RAMPAGE Director Brad Payton Set To Direct a New Action Thriller SNIPER ELITE
Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Rampage) is set to direct a “character-driven action thriller” titled Sniper Elite, which will be based on the stealth-shooter game franchise. The film is described as being Sherlock Holmes meets The Bourne Identity.
The movie sounds like fun and the story will “see an elite Allied sniper, Karl Fairburne, engage in a cat-and-mouse chase through the streets of London at the height of the Blitz during World War II, as he tries to save British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from a Nazi assassin.”
It’s also explained that the movie will reveal the hidden story of Fairburne, “marrying clever, stylish action with strong characters and incredible, twisted situations. As bombs rain down on the British capital, Fairburne will have to make a choice between the fate of the war and confronting his deepest secret.”
The film is being produced by Jean-Julien Baronnet (Taken, Assassin’s Creed) and Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion, the game’s producer. Baronnet went on to reveal that “one intriguing element of Fairburne’s backstory is that he is a German working for the Allies. Another aspect of the movie is the personal relationship that exists between the opposing snipers, and the ‘secret reason’ stopping them killing each other.” He went on to say, “It’s a very, very character-oriented show, where our two snipers are linked by these intimate secrets.”
Peyton is co-writing the script with Gary Graham (I Am Legend) and while many traditional sniper films are “very dark, very deep” it’s said that Peyton and Graham have injected a “lightness” in their script, and the snipers are “lovable”. Neither sniper is a “cold-blooded killer,” but “very human.”
Baronnet added, “The problem is that we love both snipers. If you have a sniper that wants to execute his mission, but has human feelings, who has sensitivity, who is a professional but has to deal with his own humanity, that’s where it becomes interesting.”
Kingsley went on to talk about the plans for adapting the game into a film saying, “We wanted to twist and tweak the viewers’ expectations as to what they’d get from a movie like this. It’s a really, really compelling piece of scriptwriting, and great performances will be needed from the best actors we can get hold of. It’s a real, proper piece of drama, which just happens to be inspired by our computer game.”
The director of the film is very passionate about the game, and Kingsley said, “Brad clearly had an in-depth knowledge of how to make a movie out of a game without compromising either. We’re not going to make a film version of the game.”
The movie would appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike.
Source: Variety