Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a video game movie

Think that video game movies are a recipe for disaster? Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal would seem to disagree. 

Ubisoft Motion Pictures has announced that Chastain (The Martian, Interstellar) and Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Southpaw) will star in the group's latest video game film adaptation, The Division.

An open-world, online-only tactical shooter, The Division takes place in a near future New York that sees a deadly virus spread via bank notes on the US Black Friday sales spree. As the government struggles to maintain control, they employ groups of tactical soldiers known as the Strategic Homeland Division - teams of special ops soldiers armed to the teeth, ready to be called upon to thwart the attempts of those looking to spread the virus further.

In addition to taking starring roles, both Chastain and Gyllenhaal will help develop the project via their own production companies. It's a move that mirror's Ubisoft Motion Pictures next big adaptation: in addition to starring in the upcoming Assassin's Creed film, Michael Fassbender is a producer, apparently attached to the film since it was first tabled.

Now, not all video game films turn out to be a hot mess: Gyllenhaal, who had previously been rumoured to be cast in the film, starred in 2010's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - one of the few video game adaptations we didn't want to throw a controller at.

To get a flavour of the game, check out the trailer below.