The LA Times is reporting that the Gears of War movie, based on the hit game from Epic and Microsoft, is being scaled back in both scope and budget.

Citing sources within New Line, the LA Times says that work on the project "has really slowed down." The director, Lee Wiseman ("Live Free or Die Hard", "Underworld"), is also moving on to another project. Read more »

With Capcom having teased some sort of collaboration with Microsoft, and Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski having teased "kick ass news soon," Capcom has announced that its Xbox 360 release of Lost Planet 2 will sport Gears of War cameos.

Specifically, the two stars of Epic and Microsoft's Xbox 360-centric Gears franchise--Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago--will be playable characters in Lost Planet 2's multiplayer mode, as reported by andriasang and glimpsed in the below trailer: Read more »

During a panel at this year's New York Comic Con, Gears of War 2 writer Josh Ortega revealed that developer Epic has "a ten-year plan" for the action-centric franchise.

"Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber," he added, according to IGN. The statements came in response to a question about a potential prequel. Read more »

Now available on FileShack is a patch that restores playability to Gears of War PC.

The 6.29 MB download resolves an issue with the game's digital certificate, which expired on January 28 and prevented players from booting the game thereafter.

"The online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. Well, we made an embarrassing mistake: we signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game," Epic VP Mark Rein had explained.

Following an expired digital certificate that rendered the PC release of Gears of War unplayable after January 28, developer Epic has explained exactly what happened.

"The online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. Well, we made an embarrassing mistake: we signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game," Epic VP Mark Rein told IGN. Read more »

Many users are reporting that the PC version of Gears of War was entirely disabled yesterday when the game's digital certificate expired.

The expiration date on the certificate was apparently set for yesterday, January 28. When the date switched over, the game became unplayable. Read more »

Talking to MTV News, Chris Morgan has revealed a few tidbits about his Gears of War movie screenplay.

The movie, to be directed by Underworld and Die Hard 4 director Ken Wiseman, will center around the characters of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, and will detail "Emergence Day" - the initial alien invasion. Read more »

Update: When contacted by Shacknews, Epic Games VP Mark Rein called the Variety report that Legendary Pictures is in talks to acquire Epic "just another rumor."

Original story:

Film production company Legendary Pictures--co-producer of the upcoming Gears of War movie adaptation--is currently in talks to buy Gears developer Epic Games, according to Variety. Read more »

The feature film adaptation of Epic's cover-heavy action series Gears of War has gained the financial support of Legendary Pictures, Variety has revealed.

Legendary will now co-finance and co-produce the project alongside New Line Cinema, which secured the rights for the adaptation in 2007. It marks the latest game-related project for Legendary, which is also involved with Blizzard's Warcraft and Diablo flicks. Read more »

The upcoming feature film adaptation of Epic Games' shooter Gears of War (PC, 360) will be directed by Len Wiseman, according to Variety.

A relative newcomer to filmmaking, Wiseman's directorial portfolio includes Live Free or Die Hard, as well as the 2003 vampire flick Underworld and its 2006 sequel, Underworld Evolution. Producer Wyck Godfrey recently stated that the film is expected to release in 2010. Read more »

It was announced today that TriForce Sales has acquired the license from Epic Games to produce Gears of War 1:1 scale armor and weapon replicas.

Among the offerings are full-size and wearable C.O.G. armor, a C.O.G. helmet and the Lancer Assault Rifle, based on images of the designs from the game. The replica armor and weapons were created in a partnership with sculptor Sid Garrand of Nightmare Armor Studios. Read more »

DC Comics announced today that it will team with developer Epic Games to publish a comic book series based on Gears of War (PC, X360), slated to debut in October on the DC-owned Wildstorm imprint.

Wildstorm has previously published several comic book series based on game properties, including Capcom's Resident Evil and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft.

"We are thrilled to be working with DC Comics to further bring to life the Gears of War universe," said Epic Games president Michael Capps. "A lot of our developers are huge comic fans, and have loved the personas and chronicles unique to DC Comics since childhood." Read more »

Allaying fears of bugdet-related holdups, producer Wyck Godfrey expects Gears of War feature film to release in the summer of 2010.

"We'll hopefully make [Gears of War] early next year for the summer of 2010," Godfrey told ComingSoon.net.

"We've got our script on and a director we're about to attach." Read more »

A patch for Gears of War for Windows is now available from FileShack, taking care of some performance issues while also fixing a Games for Windows - LIVE update bug.

A slight problem with Microsoft's Games For Windows Live initiative is manifesting itself in the PC version of Epic Games' Gears of War, which infests stores today. According to Microsoft, players are automatically prompted to download a Games For Windows Live update when they begin the game. However, the update refuses to install correctly, which can cause some problems. The solution is an extremely easy one. After downloading the update and arriving at the main menu screen, simply quit of the game and restart it, which should cause the update to install. Alternatively, players may download and apply the update separately. "The good news is that once you go through the above process, you won't have to do it again," reads a post on the Microsoft-sponsored Gamerscore Blog. "Microsoft Game Studios is working on a title update to be released in the near future that will allow users to avoid manually exiting "Gears of War" to apply the update." "Happy curb-stomping," the entry concludes. For more on Gears of War, check out Nick Breckon's in-depth review.