City of Heroes suiting up for big screen

Having apparently run out of old television shows to remake, Hollywood is now hell-bent on scooping up film rights to games. Though the Halo adaptation is on indefinite hold, Prince of Persia is being fast-tracked by megaproducer Jerry Bruckheimer. After a brief stay in development limbo, the Spy Hunter movie is back on the road, although the World of Warcraft film remains a ways off.

Today came word that another massively multiplayer online role-playing game will be headed for the big screen. According to today's Variety, producer Tom DeSanto has acquired the rights to NCsoft and Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes. According to the trade, he was interested in the 2004 game because it and its 2005 sequel City of Villains pit superheroes against aliens and offer a ready-made stable of characters.

"I see this as the next big superhero franchise," said DeSanto, who produced X-Men and the forthcoming Transformers. He reportedly will first make the film into a motion picture, which, if successful, will beget a television series.