Deus Ex is one of those franchises that has always had some degree of a presence in the video game pantheon. While it's not exactly on the tips of the collective public's tongues along with the more prolific likes of Super Mario, Fortnite, and that one with the imposters and vents and such, it still likes to peek its head out from time to time like a really cool cicada with sunglasses.
But not long ago, there was a time when Deus Ex was far more present in the general gamer lexicon, to the point where there was even a movie script making the rounds for a while. This was around the time when Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the retroactive prequel to Warren Spector's acclaimed Deus Ex, enjoyed its time under the spotlight in the wake of its 2011 release. Many video game enthusiasts and other such buffs will likely remember how popular the prequel was. In fact, it's almost surprising that it isn't still more popular, given plenty of real-world analogues to concepts like the series' focus on human augmentation and oppression. But while the idea of a potential film adaptation might not be all that surprising, some of the details might perk up an eyebrow or two.
For one, the script was concocted by none other than future Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson in 2012, along with the same movie's co-writer, C. Robert Cargill. Unfortunately, Doctor Strange also became one of the main reasons why the Deus Ex film project had to be shelved. "Getting on Doctor Strange, this was the biggest downside of it. The fact that I needed to step off Deus Ex. I couldn’t expect them to wait for two years for me," Derrickson told Empire at the time. After this, the Deus Ex movie effectively died. But thanks to Scott Kinney, development executive for Prime Universe Productions, the 2014 draft of the film's script has now been released, and it definitely feels like Human Revolution. It probably even included a deus ex machina, because movies can't seem to resist those even to this day.
Naturally, things are a bit dissimilar at times due to the inherent differences between the mediums of film and video games. For example, while the script begins with a smart person quote from Albert Einstein, it also immediately moves on to a workout montage with main character Adam Jensen, not unlike a less colorful and more angsty Monsters Inc. There's also a lead-up to the attack on Jensen's workplace, Sarif Industries, giving a little more insight into the intimidating augmented villains fans will remember from the game itself. But aside from a few other differences, like a callback workout montage with Jensen's new augmentations that mirrors the opening scene, the rest appears to follow the original Human Revolution story pretty closely.
As for casting, the project never got that far. But according to Kinney, he had a few ideas in mind even early on in production. Avatar's Stephen Lang was his first choice to play the beefy gun-armed Barrett (apparently named after the similarly gat-handed character of the same name from Final Fantasy VII). But perhaps way more interesting was his choice to play Adam Jensen. Kinney says he would have picked A Star is Born and Guardians of the Galaxy star Bradley Cooper to play the brooding protagonist who, famously, didn't ask for this.
It would have been fascinating to see this project come to fruition. Many might not expect a game so filled with choices as Deus Ex: Human Revolution to translate well to the screen. But aside from lethal vs. nonlethal and the infamous "pick one of these buttons" ending, most of the actual decisions are relegated to side content. So while the project hasn't seen any sign of reviving, maybe this little blip of exposure might reignite interest. There's always room for some edgy cyberpunk fun in the movie world, and coming from the director of Doctor Strange, the world may have been robbed of something truly mind-blowing (or at least weird enough to really get some great YouTube videos out of it).