Coming off her breakout role in A24's horror hit Talk To Me, Sophie Wilde is reportedly in talks to star in a live-action adaptation of Watch Dogs.
Watch Dogs is an action-adventure video game franchise from Ubisoft, makers of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry. The film adaptation is being directed by French filmmaker Mathieu Turi (The Deep Dark, Hostile). Christie LeBlanc, best known for writing the Netflix original sci-fi thriller Oxygen, is developing the original screenplay for the film, which will be set in the same universe as the blockbuster video game franchise.
Specific plot details are still a secret, but the film will presumably follow the overall premise of the video games, which typically involve underground hacker groups fighting back against corrupt companies, crime bosses, and rival hackers.
There have been three Watch Dogs video games released to date. Each is set in a different fictionalized city that's inspired by real-life locations. The one thing these cities all have in common is a dependency on the ctOS (central Operating System), a fictionalized computer network that connects every electronic device in the city together and stores the personal information of its citizens. In the games, you hack into this system to help gain an advantage over your adversaries, accessing the ctOS to assist with combat, stealth, and puzzles.
The first Watch Dogs game was released in 2014. Set in a fictionalized version of the Chicago area, the story follows hacker/vigilante Aiden Pearce's quest for revenge after the killing of his niece.
A sequel was released in 2016 and took us to a fictionalized version of the San Francisco Bay area with ctOS 2.0, an advanced operating system networking city infrastructure, implemented across several U.S. cities. You play as Marcus Holloway, a brilliant young hacker who teams up with Dedsec, a notorious group of hackers, to expose the hidden dangers of ctOS 2.0.
Watch Dogs: Legion, released in 2020, was the most recent game in the franchise, taking us to a fictionalized representation of a futuristic, dystopian London. The story follows Dedsec as they attempt to clear their names after being framed for a series of terrorist bombings. Although Aiden Pearce returned in an expansion, Watch Dogs: Legion was especially unique in that you could play as literally anyone in the game. Any character you came across in the open world could be recruited to your team, bringing their own backstory, personality, and skill set.
Watch Dogs has been one of Ubisoft's most successful franchises with lifetime sales for the first two games exceeding 20 million units in total.
Talks of a Watch Dogs movie have been rumored for years. We first heard of plans for a film adaptation back in 2013 with Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese originally commissioned to write the film. We hadn't heard much in the years since with the film seemingly being stuck in development hell for a decade. However, this week's news appears to be a good sign that the project is finally progressing.