Sega’s Eternal Champions is the next video game franchise to get a silver-screen adaptation.
Whilst it’s hardly surprising that filmmakers are still rooting through video game catalogues for ideas, I can’t say I had Sega’s 1993 fighting game on my bingo card for the next series to be getting an adaptation.
However, according to Hollywood Reporter, that’s exactly what’s happening, with Jurassic World trilogy writer Derek Connolly set to write the live-action screenplay.
Connolly also boasts co-writing credits on Detective Pikachu.
David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger will produce for Skydance, with Sega producer Toru Nakahara overseeing the adaptation as he did for the Sonic the Hedgehog movies.
Eternal Champions was released on the Sega Mega Drive in 1993. It went on to spawn a sequel as well as a couple of spin-off games, cementing itself in the annals of fighting game history.
Eternal Champions is just one of several adaptations in production right now, including Amazon Prime’s highly-anticipated Yakuza: Like a Dragon TV series, which is set to premiere on 24th October.
On the subject of video game movies… Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick would like you to give the new Borderlands movie “a chance” because “a lot of people worked really hard on it”.
Zelnick was asked about the film’s less-than-stellar early reviews during an earnings call earlier this month, and whilst he called the “look and the feel” of the movie “terrific”, Zelnick said its performance “wouldn’t have a financial impact” on Take-Two or, indeed, the Borderlands franchise itself.