Brad Pitt's production company enters "Dark Void"

By Steven Zeitchik

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Dark Void" will yield movie development matter.

Indian giant Reliance BIG Entertainment and Brad Pitt's Plan B shingle are developing a film version of the upcoming video game, and Pitt could well star as the lead combatant.

The two firms have acquired rights to the Capcom third-person shooter and will develop the material as a feature. The companies said the project would be a "potential starring vehicle" for Pitt. No writers have been hired yet.

"Void" centers on a cargo pilot named Will (Pitt's presumed character) who, after crashing in the Bermuda Triangle, ends up in a parallel universe where a band of humans must fight an alien threat that had long been thought extinct. Will and the other humans are outmanned but have a number of weapons and powers to help them beat back the alien incursion.

The game will be released for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in January.

The project is the first to come out of a development partnership between Plan B and Reliance that was announced at the Cannes festival in 2008. The Indian giant has deals with a number of other Hollywood production banners, including Julia Roberts' Red Om and George Clooney's Smokehouse.

Video games have had a mixed record on the big screen, with title likes "Max Payne" mutating into critical and commercial flops. But executive involved in this deal pointed to the advantages a "Dark Void" movie would have over its predecessors.

"As a game, 'Dark Void' was developed with a wide-screen mentality -- a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale," Capcom senior vice president of licensing Germaine Gioia said.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)