According to the Hollywood Reporter, Midway’s Stranglehold may soon be the next video game to grace the silver screen. Jeremy Passmore and Andre Fabrizio are currently working on the screenplay for Lion Rock Entertainment, but no actors or directors have been officially attached to the project.

Stranglehold was released in 2007 for the Xbox 360, PC and Playstation 3 and served as a sequel to the 1992 action film Hard Boiled which starred Chow Yun Fat and was directed by John Woo. Stranglehold was relatively well received by critics with a Metacritic rating of 77%. It was also praised by Midway CEO David Zucker for reaching its intended sales figures earlier than expected.

The video game was the first collaborative project between Chow Yun Fat and John Woo since their work on Hard Boiled. Chow Yun Fat lent his likeness and performed the voice work for Inspector “Tequila” Yuen, and John Woo worked closely with Midway’s Chicago studio to write the story and ensure Stranglehold’s gameplay remained faithful to the film.

Jeremy Passmore and Andre Fabrizio are both writers for the upcoming John Carpenter film The Prince. John Woo’s production company, Lion Rock, is responsible for a number of films including Paycheck, Windtalkers, and the Big Hit.

A movie version of Stranglehold could very well be a first for the entertainment industry. It’s rare enough to find a game based on a movie franchise that is actually fun, but it’s even rarer to find a movie based on a video game that doesn’t absolutely suck. Could Stranglehold accomplish both? If the movie ends up being anything like Hard Boiled, I definitely don’t see why not. Academy Award-worthy acting and plot it may not have, but explosions, awesome gun fights, and guys cracking snarky one liners? Hell yes.