Gearbox Software’s World War II tactical shooter video game series, Brothers in Arms, is getting a live-action television show adaptation. The Hollywood Reporter states Scott Rosenbaum (The Shield, Queen of the South) will serve as showrunner, and he will be an executive producer alongside Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. Gearbox chief business officer Sean Haran, Jean-Julien Baronnet (Assassin’s Creed film producer), and Richard Whelan (Band of Brothers: The Pacific, Captain America: The First Avenger) are all attached as producers.
Rosenbaum said the show will be “exciting” for him to work on as it will focus on Exercise Tiger, a World War II D-Day rehearsal mission gone wrong. “The story we ended up using has never been dramatized on TV,” he said. “Almost 800 U.S. servicemen were killed and it had to be covered up because the Allies were preparing for the real Normandy invasion.”
The Brothers in Arms TV outing will follow eight soldiers aiming to rescue their colonel. The show will also feature perspectives from German soldiers and civilians, as well as real people from World War II. Directors, cast, and broadcast partner are all yet to be determined.
Pitchford expanded on the reasoning behind creating a small-screen take on Gearbox’s Brothers in Arms: “I love the stories we told in the games, and we do have more stories to tell, but a TV show lets us explore this subject matter and the effect on the relationships and people in broader ways.” Pitchford’s comment suggests more Brothers in Arms games may be planned in one form or another.
Brothers in Arms began as a realistic war franchise in 2005 but hasn’t seen a release since a 2014 mobile entry, Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War. The games have been praised for their tactical gameplay and recreated war scenarios.
Gearbox has been busy adapting its franchises into other mediums, with the publisher recently announcing plans to bring Borderlands to the big screen with director Eli Roth.
