Wes Ball is set to direct an adaptation of Reikon’s popular video game Ruiner for Universal Pictures, with Michael Arlen Ross on board to pen a screenplay.
Universal Pictures picked up the adaptation rights for the action shooter game, and tapped Ball, whose credits include Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and the Maze Runner trilogy to direct. The Ruiner video game is set in the year 2091 in the cyber metropolis Rengkok, and follows a wired psychopath who fights against a corrupt system to uncover the truth and retrieve his kidnapped brother.
Guided by a mysterious hacker, the action shooter battles through a world of brutal violence and cutting-edge technology, inching closer to the dark secrets hidden within the city’s neon-lit streets.
Ball has a packed slate. In addition to the potential of another Apes movie, he is attached to direct the high-profile The Legend of Zelda video game adaptation for Nintendo and Sony.
Universal has a track record with video game adaptations, having had box office success with The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Kelly McCormick and David Leitch, producers of The Fall Guy, Bullet Train and Nobody, will produce Ruiner through 87North’s first look-deal with Universal Pictures.
Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg, Ball and Joe Hartwick Jr. are producing, while Timothy I. Stevenson, Dan Jevons, Marek Roefler, Magdalena Tomkowicz, and Jakub Stylinski will executive produce. Universal Pictures’ senior vp of production development Ryan Jones and creative executive of production development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the project for the studio.
Ball, Joe Hartwick Jr. and Story Kitchen are represented by WME. Michael Arlen Ross is represented by Entertainment 360 and 87North is repped by CAA.