspire great movies too.  No pressure, Len Wiseman.