L to R: Lynch & Kane

Not even a week after the release of the Heavenly Sword trailer, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel may play the titular stars in a movie based on the Kane & Lynch video game series. The adaptation will come from Nu Image and Millennium Films.

Butler starred in Millennium Films’ 2013 hit, Olympus Has Fallen, and may now play Kane. Butler previously starred in the 2009 film Gamer as a player avatar in a recreation of a multiplayer shooting video game with real people. Millenium hopes to get Vin Diesel, an outspoken fan of video games including World of Warcraft, to play Lynch. F. Gary Gray, who worked with Butler on Law Abiding Citizen, is currently set to direct. The Kane & Lynch movie has faced directors and actors joining and then leaving the project at least as far back as 2010, so these positions are certainly not set in stone.

In the game, death row inmate Kane escapes with the help of the psychotic Lynch. Kane is then contacted by his old criminal friends who have kidnapped his wife and daughter. To save his family, Kane must travel to Tokyo and Havana while taking Lynch along for the ride. At this time Millenium Films has not announced if the film will faithfully retell the story of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men or serve as a continuation or spin-off of the current series.

Video game audiences probably best know the Kane & Lynch series for the Gamespot review controversy instead of the events of the game. Gamers should still keep an eye on this adaptation though since the current publisher of the series, Square-Enix, controls a number of other franchises that many would love to see brought to the big screen (Kingdom Hearts: The Movie anyone?)