John Woo directing Rainbow Six movie

It's official: John Woo has gone game-movie mad. Two months ago, he bought the film rights to Nintendo's Metroid series. Two weeks ago, he entered negotiations with Universal Pictures to direct the adaptation of Spy Hunter, starring The Rock.

Today, it appears he has signed on to direct a third game-inspired film. Variety is reporting that Woo has inked a deal with Paramount to helm an action blockbuster based on Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six franchise.

The Variety article implied that the film would be based on Tom Clancy's 1998 novel Rainbow Six. However, the book was developed concurrently with the 1998 PC game and features the same primary characters, John Clark and Domingo "Ding" Chavez. Clark and Chavez star in the numerous Rainbow Six sequels and spin-offs released for numerous game platforms. Both characters have also already made appearances in Clancy-inspired films: Training Day's Raymond Cruz played Chavez in Clear and Present Danger (1994). Willem Dafoe played Clark in the same film, while Liev Schreiber portrayed the hard-boiled operative in The Sum of All Fears (2002).

As for Woo's other game-movie projects, Variety reports that he is still attached to the Spy Hunter movie, which was tentatively scheduled to start filming later this year for a 2005 release. No start date for production on the Rainbow Six or Metroid movies has been announced.