MOVIE NEWS – Ubisoft announced a film adaptation of The Division in 2016, but the Netflix project planned around Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain still has not reached production a decade later. Producer Kelly McCormick has now revealed that her company, 87North, stopped working on it years ago and has left the project.

Ubisoft had already tried to join the video-game adaptation wave in the 2000s, without finding much success. During the following decade, it brought or attempted to bring the worlds of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs to the screen. The first two turned into major disappointments, while the Watch Dogs movie still has no release date. The Division became another ambitious plan, built around two Oscar-nominated actors in Gyllenhaal and Chastain, with the latter ultimately winning an Academy Award in 2022.

A promising start gave way to years of setbacks

The adaptation was unveiled in 2016, the same year the first The Division launched after its highly anticipated 2013 reveal. Gyllenhaal joined in June 2016, Chastain followed, and Dolittle filmmaker Stephen Gaghan was assigned to write the screenplay. Momentum appeared to build again in 2018, when John Wick co-director David Leitch signed on to direct.

Nearly every major development after that point pushed the movie further away from production. Leitch departed, the rights moved to Netflix in 2019, and the script stalled before being rewritten. The COVID-19 pandemic created another obstacle, because a story about civilization collapsing under a pandemic suddenly seemed ill-timed rather than escapist.

The first update in four years is not the one fans wanted

Asked by ScreenRant about the adaptation, former producer Kelly McCormick acknowledged that The Division is no longer a priority for her company. “It isn’t something we’ve thought about in a long time,” the producer said. She still considers the movie’s visual premise compelling and hopes it eventually reaches the screen, but admitted that living through COVID changed the way its story was perceived. Her comments leave open the possibility that the film was quietly shelved after 2020.

Neither Gyllenhaal nor Chastain has said much about the project since signing on. Based on the last available information, Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber remains attached, while Uncharted and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer Rafe Judkins continues to be linked to the screenplay.

87North’s exit does not automatically mean the adaptation is dead. Netflix still maintains a close relationship with Ubisoft through projects such as Splinter Cell: Deathwatch and the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed series. Even so, almost nothing in The Division’s recent history offers a convincing reason for optimism.

Source: 3DJuegos