Following on from the enormous financial success ($402 million in the box office from a $120 million budget) and mixed to positive reception of PlayStation Productions’ Uncharted film adaptation starring Tom Holland, and Mark Wahlberg, we’ve already heard numerous reports around their next passive entertainment pursuits. Next on the docket is the HBO produced The Last Of Us television series, reportedly due to air in early 2023, while there are also film adaptations planned for Gran Turismo, and Ghost Of Tsushima, alongside other television series based upon God of War, Horizon, and Twisted Metal. PlayStation Productions, helmed by Asad Qizilbash are full-steam ahead in their intent to bring PlayStation’s very best IP to new audiences, and it seems like they have another new IP they want to adapt – 2019’s Bend Studio developed, Days Gone.
New reporting from Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro reports that development work has begun on a Days Gone film adaptation starring Outlander’s Sam Heughan. Sheldon Turner whose screenwriting and production credits include, The Longest Yard, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Up In The Air, and X-Men: First Class, and was even at one point attached to the failed film adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, is to be leading the adaptation.
The news around Days Gone just won’t end. From having sold in excess of nine million units following on from the game’s launch in 2019, the IP, and the conversation around it just won’t end. From the departures of Creative Lead, and Writer John Garvin, as well as Game Director Jeff Ross, to the confirmation the IP won’t be getting a sequel, fan petitions to change that decision, and finally, confirmation from Bend Studio that their next title from the team will definitely be a new IP, the noise around the franchise just won’t end, and today’s news adds a new dimension to that drama.
D’Alessandro reports that: “Jennifer Klein and Turner are producing through their production company, Vendetta Productions. Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan are producing for Sony PlayStation Productions.”, and continues to talk about the nature of the project saying “The game chronicles former motorcycle club member Deacon St. John as he fights to survive against the forces of despair and mutated, predatory humans in his quest to find the long-lost, presumed-dead, love of his life. Heughan will play Deacon. I hear Turner’s script will be a love ballad to motorcycle movies — the bike being Deacon’s sole form of transportation, his horse in this would-be modern-day western.” Tonally, it sounds like what Turner and his team are pursuing is very similar to what Garvin and the Bend Studio team successfully delivered upon the release of the game in 2019.
Presumably we won’t hear anything of true substance about the Days Gone film adaptation, for several years.
