A 'Thief' Movie Will Slip Unnoticed Into A Theater Near You

Eventually, someone is going to make a good video game movie, even if it's entirely on accident. You something is wrong with this particular corner of filmdom when the high water mark is Paul W.S. Anderson's Mortal Kombat, which is perfectly fine if you choose to grade it on the video game adaptation curve.

So yes, all video game movie news deserves to be greeted with a healthy amount of skepticism and possibly a raised eyebrow. Until we hear or see otherwise, let's look forward to the new announced Thief movie with the appropriate level of dread.

Deadline has revealed that Straight Up Films has acquired the film rights to the Thief series, which encompasses four video games released since 1998. The impossibly busy Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh and will produce while Adam Mason and Simon Boyes hammer out the screenplay.

As the title implies, the Thief games put the player in the role of a gentleman who is quite good at acquiring goods that do not belong to him. Set in a fantastical steampunk world that blends various time periods into one unique setting, the franchise is all about stealth, tasking gamers with avoiding conflict as they pull off heists and robberies and what-not. The building blocks for a fantasy version of Ocean's 11 are here, but I can't help but be reminded of Hitman: Agent 47, a movie that took a steal-based video game that required thoughtful puzzle solving skills to beat and transformed it into a lunkheaded action movie.

I also can't help but think about the upcoming Assassin's Creed movie, which is based on a video game about a hooded, blade-wielding protagonist who gets his hands dirty while remaining unseen. We are dangerously close to a trend here.

Anyway, Thief received a next-gen reboot in 2014 (and was greeted with very mixed reviews), but it certainly sounds like it has cinematic potential. Here's the official plot description of that game:

Garrett, the Master Thief, steps out of the shadows into the City. In this treacherous place, where the Baron's Watch spreads a rising tide of fear and oppression, his skills are the only things he can trust. Even the most cautious citizens and their best-guarded possessions are not safe from his reach. As an uprising emerges, Garrett finds himself entangled in growing layers of conflict. Lead by Orion, the voice of the people, the tyrannized citizens will do everything they can to claim back the City from the Baron's grasp. The revolution is inevitable. If Garrett doesn't get involved, the streets will run red with blood and the City will tear itself apart.

The odds are against any video game adaptation, but who knows? Maybe this will The Good One.