Following the huge success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Fallout TV series, Hollywood has started to truly stretch its adaptation muscles for video games. Some of those really attractive development contracts are even going to independent publishers. An example of that? A feature-length version of the popular third-person shooter El Paso, Elsewhere is in development, according to Deadline.
LaKeith Stanfield, a candidate for an Academy Award, is in discussions to star and produce. Stanfield is well-known for a number of fantastic movies, including The Book of Clarence, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Sorry to Bother You. Colin Stark and Di Bonaventura Pictures will serve as producers.
The game has players control a drug-addicted vampire hunter as he tracks down a blood-sucking ex-girlfriend who’s set on ending the world. The movie will follow a similar story structure, according to Deadline. The indie title has been praised for being a fantastic homage to third-person action shooters like the Max Payne series, though one that absolutely oozes surreal charm. In other words, it makes sense as a movie.
Of course, this is just the latest video game adaptation to ping our radar. Fallout, The Last of Us and Twisted Metal have all been renewed for second seasons. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is getting a sequel and The Legend of Zelda is finally being adapted into a movie. More recently, it was announced that the horror-tinged fishing sim Dredge is being turned into a movie, as is the action game Sifu.
There are also upcoming cartoons based on Splinter Cell, Vampire Survivors and Golden Axe. That’s not all. There are upcoming movies based on Borderlands, Minecraft, Gears of War and so many others, not to mention the multimodal Sonic the Hedgehog cinematic universe. Video games and Hollywood are finally besties, after decades of false starts. Now, give me a series adaptation of the Dreamcast-era “virtual pet” Seaman, you cowards.
