It takes most of its cues from action movies, so it's only fitting that Gears of War is being turned into a film. Universal Pictures is working on a movie adaptation of the video game series, Gears of War 4 developer The Coalition announced during a live stream today, just before the launch of the latest outing in the Xbox series. Rod Fergusson — head of The Coalition — said the plans were "the next logical step" as a way to support the franchise. "We'd done comics and novels in the past," he told Variety, "but the opportunity to work with Universal to bring the movie to life was perfect."

The first Gears of War followed Marcus Fenix and his ludicrously chunky friends as they fought against the Locust — a race of beefcake aliens who live underground and are obsessed with luminous goo called "emulsion." It's not clear yet whether the planned movie would tell Marcus' origin story, tie in with the soon-to-be released Gears of War 4 (which stars his son), or chart a new course in the Gears of War world, but Fergusson gave some hints as to how the film will differ from the games. "I think you have to let the movies be the movies," he said. "They're two different mediums, and two different audiences in some cases, and I think some video game movies in the past have failed because they tried to make a movie for gamers."

"Some video game movies have failed because they tried to make a movie for gamers."

The idea of a Gears of War movie has been floated before: New Line Cinema obtained the rights to the game the same year it was released, and there were rumblings that the project was being restarted in 2012. If it does finally see the light of day, Fergusson suggested the movie wouldn't just be an exercise in fan service. "If you have this great IP with a deep backstory and lots of lore that you can make interesting stories out of it's great," he said. "But if you just go after the gaming audience then it isn't going to be a successful movie."