According to movie magazine Empire, Toshihiro Tokumaru - the Head of Character Contents Business at Capcom, who owns the Lost Planet rights - is estimating that the budget for the movie version will fall somewhere between $150-200 million. To put that in perspective, the budget for Watchmen is estimated between $100-150 million, and even The Dark Knight came in around $185 million. Or, to put it another way, a $200 million budget makes this a movie not only very expensive, but also very unlikely in a market where studios are cutting back on spending and video game movies have never been massively successful.

Perhaps producer Avi Arad will bring some of his legendary business acumen to the project and trim the budget somehow. If he could save Marvel from bankruptcy in the '90s, I'm sure this'll be a piece of cake.

Lost Planet Adaptation Might Be Costly [Empire Online]

Lost Planet follows an exploration team onto a frozen planet in search of an new and powerful energy source. Along the way they'll have to fight the locals massive bug problem. Did anyone like this game? It was just one among many for me, and a fear so will be the fate of this flick.

Also involved in the project is is Avi Arad, formerly of Marvel, is producing along with Steven Paul. There isn't a release date yet on the project, though I suspect they will cram it in with the plethora of new video game movies coming out over the next few years. I ask you, are there any video game movies people are actually excited about?

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