The director of the films Tyler Rakeon Netflix, is preparing a ninja film adapted from a cult video game from our childhood.
If certain universes like Sonic, Mario, Pokemon, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil or even Assassin’s Creed have absolutely been sucked away (and their soul with it) by the film and series industry, certain “old” less popular games sometimes seem miraculously left in their corner. Never for very long, unfortunately.
Streets of Rage, Jak and Dexter, Zelda, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Metal Gear, Duke Nukem, Portal… Adaptation projects can be counted on the fingers of five or six hands. A good part will not come to fruition, for various business reasons, but the maddening success of Super Mario Bros, the movie (1.3 billion) obviously re-motivated all the studios.
Unsurprisingly, the list continues to grow with a film adapted from a cult ninja game from the 80s and 90s: Shinobiwith the director of the action films Tyler RakeSam Hargrave.
UNIVERSAL NINJA
It was Universal who got their hands on the rights to Shinobiet the studio is not its first try in the video game department. There are a few blunders on their CV, with Street Fighter (1994), Doom (2005), and to a lesser extent Warcraft – Le Commencement (2012), which should have launched a cinema franchise. But they are especially behind Super Mario Bros., the movie. et Five Night at Freddy’sthe sequels of which are already arriving.
The choice of director Sam Hargrave is understandable given his success with action movies Tyler Rake on Netflixwhere he demonstrated obvious know-how for pirouettes and shootouts. Normal: he worked as a stuntman on several very big blockbusters (Transformers, X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers, Captain America), before becoming a second unit director on several blockbusters (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Suicide Squad, The Mandalorian).
The movie Shinobi will be written by Ken Kobayashi.
SHINONOON YOUR SCREENS
For anyone who discovered video games in the 80s and 90s, Shinobi (“ninja” in Japanese) is a little classic. Launched in 1987, the franchise was entitled to around ten episodes, thus becoming one of the stars of Sega. A new game has also been announced at the end of 2023.
The story follows at the start a ninja named Joe Musashiwho takes on a nasty criminal organization kidnapping children. With the strength of his shurikens, guns and katanas, he faces soldiers, samurai, ninjas with wings (because why not), or even species of Batman and Spider-Man.
Other characters took over later, notably Sho in Shinobi Legions (1995), Hotsuma dance Shinobi (2002), or Hibana in Nightshade (2003).
Sold 5 million copies around the world, the saga Shinobi has already almost been adapted into a film. In 2014, it was among the many titles that Sega planned to exploit with their production company Stories International, alongside Virtua Fighter, Golden Axe or even Altered Beast. In 2016, a film Shinobi was officially launched with producer Marc Platt. Which didn’t do anything, then.
No release date for this film Shinobi directed by Sam Hargrave, knowing that the director is already announced on several projects : the inevitable Tyler Rake 3 with Chris Hemsworth for Netflix, the adaptation of the comics Kill Them All (the story of a female assassin) at Paramount, and the film Matchbox (taken from Mattel carts) for Apple with John Cena. To see where will be placed the Sega ninja in the list of his priorities.
