Erik Feig’s production company, The Arena, is adapting yet another SNK game into a movie, with a Samurai Spirits film in the works, written by Altered Carbon creator Laeta Kalogridis.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the adaptation follows a string of SNK-related projects taken up by the studio, including a Fatal Fury movie from The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer, a Fatal Fury: The Vow animated series from Skybound, a live-action origin story of Geese, the main villain of the Fatal Fury franchise, and an Art of Fighting webtoon helmed by Brandon Chen, the author behind webtoons like Double Kill and Blood System.
While the Samurai Spirits project is still in its early phases, it will be based on SNK’s fighting game franchise set in feudal Japan, which made its debut in 1993 as a 1v1 arcade game. The franchise, which is also known as Samurai Shodown, has received 17 mainline and standalone titles in the years that followed, with the most recent release being the 2019 Samurai Shodown soft reboot, which brought the franchise to the modern age with a new 3D cel-shaded art style.
The franchise is also known for being one of the earliest in the genre to have a primary focus on weapon-based combat, allowing players to engage in both armed and unarmed combat. Unlike many of its fighting game peers, which tended to focus on combo-heavy systems, the series defined itself on precision, where a single sword slash could turn the tide of battle, making spatial awareness and proper positioning key to victory. The series would also introduce legendary characters such as the ronin Haohmaru, who was inspired by the real-life Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, and the Ainu warrior Nakoruru, so it remains to be seen how the movie will bring these iconic characters to life, or bring the game’s tight sword-based combat to life.
For now, at least, the adaptation is in pretty good hands, with Kalogridis known for creating and helming Netflix’s Altered Carbon series, which ran for two seasons and was based on Richard Morgan’s novels surrounding a future where people could transfer their consciousness into artificial bodies known as sleeves. She also co-wrote the 2019 anime adaptation Alita: Battle Angel, and Paramount’s 2015 sequel Terminator Genisys.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
The Baroness
