'Thief' Video Game Series to Get Big-Screen Treatment

A big-screen version of the video game Thief is being developed by Los Angeles-based production company Straight Up Films, which has acquired film rights to the Square Enix franchise.

Straight Up principals Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen will produce the feature adaptation, along with Roy Lee, under his Vertigo Entertainment shingle, and Adrian Askarieh, under his Prime Universe production banner.

Screenwriting team Adam Mason and Simon Boyes (Misconduct, Not Safe for Work) will write the screenplay, which will be set in the game’s dark fantasy world where a master thief tries to restore freedom, which has been denied by a magic-wielding tyrant.

Straight Up Films’ president of production Sandra Condito will serve as executive producer along with Khalid Jones of Source Rock and Square Enix.

Developed by Eidos-Montreal and published by Tokyo-based Square Enix, the Thief video game series has spawned three sequels over 18 years.

Straight Up Films, backed by attorney David Boies, among other private investors, previously co-produced Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp, for Warner Bros.

Mason and Boyes are repped by WME, Luber Rocklin Entertainment and George Davis.