Sony has revealed a new Helldivers movie is in production by Sony Pictures.
As reported by Gamer Social Club, PlayStation Productions head Asad Qizilbash made this announcement at the recent CES:
“Looking ahead as to what might come next, I’m excited to announce we are working with Sony Pictures on developing a film adaptation of our amazingly popular PlayStation game Helldivers 2.”
We just reported on the Horizon movie that Qizilbash also revealed at CES. That movie is being made by Columbia Pictures. While Columbia was originally one the Little Three film studios from the Golden Age of Hollywood, today, Columbia is just one of many labels that Sony Pictures now uses.
Because Qizilbash made this announcement live, we don’t have clarification which division of Sony Pictures is making the Helldivers movie. That could mean different things. For example, this film could be going to the theatres, or straight to streaming. It could be animated or live action. And it could be made in Japan or the US.
But it’s possible that Qizilbash didn’t have more to say about the Helldivers movie simply because they’re still figuring those details out. After all, his specific wording is that they are “developing a film adaptation.”
While Helldivers 2 is the breakout hit, the original Helldivers, and therefore, the Helldivers franchise as a whole, has been around since 2015. Sony may have waited for some time before pushing forward with these adaptations, but that also means that Arrowhead Studios was able to build up sufficient lore and material to make a substantial adaptation.
And we cannot get around the elephant in the room; the Helldivers franchise took a lot of cues from the 1997 Paul Verhoeven film Starship Troopers. By extension, it’s also inspired by the original Starship Troopers novel by Robert Heinlein, but it’s clear that Arrowhead leaned closer to Verhoeven’s satirical bent, and pushed it into overdrive.
In this age of superhero films, it isn’t exactly clear if there is a market for another movie like Starship Troopers. But Sony may be content to make this adaptation like the Twisted Metal series. Which is to say, they may not be raising expectations too high to compete with the Marvel and DC blockbusters, and mainly hoping it becomes a sleeper hit.
On the side, the Starship Troopers movie was produced by TriStar, owned by Sony, and TouchStone, owned by Disney. We’re not saying Sony might want to try to make some connection between it and their Helldivers movie, but Paul Verhoeven just returned to Hollywood, so you never know.
