It is a funny joke because video game memes.

Following on Michael Fassbender's producing/starring in an adaptation of the Assassin's Creed video game, CBS Films today announced that they were developing a film adaptation of 2011's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, prequel to the critically-acclaimed Deus Ex, widely considered to be one of the best first-person shooters on the PC. In DX:HR, you play as security officer Adam Jensen, who is given a series of top of the line biotech enhancements when an attack on his company leaves him nearly dead. Jensen uses his new abilities to attempt to uncover the conspiracy of why his company was attacked and who is really pulling the strings of the new world of biotech augmentations. If that sounds a bit familiar, it's because the story of the game is essentially Robocop with a different paintbrush and more of an emphasis on corporate espionage and international conspiracy than just straight corporate evil. 

While clearly a film adaptation of this particular game can't get into the meat of what makes it a great game (the flexibility in play style, allowing you to be as gung-ho, stealthy, or persuasive as you want to be), the story of the game could make for a pretty decent movie. Which, you know, it already has. Because Robocop. Still, with a good creative team that has a good level of passion for the source games, this has a lot of potential, like Assassin's Creed, to buck the trend that all video game adaptations are crap.

[Variety, via /Film]