Lionsgate, the Hollywood studio, is fast-tracking a movie based on a forthcoming video game franchise from the developers of Lara Croft.

The independent filmmaker has bought the rights to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men from Eidos, the games publisher owned by the London-listed SCi. The project, set to start filming this winter, marks the first time that a studio has bet on making a major game-based film before the release of the game itself.

Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton are among those said to be in the running to play Kane and Lynch, two escapees from death row – one “a flawed mercenary”, the other “a medicated psychopath”.

The game, being billed as “a cinematic crime drama that tells a raw and gritty tale of two antiheroes”, will be released next Friday.

The paths between games publishers’ offices and Hollywood’s film lots have become well worn over the past 15 years, although generally it is the games that are inspired by the movies.

That tide was turned in 1993, when Bob Hoskins, the British actor, made an ill-advised turn as Mario Mario, the Nintendo character, in Disney’s flop Super Mario World.

Since then, a clutch of films based on games have performed more respectably, with titles including Sony’s Resident Evil series and Time Warner’s Mortal Kombat finding worldwide audiences and selling well on DVD.

Hollywood has at least a dozen game-based film projects in production or preproduction, including adaptions of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series and EA Games’s The Sims.

However, amid the patchy record of games-inspired movies, Eidos, the creator of Lara Croft, stands out. The publisher’s most famous creation has appeared on the big screen twice, played by Angelina Jolie. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, made by Paramount in 2001, was the most profitable film based on a video game, grossing $275 million at the box office.

Adrian Askarieh is understood to be set to produce Kane & Lynch. He is also behind Hitman, 20th Century Fox’s big-screen adaptation of the another Eidos game, which will be released in Britain at the end of the month. Mr Askarieh is understood to have a film version of Spy Hunter, the 1980s arcade game, in preproduction.

The script for Kane & Lynch was written by Kyle Ward, who shot to prominence this year when he sold his first screenplay – Fiasco Heights– to Universal Pictures. Michael Bay, the man behind the summer hit Transformers, has been lined up as a producer on that project.

Film studios have become more attracted to the games sector as the console-based industry has proven itself more than able to match Hollywood’s money-spinning feats. Warner Bros recently pledged to invest $500 million in gaming projects.

Big screen winners

1 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Paramount): $275 million
2 Pokemon: The First Movie (Warner Brothers): $164 million
3 Mortal Kombat (New Line): $122 million
4 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Paramount): $156 million
5 Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Screen Gems): $129 million
6 Resident Evil: Extinction (Screen Gems): $120 million
7 Silent Hill (Sony): $98 million
8 Pokemon: The Movie 2000 (Warner Brothers): $134 million
9 Resident Evil (Screen Gems): $102 million
10 Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (New Line): $51 million

Source: boxofficemojo.com

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive