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Wes Ball to Direct Ruiner Video Game Movie for Universal Pictures

87North, Story Kitchen and Oddball will produce the feature, with a screenplay from Michael Arlen Ross

Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to adapt Reikon’s hit video game “Ruiner,” with Wes Ball (“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”, the “Maze Runner” trilogy) attached to direct.

Michael Arlen Ross (“Locked”) will adapt the screenplay for the film, produced by 87North, Story Kitchen and Oddball.

With over 4 million players and 90% positive reviews on Steam, “Ruiner” is an action shooter set in the year 2091 in the cyber metropolis Rengkok. As its official synopsis explains, “the game follows a wired psychopath who fights against a corrupt system to uncover the truth and retrieve his kidnapped brother. Under the guidance of a mysterious hacker, he battles through a world of brutal violence and cutting-edge technology, inching closer to the dark secrets hidden within the city’s neon-lit streets.”

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Kelly McCormick and David Leitch (“The Fall Guy,” “Bullet Train” and “Nobody”), will produce through 87North’s first look-deal with Universal Pictures. Also producing are the team behind “Tomb Raider” (for Amazon MGM Studios and Netflix) and Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” — Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson and Mike Goldberg, with Timothy I. Stevenson and Dan Jevons executive producing. Ball and Joe Hartwick Jr. will produce for Oddball. Marek Roefler, Magdalena Tomkowicz, and Jakub Stylinski will executive produce through Reikon.

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“Ruiner” is the latest video game adaptation at the Universal, which saw success in 2023 with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and  “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which grossed over $1.4B and $290M respectively at the global box office. Ryan Jones, senior VP of production development, and Jacqueline Garell, creative executive of production development, will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.

Ball is no stranger to the world of video game adaptations either. The filmmaker — currently riding high on the successful launch of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which grossed more than $397 million at the global box office — is also developing a live-action adaptation of “The Legend of Zelda.”

Ball and Hartwick are represented by Jeff Gorin and Phil d’Amecourt at WME and Rick Genow at Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson + Christopher, LLP. 87North is repped by CAA, JSSK, and 42West. Story Kitchen is repped by WME, Pryor Cashman & TriplePoint PR.

Ross — who recently wrote and executive produced the upcoming action thriller “Locked,” directed by David Yarovesky, produced by Sam Raimi and starring Anthony Hopkins and Bill Skarsgärd — is represented by Entertainment 360 and Lichter Grossman Nichols Feldman Rogal Shikora & Clark.

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