“Fast Five” and “Star Trek Beyond” director Justin Lin has been set as director of the film adaptation of the best-selling video game franchise “Helldivers” at Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions.
2024 game “Helldivers 2,” heavily inspired by cult classic sci-fi movie “Starship Troopers,” is set in the 22nd century and follows a force of shock troops dispatched to combat various threats to humanity and to uphold fascist Super Earth’s managed democracy.
That involves a lot of battles against alien robots called Automatons and giant bugs called Terminids, both seeking revenge following their defeat a century ago in the First Galactic War.
The first game was released in 2015 to acclaim, but it was the sequel last year that really took off. That became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time with an incredible 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks.
It remains one of the very few recent success stories in the live service game space, and the only one in that space from PlayStation following multiple failed attempts (eg. “Concord,” “Foamstars”)
Lin will also produce the feature along with Hutch Parker, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan. “IT” and “Salem’s Lot” scribe Gary Dauberman will pen the film.
Lin’s name remains attached to numerous projects in development including the manga adaptation “One-Punch Man,” the Keanu Reeves-created comic adaptation “Brzrkr,” and a remake of “The Man from Rio”. He most recently directed this year’s indie film “Last Days” .
PlayStation Productions has had a decent track record so far with the success of HBO’s “The Last of Us,” the $400 million-grossing “Uncharted” film, and the Peacock series “Twisted Metal” which recently scored a third season.
Less successful were the “Gran Turismo” and “Until Dawn” films which grossed 2x and 3.5x their budgets respectively, but landed only mixed reviews. Up next is Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil” reboot, Amazon’s “God of War” series, the “Horizon: Zero Dawn” film, and movies based on “Days Gone” and “Ghost of Tsushima”.
Source: THR
