The upcoming film adaptation of Norman Reedus Walking Simulator – aka Death Stranding – has signed up arthouse darlings A24.
As we first heard last year, the movie will be based on the debut release from Hideo Kojima’s post-Konami studio Kojima Productions. The game follows Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges as he trots his way across a very Iceland-looking North America with a massive stack of crates on his back and a baby in a jar on his front. Along the way he runs into Kojima’s rolodex of Hollywood buddies, including Guillermo Del Toro, Léa Seydoux and Mads Mikkelsen. There’s some stuff about setting up a nationwide W-Fi network, Troy Baker floating around in a skull mask and acid rain that summons inky ghosts.
In fairness, that’s all a fairly good fit for A24, the studio behind more artsy, offbeat and eclectic fare such as Everything Everywhere All At Once, Hereditary, The Witch and The Whale, to name but a few.
While Death Stranding is already packed with actors, don’t expect a direct adaptation – not least because it’d presumably be seven hours of Reedus grunting and picking up boxes he’s dropped. Echoing his past comments that “there’s no real need” for straight video game-movie adaptations, the designer said that the Death Stranding film will aim for something that can only be done via film, rather than video games.
“There are a lot of ‘game adaptation films’ out there but what we are creating is not just a direct translation of the game,” he said. “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.”
A24 and DEATH STRANDING will be made into a live-action movie🎬📷🫶
“A24 was born into this world about 10 years ago, their presence is singular within the industry, they are like no other. The films they are delivering to the world are high in quality and very innovative. I… pic.twitter.com/4CiO8F1HUF
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 14, 2023
What we do know is that the film will share the video game’s exploration of the titular apocalyptic event which led to all the ghosts, beaches full of dead crabs and Geoff Keighley living in a random bunker somewhere.
While he’s not working on the Death Stranding movie, Kojima has plenty to keep him busy – whether it’s developing the Death Stranding sequel, working on recently revealed horror game OD (which, again, is chockablock with actors) or (mostly) taking Instagram pics with Hollywood stars.
