Mass Effect movie to be officially announced

L egendary Pictures are officially announcing the film production of their videogame adaptation, Mass Effect, at 2011's geek-tastic Comic-Con expo.

Ex-Marvel CEO Avi Arad optioned the movie rights in May of last year, with Warner Bros distributing and Mark Protosevich ( Thor ) penning the script.

To the fans that, according to Team Xbox, bought over 1.6m units of the game in its first six weeks on release in 2007, this will come as exciting news.

The franchise, that will have spawned two sequels by 2012, follows the intergalactic exploits of Commander Sheppard and his ragtag crew as they seek to rid the universe of an evil alien race known as Reapers.

Whether the film will follow the same plot remains to be seen but with such rich and cinematically translatable source material, this could be the first truly great videogame movie.

The panel takes place at Comic-Con on July 22nd 2011