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The Need for Speed movie is currently doing wheelspins around the box office, but it's only the first in what promises to be a wave of video game adaptations hitting the big screen over the next few years. SONY is prepping a family animated movie based on the Sly Cooper games, as well as a live action version of The Last of Us, but it's Ubisoft that has snagged the biggest names.

As well as an Assassin's Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender, the French publisher is also developing a Splinter Cell movie, with intense actor Tom Hardy playing covert agent Sam Fisher. That's already a pretty tempting prospect, and now the film has taken another big stride towards production with the announcement of a director.

Doug Liman will be the man behind the camera, and he's well suited to a tale of espionage and secret ops having helmed The Bourne Identity back in 2002. He also directed the cult comedy Swingers, the sexy assassin caper Mr And Mrs Smith, and recently wrapped on the Tom Cruise sci-fi action flick Edge of Tomorrow. The script comes from Eric Singer, who also wrote the Oscar-nominated American Hustle.

That's quite an array of top movie talent, and we've certainly come a long way from Van Damme's Street Fighter. According to the Hollywood Reporter trade mag, Splinter Cell will start filming this August for release in 2015.

If you want to catch up on the games, the most recent entry - Splinter Cell: Blacklist - is out now for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and you can also pick up the Splinter Cell Trilogy HD compilation to see how it all began.