Sony this week announced that a film adaptation of Ghost of Tsushima is in the works, to be directed by John Wick director Chad Stahelski. According to a report by Deadline, it’ll be a direct adaptation of the game’s story.
Out of all the games that could get a film adaptation, Ghost of Tsushima almost seems like a cheat. It’s a very cinematic game anyway, and it clearly takes influence from classic Japanese films. Eliminating the gameplay still leaves you with a very compelling story about revenge and honor, so it’s not as though the transition to screen is going to require as much pruning as, say, the Resident Evil adaptation is.
Other than Stahelski and a handful of producers, we don’t know who else is working on the movie, which means no casting news at this stage. Personally, I’m pulling for Daisuke Tsuji, the actor who plays the main character, Jin Sakai, in the game, to play him in the movie. I mean, it’s a shoo-in, right? The likes of Roger Clark, who played Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, and Bryan Dechart, who played Connor in Detroit: Become Human, have expressed their wish for the film of the game to use the same actors.
Given the people who made the game were recently honored as ambassadors by the government of the real Tsushima — and, indeed half the game’s visual appeal seems to be the extraordinary beauty of the island — one can only hope that, when it comes time to make the real movie, they shoot at least parts of it on Tsushima. Filming something like this in front of a green screen in Vancouver would be a crying shame (and yes, I know that’s likely how the game was made, but it’s worth redressing that if we get the chance).
Source: Deadline
