Darkwatch: Curse of the West: According to Variety, the game isn't expected to hit store shelves until early next year, but Glen Morgan and James Wong are already attached to adapt Sammy Corp.'s sci-fi Western "Darkwatch: Curse of the West" into a film.

The writing-directing-producing duo behind Final Destination, have developed a pitch, based on the vidgame's plot and action sequences, and are now in the midst of penning a script.

"Darkwatch" revolves around a secret organization dedicated to fighting the forces of evil. Game will take place in the Wild West, focusing on a cowboy/train robber named Jericho Cross who is recruited by the org to battle a horde of vampires and other supernatural creatures.

The game, which will be a first-person shooter, is being readied for release sometime around the first quarter of 2005, for play on Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox consoles.

Sammy envisions "Darkwatch" to be the first of a series of games that would be set in different time periods.

The planned adaptation is unusual considering that the film rights to games usually aren't picked up until after the game has become a hit with gamers.

What helped was that "Darkwatch's" creators Chris Ulm and Paul O'Connor are fans of "The X-Files," on which Morgan and Wong served as writers, directors and producers.

Besides developing the film, Morgan and Wong will collaborate with the "Darkwatch" creators on the final version of the game's creative elements.