Today at the Sony Computer Entertainment press conference at Gamescom, Ubisoft announced that its film and television division, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, is collaborating with Sony Pictures Entertainment and New Regency on development of a feature film based on Watch Dogs, Ubisoft’s highly-anticipated open world action-adventure video game, available for Sony’s PlayStation 4 this holiday.
“Sony Pictures and New Regency are ideal partners for us,” said Jean-Julien Baronnet, chief executive officer, Ubisoft Motion Pictures. “Their deep production expertise and willingness to allow us to maintain a strong creative voice in the film means that we’re on track to deliver a movie that can build upon the excitement that ‘Watch Dogs’ already is generating as a game.”
Commenting on the announcement, Hannah Minghella, president of Production for Columbia Pictures, said, “The themes and open gameplay of ‘Watch Dogs’ lends itself perfectly to the big screen. The game has intense action and adventure, but the story focuses on information and the control of information, which we think will lead to an exciting thriller. It has tremendous potential as a motion picture and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with Ubisoft’s internal creative team on the development of the project.”
Watch Dogs centers on Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker bent on revenge and inflicting his own brand of justice after a violent family tragedy. Using all of his skills, Pearce hacks into Chicago’s Central Operating System (ctOS), which controls the city’s infrastructure, including security cameras, traffic lights, and public transportation, as well as databases containing key information on the city’s residents. In the game, Pearce turns the entire city of Chicago into his ultimate weapon.
The project will be overseen at Ubisoft by Ubisoft Motion Pictures. At Columbia, Minghella and Sam Dickerman will oversee development while Alexandra Milchan and Andrew Calof will work on the forthcoming film for New Regency.
