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CBS Films began work on Deus Ex even before video game movies proved to audiences and critics that they could be good. However, the film ended up being canceled, but thanks to a recent USA Today interview with Scott Kinney of Prime Universe Productions, part of the script for this canceled project has come to light, giving fans a sneak peek at the project that never came to fruition.
In the early 2010s, Scott Derrickson (The Six Demons of Emily Rose, Doctor Strange) and C. Robert Cargill (Sinister, Mindhunter Showdown) were writing the script for the film adaptation of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third games in the series, which was released in 2011. In 2014, IGN interviewed Derrickson about the project, from which we learned that the film was to focus on “deepening” Adam Jensen as a character while keeping “all the action and fun of the game.” Derrickson was attached to direct the project, but stepped off the ship to work on Doctor Strange. After his departure, the film was quietly cancelled.
For those unfamiliar with the source material, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an RPG developed by the studio Eidos Montreal, who just released the Guardians of the Galaxy game. Set in the year 2027, the game follows Adam Jensen, a security specialist who undergoes body augmentation after an accident. As a result, Jensen turns into a killing machine. The plot focuses on the social divide between people who are wealthy enough to afford augmentation and ordinary people who make up the lower class.
Below you can read an excerpt from the script about the moment Jensen wakes up and finds out that his body has been augmented:
Spoiler
The revealed parts of the script also deal with Jensen’s initial rejection of the augmentation, conversations with his girlfriend, Dr. Megan Reed, and the attack on the Sarif Industries building. After Jensen wakes up, the plot pretty much follows the game’s plot: Sharif’s corruption is exposed, the augmented are losing their minds, and the heroes are trying to put an end to it.
The action scenes described were supposed to be pretty brutal, with the interview saying that mechanical parts are torn off the augmented bodies of the characters in abundance. However, the film was not planned to be rated R.