CBS Films Lands Screen Rights to Video Game 'Deus Ex' (Video)

Deus Ex, one of the most acclaimed video games of all time, is getting the big-screen treatment.

CBS Films has picked up the movie rights to the iconic game from Square Enix, with Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh attached to produce.

Introduced in 2000 and followed by a sequel and a prequel, the franchise has sold millions while also winning more than 100 industry awards, including many game of the year prizes.

The latest entry, Deus Ex: Human Revolution,  launched in August and will serve as the primary template for the movie adaptation, according to the CBS Films.

Human Revolution takes a Batman Begins-like approach to the hero of the story, Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT security specialist who must embrace “mechanical augments” in order to unravel a global conspiracy. The game is set in a near future where dramatic advances in science, specifically human augmentation, have triggered a technological renaissance.

John P. Middleton will serve as executive producer.

The deal has been almost a year in the works, and CBS Films and the producers already are deep into the search for a filmmaker to tackle the project. The company is keeping developer Eidos-Montreal and publisher Square Enix involved in the development of the project.

The deal is a coup for CBS Films, which is hitting its stride this year with modestly budgeted projects and acquisitions such as The Woman in Black and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Deus Ex could put the company is a sandbox that has bigger budgets and higher profiles and could launch a franchise.

Executive vp production Maria Faillace and creative exec Alex Ginno are overseeing the project for CBS Films.

The Deus Ex deal reteams Lee with CBS Films; he exec produced Woman in Black, the company’s hit horror movie, and is a producer on 7500, the horror thriller CBS Films is releasing next year. Separately, he is a producer on Warner Bros.’ CG-animated Lego movie that is in production.

Askarieh has made a name for himself in the video game adaptation field. He was a producer on Hitman, the 2007 action movie starring Timothy Olyphant (Justified) based on the IO Interactive game, and is developing a big-screen version of IO and Eidos’ action game Kane & Lynch.

Check out the trailer for Human Revolution below: