Image: Kojima Productions
Hideo Kojima is developing a Death Stranding movie with ‘new elements and characters’.
Kojima Productions is officially bringing its debut game Death Stranding to the big screen. The upcoming movie adaptation will reportedly have, “new elements and characters,” from the world of the game, and is being produced in collaboration with Hideo Kojima himself and Hammerstone Studios producer Alex Lebovici. Lebovici has previously worked on movies like Barbarian and Bill and Ted Face the Music.
In a statement to Deadline, Kojima said about the movie:
I couldn’t be more excited about this new partnership with Hammerstone Studios. This is a pivotal moment for the franchise and I’m really looking forward to collaborating with them in bringing DEATH STRANDING to the big screen.
Lebovici added:
We are thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to partner with brilliant and iconic Hideo Kojima on his first film adaptation. Unlike other big budget tentpole video game adaptations, this will be something far more intimate and grounded. Our goal is to redefine what a video game adaptation could be when you have creative and artistic freedom. This film will be an authentic “Hideo Kojima” production.
Deadline reports that the movie is now on the fast track with development already underway, while Hammerstone finances it fully. It’s unknown if Kojima will return to write or direct the film, but the game director might already have his hands full with Death Stranding 2 and an unannounced horror game currently in the works at Kojima Productions. The first game already had a cast full of celebrity actors, so transitioning them over to the live-action production shouldn’t be too difficult.
Death Stranding takes place after an apocalyptic event fractured society on Earth into multiple isolated communities, living in bunkers and working in military-like bases. The game places you in the fraying boots of Sam Porter Bridges, a courier tasked with transporting important packages from one end of desolated America to another. Eventually, his task expands to reconnecting America as a whole.
Kojima Productions unveiled a sequel to Death Stranding last weekend at The Game Awards, following a much older Sam and Fragile, and a seemingly recuperated Higgs Monaghan returning to make their lives difficult. Watch the trailer below:
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Given that this movie is billed as an ‘authentic’ Hideo Kojima production, one wonders: how faithful to the game will it end up being? Will we see Sam hike up a mountain for half an hour, with multiple packages stacked on his back like a slow-moving Leaning Tower of Pisa? Will we see him collect bottles of urine and packets of blood, and then lob them at gooey kaiju before being swallowed up by black tar? Will we see Sam chug Monster Energy cans in his bedroom, Higgs randomly lick anyone he comes across or Conan O’Brien in hologram form?
I have questions.
