We have some new, rather intriguing details about the Gears of War movie. This is a project that was first announced, via a deal with Universal Pictures, back in 2016. Development has been a bit slow, but F. Scott Frazier (xXx: The Return of Xander Cage) was hired in November 2018 to pen the screenplay. Now, The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson has dished on how they're going to bring the video game franchise to the big screen, and that's going to involve divorcing the story from the actual video games via an alternate reality.

Rod Fergusson is, essentially, the man in charge of the Gears of War franchise. During a recent interview, he was asked about the movie and he revealed that it will be taking place in a totally separate reality, one that will allow them to tell a story that isn't so heavily connected to the one already laid out in the very popular series of games. Here's what he had to say about it.

"In order for the movie to be successful, it has to be a great movie first and a Gears movie second. Basically the way that we sort of reconciled that was, we said, 'oh the movie should be an alternate reality. It should not be dependent on the game story, nor should it influence the game story.'"

That may, at first, come as a shock to fans of the video games. However, Rod Fergusson also made it clear that the story will take place on Sera and that certain characters from the games will be included. Part of the problem with video game movies, as Fergusson also discussed, is that they have deeply complex stories that are extremely difficult to adapt for the big screen. This is their way of trying to skirt that issue.

"I've heard of other franchises who come with this really large story Bible and this really sort of, here are all the rules now go and deal with 700 pages of how you live in our world. When we did it, we were two pages. I was like, 'Here's two pages of thou shall nots and recommendations.' We want people to have the freedom to have new ideas and to take things differently."

Hollywood has yet to totally crack the code when it comes to video game movies, but things like Detective Pikachu have gotten much closer. Gears of War has the potential to be one of those breakthrough projects, if it's executed correctly. While some fans may not like the whole "alternate reality" take, it may be the best way to bring this world to the widest possible audience.

No director or release date has been set for the movie as of yet. Casting also hasn't been announced, but Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista did previously express his enthusiastic desire to sign on. We'll be sure to keep you posted as any further details on the project are made available. This news was first reported by IGN.