For a while there, Netflix was teaming with Ubisoft on developing “The Division,” a film adaptation of the Tom Clancy-branded video game series.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain have long been attached to star and produce the film, which is set in the not too distant future where a pandemic virus has spread via paper money on Black Friday, decimating the city of New York and killing millions.
By Christmas, what’s left of society has descended into chaos. So a group of civilians, trained to operate in catastrophic times, are activated in an attempt to save who and what remains.
At one time, “Hobbs & Shaw” helmer David Leitch was attached to direct, but he exited over “Bullet Train” commitments. Then “Red Notice” helmer Rawson Marshall Thurber came on board. At the last report, Thurber was re-writing the script, but there’s been little information since.
Now, producer Kelly McCormick has revealed to Discussing Film that project has effectively died. McCormick and Leitch are part of 87North Productions, which currently has “Violent Night” in cinemas. Whilst talking about that film, the topic of “The Division” came up:
“To be honest, when COVID hit, we left The Division because it felt like it was a documentary. You know, in the sense that the story deals with this outbreak that happens in real-time, the dangers that occur, and the anxiety that it creates. It was like, ‘Whoa, this is no longer fun’. Like, we literally all just had to go through this in real life.
I think we could find love for it again. It’s such a cool property and what you could do with the imagery of a team of agents coming in with that kind of post-apocalyptic prospect is really amazing, but we actually did end up letting it go because we got moved away by COVID. I heard that it was sort of on the back burner, but I don’t know for sure.”
The game generally received positive reviews, quickly becoming Ubisoft’s best-selling game, with more than 10 million copies sold during the prior generation of consoles. A sequel followed in 2019.
