‘Mega Man’: ‘Catfish’ Directors In Talks to Helm Long-Rumored Video Game Adaptation
Fans of Capcom’s biggest hero — arguably, we guess — better prepare, as it looks like that long-rumored “Mega Man” movie adaptation is on its way to the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter reports that “Catfish” and “Nerve” directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are in final discussions to both write and direct the project.
Actor and producer Masi Oka and Chernin Entertainment will produce the Fox project, which the studio reportedly worked “for two years to acquire the rights…finally closing a deal earlier this year.”
As THR shares, “the video game, first released in 1987 by Capcom, centers on a robotic lab assistant created by a scientist named Dr. Light. Light is betrayed by a colleague, the disgruntled Dr. Wily, who reprograms a line of robots in order to take over the world. The lab assistant, nicknamed Rock, then upgrades himself into combat mode in order to save mankind.”
The character proved to be a very popular one, spawning ‘”comics and manga adaptations on both sides of the Pacific, cartoons, and even appearances in other video games.” Decades on, over 50 kinds of “Mega Man” games, available on multiple systems, have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
The property has long been a hot one around Hollywood. Earlier this year, producer Adi Shankar, best known for the 2015 unofficial short film “Power/Rangers,” told WWG that he’d “love to do a hard-R ‘Mega Man.'”
Joost and Schulman first rose to indie acclaim with the release of their controversial 2010 documentary “Catfish,” eventually moving into narrative features with “Paranormal Activity 3” and its sequel. In 2016, they released a pair of films, the horror offering “Viral” and the adventure-driven “Nerve.”
When IndieWire spoke to Joost and Schulman last year about the social media-driven thriller “Nerve,” they both confessed to being obsessed with the constant evolution of technology, something that will likely come in handy when it’s time to make a video game-centric movie about a beloved character, the kind of feature that’s become increasingly more common over the past decade.
At the time, Joost shared, “I think people are incredibly savvy these days. We talked to a lot of game designers and developers and hackers and did a lot of research and tried to arrive at something that was completely, technically possible.”
Here’s hoping they can bring that same level of obsession to their newest forward-thinking venture. It’s gonna be mega.
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