It’s been less than a year since Ubisoft released the post-apocalyptic (or technically, post-pandemic) first person shooter The Division, but thanks to its record-breaking sales and the company’s ever-growing interest in homegrown filmmaking, it was only a matter of time before a movie adaptation of the incredibly popular video game was announced.
As such, rumors began circulating back in June — just three months after the game’s release — that Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain had already signed on as the film’s leads despite the fact that neither a director nor writer had even been hinted at by Ubisoft for the project. Until now, they were just that: rumors.
Today, however, Ubisoft’s official blog, Ubiblog, announced that a Division movie is in fact in the works, with Gyllenhaal (End of Watch,) and Chastain (Interstellar) starring in the film’s lead male and female roles. Additionally, both Chastain and Gyllenhaal will be “a part of the development process through their production companies, Freckle Films and Nine Stories, respectively.” The Division will also serve as the second Ubisoft property to star Gyllenhaal, following 2010’s critically-mixed but internationally successful Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
Set in a not-too-distant future version of New York City, Tom Clancy’s The Division follows a rogue agent of the titular Strategic Homeland Division as he attempts to investigate a smallpox epidemic and restore order to Manhattan in its wake. According to Ubiblog, “The pandemic-stricken streets of The Division are filled with countless stories of love, loss, treachery, and heroism, but we’ll have to wait to find out what avenues the film will explore.” The game, which was released on March 8, 2016, not only enjoyed the biggest new IP launch of all time, but the biggest first week ever for a new game franchise as well — generating a staggering $330 million* globally in its first five days — and has since gone on to become the highest-selling game ever released by Ubisoft.
The Division is just the latest property to join the lineup of upcoming movies based on Ubisoft games; in addition to the Michael Fassbender-starring Assassin’s Creed, which hits theaters on December 21st, Ubisoft’s production company, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, is also currently developing films based on fellow Tom Clancy-branded games Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, as well as movies based on the third person shooter Watch Dogs and the zany, cartoonish party-gamer Rabbids. A Far Cry movie was also announced back in June, although no distribution studio is currently attached to the project.
No word yet on when we can expect The Division in theaters, obviously, but we’ll keep you updated.
