'Ghost Recon' in Michael Bays crosshairs

Michael Bay will oversee the film adaptation of Ubisoft's military video game series "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon," reveals Variety.

The director of "Armageddon" and "Transformers" will be teaming up with Warner Bros. on this project. Bay, already attached as executive producer, might also direct this feature based on the video game, which was first released in 2001.

Conceived by American novelist Tom Clancy, "Ghost Recon" puts the gamer in charge of a fictional squad of U.S. Army Special Forces. These elite soldiers have an arsenal of cutting-edge weapons with which to defuse armed conflicts and uprisings, while operating in total secrecy -- hence their unofficial moniker "the Ghosts."

"Ghost Recon" has already been adapted for a 24-minute short entitled "Ghost Recon Alpha" by Hervé de Crécy and François Alaux.

"Assassin's Creed" and "Splinter Cell" due out soon

"Ghost Recon" is yet another effort by Ubisoft to capitalize cinematically on its most popular video games. The French-based global company is already working on a movie adaptation of its historical stealth video game "Assassin's Creed." Frank Marshall is producing this feature, which is slated for theatrical release in May 2015. Michael Fassbender will play the hero in this epic saga about the apocalyptic battle between the modern-day scions of medieval Assassins and Knights Templar.

"Splinter Cell," like "Ghost Recon" a brainchild of Tom Clancy's, will likewise be emerging from consoles and PCs onto the silver screen. Tom Hardy is to play the lead, Sam Fisher, an NSA secret agent working solo as a specialist in infiltration.

Ubisoft isn't the only video game publisher ogling Hollywood. Electronic Arts recently joined forces with DreamWorks to adapt the auto-racing game "Need for Speed," and the movie is currently in the making. Square Enix recently released its reboot of "Tomb Raider" for production by MGM and GK Films. And not to forget Sony Pictures, which is now working on adapting "God of War" and "Shadow of the Colossus" for the silver screen.