Leading the cast of the Gran Turismo movie will be Archie Madekwe (Midsommar) in the lead role of Jann Mardenborough, a young esports competitor who successfully makes the transition to become a real-life race car driver. Incredibly, the film is based on the true story of the real Jann Mardenborough.

Also cast in the Gran Turismo movie will be David Harbour (Hellboy) and Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings trilogy). Gran Turismo will be released by Sony Pictures on August 11.

With the first look at the Gran Turismo movie one can’t help but wonder if Xbox Game Studios should follow suit with its Forza franchise. The Forza Horizon open-world spinoff subseries would seem particularly suited for a film adaptation, with the more story-oriented approach to those games’ main campaigns.

What are your thoughts on this? If the Gran Turismo movie finds an audience with gamers, should Xbox consider making a Forza movie? If they did, would you watch it? Share your thoughts down in the comments section.

Via The Verge. 

The negotiations stem from what the WGA West calls an “existential crisis writers are facing.” As the union elaborated in its press release,

The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a “day rate” in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership. 

I'm incredibly proud of how transparent our union is. In the @WGAWest's strike announcement, we included a list of our proposals, and the AMPTP's responses. Read it for yourself: it explains in black and white we're forced to go on strike. pic.twitter.com/U2FLsv9Dob

— Adam Conover (@adamconover) May 2, 2023

As a result of the writer’s strike late night shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be put on hold. In the meantime viewers will have to make do with reruns.

But what does this mean for some of our favorite shows like Halo, The Witcher, The Last of Us and others? Unfortunately they’ll all be impacted like the rest of the industry…though not immediately. The last time the WGA went on strike was in 2007, with that strike lasting 100 days and disrupting some of the biggest shows of the time like Lost and Breaking Bad.

But since that was before the advent of streaming platforms like Netflix, which tend to wrap up show production well in advance of release. As an example, The Witcher season 3 won’t likely be affected as its already in the pipeline, with a premiere date of June 27th. This means production has already most likely wrapped and the third season is now in pre-production.

However, shows still in production phase could be affected down the line. As in the case of Halo, which is in the midst of season 2 production. While Halo season 2 does not have a premiere date, it could very possibly be pushed back thanks to the strike, especially if it turns out to be a protracted one. The same goes for season 2 of The Last of Us. Here’s hoping the parties involved in writer’s strike can settle their differences quickly.

The Witcher’s third season of course will be the last to star Henry Cavill in the role of protagonist Geralt of Rivia. Liam Hemsworth will replace him in that role for the fourth season.

The Witcher is one example of an ongoing renaissance of video game-to-television adaptations courtesy of Netflix and others. The show has been called one of the best video game adaptations ever. It has a loyal fanbase in spite of the show not always strictly adhering to the lore of the Witcher books and video games, but rather forging its own storytelling path. Season 3 looks to deliver more of what has made the show so popular with gamers and fantasy fans in general.

The show is currently planned for seven seasons, and there are also multiple spinoffs in the works including the animated film Nightmare of the Wolf.

As for the games, a remake of the original Witcher game is in development. The latest installment, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt recently got a next-gen update. 

Black has most recently starred in The Super Mario Bros. Movie as antagonist Bowser and is currently promoting the film. The veteran actor gave his opinions on the topic of video game adaptations during an interview with BBC.

In the future, film and television are going to keep going towards using the stories told in video games, because that market seems to be growing and growing exponentially.

And he’s not wrong. Earlier this year, HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us released to tremendous success both critically and in terms of viewership. And it was only the latest in a long line of video games getting their own films and television shows. Others include Fallout, Minecraft, A Plague Tale and, reportedly, Hogwarts Legacy.

Black went on to name one video game in particular that he thinks deserves the adaptation treatment.

And there are some great games that have yet to be explored in television or film. Maybe there’s going to be a Red Dead Redemption movie? There should be, because I think that [has] just as good or [an] even better story than The Last of Us.”

Rockstar’s open-world western franchise would indeed seem like a prime candidate for a movie or TV series, with the game’s highly praised story execution. Aside from the 2010 short film Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater, there’s has been no such project mentioned. But it wouldn’t come as a big surprise if we do hear something on this in the not-too-distant future. Maybe Black could even have a part in it as say, Bill Williamson?

Via GamesRadar+.

How the finished product may ultimately turn out when it finally releases is another thing. The project has had a troubled development, with a director swap and an entirely new script following the departure of writer Jason Fuchs. The 2025 release puts the Minecraft movie a full six years out from its originally planned 2019 release.

Other than the release date, details are pretty scant as to what the movie will actually be like. Aquaman actor Jason Momoa will star  in the live-action film, presumably in the role of Minecraft protagonist Steve. Jared Hess of Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite fame will serve as director.

This adaptation of the books is also headed for HBO Max presuming the deal goes through (HBO became part of WarnerMedia Studios & Networks after last year’s merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery). Apparently the project will consist of episodic installments based on each of the books, with one book per season.

