At some point or another, I’m pretty sure everyone who played Human Revolution thought: “Adam Jensen’s monotone stoicism would really do well in the transition from game to film character. Hearing him grumble ‘I never asked for this’ while CGI poured out of his eyes would be a cinematic achievement.” With a world as rich and multi-facetted as that of Deus Ex, where so many untold stories are waiting to be brought to life, Square Enix are working with CBS Films to adapt the plot of Human Revolution into a film, Variety reports.
They’re convinced that they won’t fall foul of the same pitfalls that so many other game adaptations stumble into, as Terry Press, co-president of CBS Films, states: “As is clear from the wild success of the game, Square Enix and Eidos-Montreal know how to exceed their audience’s expectations by engineering incredible worlds. No one knows ‘Human Revolution’ like the team that created it, and we look forward to working with them from day one to make a film adaptation worthy of the ‘Deus Ex’ name.”
How exactly they’re going to get the emergent, player-agency driven mechanics and systemic nature of the game to translate onto the silver screen isn’t quite clear yet, although there was that choose-your-own-adventure film a few years ago. Having audience members frantically jab at buttons to convince Jensen to go the stealthy route rather than murder everyone nearby might be entertaining.
Let’s just hope they don’t outsource the boss battles to Uwe Boll.