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Writer Chris Morgan Talks Locusts in the Gears of War Movie

by Alex Billington
October 30, 2008
Source: MTV

If you can remember back to November of 2006, when Gears of War first hit shelves, Microsoft used the "Emergence Day" story as their biggest marketing hook - and it worked very well. In the game, "Emergence Day" was the day the Locust Horde invaded from underground, attacking major cities and starting the war between the COG and the Locusts. Well, that story is going to be an integral part of the Gears of War movie currently in the works at Warner Brothers, or so we hope. MTV caught up with screenwriter Chris Morgan, who recently turned in a final draft of the script to Epic Games for approval. "Look outside at your city and imagine that the Locust started rising -- that's how I want it to feel," Morgan explains.

"There are elements to it that can be considered a prequel, but it's not a prequel as far as I'm concerned." The story obviously focuses on Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, two of the main characters from the game who fight for the COG (aka Coalition of Ordered Governments). "I would not be interested in the movie if we weren't dealing with them. I want to see those guys. I want to see 'Emergence Day.' I want to see this stuff happen," Morgan says. He also confirms that the Locusts will be present, which is a very good thing, including even Corpsers, Seeders, and Berserkers (like this crazy guy to the right). "If I have anything to do with it, you absolutely will [see them]. And I do, so the answer is yes." But beyond that, everything else is being kept under wraps.

Just imagining all the baddies from the game appearing on the big screen is quite exciting. "Not only do you have an army of enemy forces, but where we have tanks and everything else, they have these creatures." Although Morgan is writing all this into the script, it will come down to seeing how well director Len Wiseman can actually pull it off. "In [Wiseman's] mind, he wants to make it as realistic as possible and to blur those lines where your mind says, 'oh, it's a big CGI film.'" One of the ways he's going to achieve that is step away from shooting this as "all-green-screen, all-CGI" and instead using CGI effects only for scenes with the Locust and "the big stuff," which sounds an awful lot like McG's plans for Terminator Salvation.

Based solely on this update from Chris Morgan, I'm certifiably more excited for the Gears of War movie than I have ever been for any video game movie (except Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia). I guess the big question still looming overhead is whether Gears of War will indeed be one of the movies that finally breaks the video game mold, because obviously Max Payne didn't. If Morgan stays true to his word and if Warner Brothers gives Wiseman the budge he needs to pull off something as epic as the game itself, I could see it happening. Until we hear more updates on this, though, we'll be playing through Gears of War 2 as Marcus and Dom head down underground to bring the fight to the Locusts themselves.

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