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While the latest Gears of War video game is coming later this year, a live-action movie based on the franchise is still coming – and it seemingly won’t be connected to the game’s in any meaningful way.

The news comes via an interview with head of Gears 5 developer The Coalition (via IGN), where the Gears 5 boss Rod Fergusson said the film is not connected to the game story, and it won’t influence the games either.

“Basically the way that we sort of reconciled that was, we said, ‘Oh, the movie should be an alternate reality. It should not be dependent on the game story, nor should it influence the game story'”, Fergusson said.

He added the underlining though behind the movie is that it “has to be a great movie first and a Gears movie second.” The film has been in limbo for twelve years.

Despite the fact that Microsoft and the minds behind the Gears of War video games are largely distancing themselves from the movie, Fergusson still made recommendations to the film people.

“When we did it, we were two pages. I was like, ‘Here’s two pages of thou shall nots and recommendations.’ We want people to have the freedom to have new ideas and to take things differently,” he explained.

The film staff don’t have total freedom, though, as Fergusson said the movie should still take place on the franchise’s home planet, Sera. It also has to include “certain characters.”

A director for the movie still hasn’t been announced, but xXx screenwriter F. Scott Frazier was brought on to write the script, in November of last year.

The latest game in the series, Gears 5, is launching on September 10th for Windows PC and Xbox One.