Surprising just about nobody, it seems that Hideo Kojima is partnering up with the film studio Hammerstone to develop and produce a film adaptation of Kojima’s Death Stranding. The film will be fully financed by Hammerstone, with Kojima serving as producer and Kojima Productions US and Allan Ungar serving as executive producers. Alex Lebovici, the executive producer of the hit horror film Barbarian, will also serve as producer for the Death Stranding movie alongside Kojima.
Deadline states that the adaptation will introduce new elements and characters within the Death Stranding universe. The original game features an all-star cast of celebrities playing the characters, including Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Guillermo del Toro, and Margaret Qualley. It’s unknown at the time of this writing if any of the actors from the game will return for the movie adaptation or if the film will focus exclusively on a new set of characters in the world of Death Stranding. Whatever new characters are introduced in the motion picture, they will likely be added to the ever-growing list of celebrities that Kojima has scanned into his games. Everything else about the plot of the movie is being kept under wraps.
Kojima has expressed excitement about working with Hammerstone Studios and producing his first major adaptation of one of his Kojima Production games. It’s been well-documented that Kojima is a massive fan of films, with multiple of his games taking direct inspiration from major motion pictures. Hammerstone Studios is a smaller production company located in Los Angeles. Besides Barbarian, which made $45 million worldwide on a $5 million budget, the studio also produced the Bill & Ted Face the Music in 2020.
Death Stranding is an action exploration game set in the desolate United States. You play as a courier who delivers supplies to isolated colonies, and the main purpose of the game is to reconnect colonies. Death Stranding 2 was announced last week during The Game Awards. Reedus and Seydoux are returning for the sequel.
