Venerable Japanese games company Sega has partnered with Picturestart to develop movie adaptations of the 1995 beat ’em up Comix Zone, and 1999’s pioneering rhythm action game, Space Channel 5.
As originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Space Channel 5 will be a ‘comedy/dance adaptation of the cult-classic’ bringing the adventures of Ulala – intrepid space reporter – to a new generation of fans.
Reported to be attached to the project are Barry Battles, writer and director of The Baytown Outlaws, and Nir Paniry who wrote and directed Extracted, plus Sega video game director, Takumi Yoshinaga.
The Comix Zone game is less well known, but we’re curious to see how meta a movie about a game about a comic book artist that gets drawn into his own creation can get. Okay, we’re probably not talking Inception levels of layers within layers of narrative, but it’s a tantalising prospect.
The Hollywood Reporter states that Young Justice’s Mae Catt will write the movie, while Sega video game producer, Kagasei Shimomura is also attached to the project.
Royce Reeves-Darby and Erik Feig will oversee both projects for Picturestart – who already has Borderlands in post-production – will produce alongside the company’s Samie Kim Falvey.
Sonic boom
Sega’s announcement of these game-to-movie projects follows the global success of the Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 movies. Obviously keen to capitalise on this experience, Sega’s Toru Nakahara – producer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie franchise as well as executive producer for the Sonic Prime TV series – will produce the two adaptations.
Paramount and Sega have both confirmed that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now in development and will release on December 20th, 2024, along with a Paramount+ streaming series based on Sonic’s sidekick Knuckles, starring Idris Elba.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
