The Division movie has been officially announced by Ubisoft, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain set to star in the upcoming film adaptation.
Produced by Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the movie will follow the plot of the hit video game, which sees a team of special agents trying to restore order to a post-apocalyptic Manhattan. According to the press release for the film both Chastain (Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty) and Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Southpaw) will be involved in the development process of The Division, with their respective production companies – Freckle Films and Nine Stories – both working with Ubisoft behind the scenes.
The Division wasn’t exactly known for its thrilling narrative, but in its announcement Ubisoft claims that “the pandemic-stricken streets of The Division are filled with countless stories of love, loss, treachery, and heroism.” These “countless stories” weren’t adequately conveyed in the video game, so maybe they’ll be explored in greater detail on the big screen.
The Division will be the latest in a line of Ubisoft Motion Pictures productions, with it joining the likes of the upcoming Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Watch Dogs and Rabbids movies, along with the Assassin’s Creed adaptation starring Michael Fassbender. This will be the second movie based on a Ubisoft property that Gyllenhaal has starred in, with him also taking the lead role in 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Considering that The Division has mostly been in the headlines for negative reasons this year, what with its various debilitating issues including hackers fundamentally ruining the game, copious amount of bugs and other assorted technical issues, it’s questionable just how well a movie adaptation of it will perform. With Ubisoft having so many other movies based upon its properties in the pipeline, the company will be hoping that the vast amount of criticisms lobbed in the direction of the game since its launch will not prove detrimental to the film’s performance at the box office.
