Around a year ago, we learned the acclaimed movie studio A24 had joined Death Stranding’s film project. At the time, I remember thinking A24 may be one of the only studios out there that could keep up with Hideo Kojima’s wild visions, and it seems like I was right because Kojima doesn’t want this movie to be your run-of-the-mill videogame adaptation.
“I aim to present a new dimension of cinematic adaptation that goes beyond merely turning a game into a live-action movie,” Kojima says in an interview with Variety. I honestly have no idea how Kojima plans to go about this and what going beyond a videogame adaptation means.
Maybe the hope is that the Death Stranding movie is just more than a decent videogame flick, but I’m not sure that’s a high bar anymore. Sure, the Borderlands film was a pretty irredeemable mess, and the latest trailers for the upcoming Minecraft movie don’t look much better, but there have been some truly great adaptations this year when it comes to TV.
Just off the top of my head, the second season of Arcane and the recent Netflix series Castlevania: Nocturne were both absolutely stellar shows. Both of these are more than just videogame adaptations; they are, in their own right, fantastic series that don’t rely on the novelty of their gaming roots to score points. I think that’s probably what Kojima is going for, but then again, I’m not a genius seeking to reinvent cinema.
Although creating a live-action Death Stranding may not be too hard, as Kojima also admits he has a pretty solid foundation for making games with hours of cutscenes “My work is often regarded as being similar to a movie, but at the core, games are what I create.” While the idea he just makes movies is a little harsh—Death Stranding is absolutely a videogame you can sit down and play—it’s not entirely unfair, especially considering just how many Hollywood celebrities turn up in it with their own digitised faces.
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