In what is described as a “Japanese language film with an all-Japanese cast and a Hollywood-style budget,” video game fans are thrilled for a big screen version of Ghost of Tsushima, and no one seems more excited about bringing the award-winning video game to life than fanboy and John Wick Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski.
The filmmaker recently spoke to ComicBookMovie.com about adapting Ghost of Tsushima and confirmed he’s currently in “heavy development”, before delving into appeal of the game, stating: “I love the property, like, look, the game story of Jin Sakai, and it being what I would say is, quote, the most anti-samurai samurai movie out there.
He continues, “Because of the storylines, the thematics in it, and the journey that Jin Sakai goes through from his transition to, or his choices of, who to become and what the people need him to become and what he’s honor bound [to do]… is so interesting to me, like the story is definitely, the characters in the story are definitely something I don’t want to lose in any way.”
As with much of the filmmaker’s work, he also knows the importance of making it appealing while diving deeper into the material, “It’s just the visuals I want to keep. It’s just how do I pack that much information into a feature that can go on to other features or a TV project or platform… We know we have great material.”
Adding, “It’s how to make it palpable in any platform; you know, how do we make a great two, two and a half hour movie out of this? Make it satisfying and leave it open to expand further from there, like that’s the real challenge is how to take so much ‘great’ and get it down to a watchable level.”
Stahelski will helm the project, with writer/director Takashi Doscher penning the script.