In late 2023, A24 announced it was stepping into the quite lively video game adaptation arena—with a cinematic version of the popular game Death Stranding, which the studio is developing alongside creator Hideo Kojima’s Kojima Productions. And now, at long last, there’s more news on this front: Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski has signed on to write and direct the film, according to Deadline.
As Deadline summarizes, “The film will delve into the mysteries surrounding the ‘Death Stranding’—a catastrophic series of events that blurred the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead, bringing forth nightmarish creatures into a fragmented world on the brink of collapse.”
The hugely popular game has a celebrity cast that includes Norman Reedus, Conan O’Brien, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Guillermo del Toro, and Margaret Qualley. [ed note: THERE IS A ROLE FOR CONAN IN THE FILM RIGHT? RIGHT??]
When the adaptation was first announced, creator Kojima said “There are a lot of ‘game adaptation films’ out there but what we are creating is not just a direct translation of the game. The intention is that our audience will not only be fans of the games, but our film will be for anyone who loves cinema. We are creating a Death Stranding universe that has never been seen before, achievable only through the medium of film, it will be born.”
That universe keeps expanding outside of the film: A second Death Stranding game arrives in June, and a concert tour is also coming this fall. No timeline has been announced for Sarnoski’s film—and it will probably be a minute before we know more on that front, as he is finishing up work on The Death of Robin Hood.