Dungeon Siege screenwriter selected

Last October, Microsoft disclosed it had struck a deal with Boll KG, the production company behind a number of high-profile movie adaptations of games (including House of the Dead and the upcoming Bloodrayne) to produce a feature film based on the popular RPG Dungeon Siege. Today, producer/director Uwe Boll, founder and head of Boll KG, told GameSpot that screenwriter David Freeman has been picked to write the screenplay for the project. The deal was finalized yesterday.

Speaking from Germany, Boll told GameSpot Freeman got the nod because of his dual talents in the game and film world. "David is an expert in videogames and a very good scriptwriter. He thinks very deeply about the mood of the game, the whole structure and character development--which is the basis of making a great movie."

Freeman's game credits include script credit for upcoming titles Van Helsing, Mission Impossible: Operation Surma, and Command and Conquer 3. In the area of film and TV, Freeman has written and developed scripts and other properties which have been bought or optioned by Columbia Pictures, MGM, Paramount, Castle Rock, and Buena Vista Television.

Reflecting on the importance of a competently written script, Boll continued, saying, "With a great script everything is much easier. You still can f*** up with a great script during the shooting of the movie, but you can never produce a great movie out of a sh***y script. I learned my lesson with House of the Dead…a sh***y script."

Boll said he's look for a script from Freeman that will be "thrilling, interesting, surprising. For Dungeon Siege, I'm looking for great characters in a Braveheart meets Conan meets Lord of the Rings story." Boll intends to shoot Dungeon Siege as a two-part feature, with production ramping up in 2005 in Vancouver, Canada.

Dungeon Siege was released in April of 2002, and was developed by Chris Taylor and the crew at Gas Powered Games. It is published by Microsoft Game Studios.