Scott Waugh Officially Attached To Direct ‘Need For Speed’

The video game franchise 'Need For Speed' has been a best-selling one for Electronic Arts, who wanted to capitalize on the popular success of the 'Fast & Furious' franchise by shopping their property to studios. Dreamworks bit, and rumors had been circulating about who would direct the big screen adaptation. Looks like we finally got a driver behind the wheel of this pedal stomping first installment.

In our last update, we reported that 'Act of Valor' helmer Scott Waugh was in the running to direct the franchise picked up by Dreamworks to compete with Universal's 'Fast and Furious' franchise. Now The Hollywood Reporter says that Waugh is attached to direct the movie, which is slated to go into production next year for a 2014 release date.

George and John Gatins are developing an original story and are going to be writing the screenplay, which is reportedly going to be based on the entire series and not just one individual game. Which means we're going to see plenty of cop car and underground street races.

The 'Need For Speed' games have sold over 140 million units, earning Electronic Arts about $4 billion dollars in revenue. Not $4 million, $4 BILLION. It's a huge franchise within the video game community and if done right, could result in huge box office numbers, depending on if they go with relative unknowns, like Universal did with 'The Fast and the Furious' or if they try and throw as much star power into the movie as they can.

Steven Spielberg had this to say regarding the acquisition:

“I'm excited about getting back into the creative trenches with John and George Gatins and my partners at EA to bring to life an exhilarating script based on an epic video game that seems to have been made for the movies."

We're excited too, Steven. Just make sure this big screen version doesn't stall at the starting line, or you're going to have a lot of unhappy virtual racers on your hands.