Studio executive shares insight on the Deus Ex: Human Revolution film adaptation that never came to be

The debate on whether there has ever been a good video game movie is alive and well, but a decade ago there seemed to be one project that could have settled the issue early. Following his hit horror flick Sinister, director Scott Derrickson was deep into making a film adaptation of the Eidos-Montreal RPG Deus Ex: Human Revolution alongside his ongoing creative partner C. Robert Cargill. While Derrickson and Cargill made significant progress on the project, it never came to light, as Derrickson had to leave the film to direct Doctor Strange.

Scott Kinney, development executive for Prime Universe Productions, who had a hand in the adaptation at the time shared to USA Today that the project quickly fell off after Derrickson and Cargill departed. Following their leave, CBS Films, which was the studio behind the movie, was no longer interested in creating it.

“They communicated that Deus Ex wasn’t the kind of film they wanted to make or felt comfortable making, that their overall strategy was shifting from action films like Dwayne Johnson’s Faster, which they had previously financed, to films more like The Duff. Of course, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill left the project for Doctor Strange and it just died,” said Kinney.

Kinney provided a lengthy draft to USA Today of the script that was meant for the project for those who are interested in digging deep into what could have been.