The news, which was first reported by Bloomberg, comes as other big fantasy book franchises continue to see small screen success with adaptations like Amazon’s House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, as well as Netflix’ The Witcher.

The plan for HBO and Discovery to merge into a single streaming platform seems to be on despite reports back in February that the merger was off. It is expected to happen sometime this summer and come with a $20 per month subscription.

Featured image via PInkvilla. 

The Last of Us season 1 was a breakout hit when it premiered back in January. The show enjoyed overwhelming critical success and was also a hit with viewers, averaging over 30 million of them per episode at one point. Season 1 shooting was mostly conducted in Calgary, with other Alberta locales standing in for Texas and Wyoming.

For season 2, shooting for The Last of Us heads west to Vancouver in British Columbia. As fans of the second game in Naughty Dog’s popular action-adventure series will know, the location hints at that game’s plot, as much of it is set in the Pacific Northwest—particularly Seattle. As depicted in the events of The Last of Us Part II, there a religious cult known as the Seraphites are locked in a power struggle with militant group The Washington Liberation Front (WLF) for control of the city.

When we might see something of The Last of Us season 2 is anyone’s guess at this point, although Ellie actress Bella Ramsey was quoted as saying recently that “It will be a while.” Ramsey also indicated that shooting would begin either at the end of 2023 or early 2024. And then there would be a post-production period lasting several months after that. At least The Last of Us fans will have the season 1 finale to debate over in the meantime.

We haven’t heard much about the project since Amazon teased it late last year. One of a great many video game IPs getting the television adaptation treatment, hopes are high for Amazon’s take on Fallout’s post-apocalyptic universe, especially in the wake of the runaway success of HBO’s The Last of Us. Both were featured in our “Five upcoming video game TV shows to look out for” post.

The Amazon Prime original Fallout TV series is still filming, and a few more photos from the set have been revealed pic.twitter.com/B1MYqZ89Sq

— Xbox News (@_XboxNews) January 24, 2023

Fallout will star Walter Goggins and Ella Purnel. First announced in 2020, there have since been various leaks of set images throughout the show’s production, as seen above. Upon release, the show will be streamable via Amazon Prime Video.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was developed by Studio Trigger, the Japanese animation studio known for Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, Star Wars: Visions and more. The show’s premise goes as follows:

In a dystopia riddled with corruption and cybernetic implants, a talented but reckless street kid strives to become a mercenary outlaw — an edgerunner. —From the official Netflix description.

The story follows teenager David Martinez, a student at the Arakasa Academy who through a string of unfortunate events becomes an edgerunner—a mercenary who has become bionically enhanced with illegal modifications. The show is set in the same universe (Night City, in the Free State of California) as Cyberpunk 2077, about a year before the events in the game, though Edgerunners is entirely a standalone work. The show was co-created by Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk universe. Check out the official trailer here.

Cyberpunk 2077 ($59.99, Microsoft Store) →

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was always meant to be a 10-episode miniseries, and will not be getting a second “cour” or season despite the show’s success. On Rotten Tomatoes, it still enjoys a 100% rating with an audience score of 96%. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners also won many accolades including “Anime of the Year” from multiple outlets, and was nominated for “Best Adaptation” at The Game Awards 2022. But perhaps the biggest honor of all came in the form of some pretty high praise from non other than Hideo Kojima, who said of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,

1/2
I just watched "Cyberpunk Edgerunners" in one sitting! Awesome! Great! Under the recent domestic anime situation, there was a feeling that famous Japanese studios were consumed by the overseas market, but not this one! This is a miracle of squeezing the trigger to the world! pic.twitter.com/Q2fzRJDAVw

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 20, 2022

Netflix has really been on a roll with these video game anime adaptations, with the likes of Castlevania, The Cuphead Show! and Arcane: League of Legends in its catalog. And many more promising video game-to-television crossovers are coming in 2023 and beyond. Among them: Fallout, Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War series, and A Plague Tale. We should all be especially stoked for that last one given the success of The Last of Us, because of the similarity between those two game franchises. Other recently announce small screen adaptations include those for Tomb Raider for Amazon and, reportedly, Hogwarts Legacy courtesy of HBO.

Featured image via Digital Mafia. 

JustWatch is the biggest international streaming guide with 30 million users across 120+ countries – making it easy to find out where you can legally watch movies, TV shows, and sports.

So what is the no.1 video game-based TV show according to JustWatch? That distinction goes to Arcane: League of Legends. We even featured the animated steampunk/sci-fi series on our own “Best television shows based on video games” series. Season 2 production is reportedly underway.

And as you can see in the above graphic via JustWatch, two Netflix animated shows round out the top five: Castlevania and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

The Last of Us has taken the television-viewing world by storm since its premiere back in January. HBO’s most recent hit (and its first video game adaptation) has garnered universal acclaim and has already been renewed for a second season.

The Last of Us season 1 finale releases this weekend on Sunday, March 12th on HBO Max. According to actress Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie, “It’s going to divide people massively – massively.”