Believe it or not, the big screen rights for the Playstation 3 game Heavy Rain were picked up back in 2006, way before the game was even close to being released. However, now that the game has sold over a million copies worldwide and garnered its fair share of critical acclaim (some people even had it in their Top 10 games of the year!), a movie adaptation is apparently being fast-tracked. Variety reports that Warner Brothers has hired a writer to bang out a script for this gritty crime thriller, and for once that writer is actually someone with a little bit of artistic credibility. The man who will adapt the story is David Milch, creator of such TV shows as Deadwood and NYPD Blue.

The story takes place over a four day period with four different characters on the trail of a serial murderer known as the Origami Killer. The game’s title refers to the fact that he kills his victims by drowning them with rainwater. Among the protagonists is a grief-stricken father whose son is kidnapped by the killer, who must face a series of trials in order to rescue him.

Although the game was a big step forward in terms of storytelling in games, my concern with a movie adaptation is that it just won’t hold up on the big screen. Not only is the story somewhat corny at times, it’s also pretty derivative of movies like Seven. Still, at least there is a story there to adapt, which is more than we can say for some of the other video game movies in development. I don’t really expect this to buck the trend of terrible game-to-movie adaptations, but maybe Milch can do something interesting with it (multiple endings like Clue? Please?). What do you think, could Heavy Rain make for a decent movie, and does David Milch’s involvement inspire confidence?