Stephen Gaghan Signs On To Direct Video Game Adaptation THE DIVISION

According to an exclusive new report over at Variety, Syriana director Stephen Gaghan has signed on to direct a feature film adaptation of Ubisoft's The Division, and he's managed to line up Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain to headline the thing.

Here's what Gaghan has to say about the gig:

“I’m excited to work with Ubisoft Motion Pictures and collaborate with their team at Massive Entertainment to bring The Division to the big screen. They’re great guys, exceptionally creative, and willing to take risks. The game has been an enormous success, in large part due to the visual landscape they created, their vision of a mid-apocalyptic Manhattan. It’s immersive, wonderfully strange, and yet familiar, filled with possibilities. It’s also remarkable to be able to collaborate with Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal early in the process. We all feel the story Ubisoft created is more relevant than ever.”

For those not in the know, The Division is an open-world game which takes place in (as Gaghan cleverly put it) mid-apocalyptic Manhattan. The player's job is basically to go around restoring order to sections of the city, which has been quarantined thanks to an outbreak of smallpox (called "The Dollar Flu" in the game, thanks to the fact that it's transmitted through tainted money). Our own Andrew Todd reviewed this game about a year ago and, well, the news wasn't great, which is why I've yet to play the game and had to get most of the above plot details from The Division's Wikipedia page.

Anyway, this is the second high-profile Ubisoft video game adaptation to come along recently, following on the heels of last month's Assassin's Creed. We all remember how that turned out, so here's hoping that Gaghan and company are able to spin cinematic gold from this thing.

What do you guys think? Into a film adaptation of The Division, or not so much? Sound off below.