Hazelight Studios’ Split Fiction is truly a gift that keeps on giving, as the smash hit co-op adventure is now set to receive a film adaptation which has sparked off a bidding war among top Hollywood studios.
According to Variety’s sources at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, the film is currently in its early stages under the leadership of Story Kitchen (formerly DJ2 Entertainment), a studio founded by Sonic the Hedgehog producer Dmitri M. Johnson, which specialises in adapting video games to movies and TV.
The studio is reportedly in the process of putting together the film’s cast, writers and director, all while multiple offers for its rights come in from “top Hollywood studios”, although specifics are currently kept under wraps as the bidding war unfolds.
Written by Hazelight studio head Josef Fares and Sebastian Johansson, the game follows a pair of authors, Mia and Zoe, who get trapped inside the respective sci-fi and fantasy worlds of their creation, making use of its unique genre-bending plot to provide imaginative split-screen gameplay mechanics that evolve and shift with every level. Its transition to the big screen then seems like an exciting prospect considering the almost limitless possibilities to provide audiences with something new beyond what was shown in the game.
Split Fiction also marks the latest game by Hazelight Studios to receive a film adaptation courtesy of Story Kitchen, as its previous title, 2021’s It Takes Two, is also receiving a movie after being picked up by Amazon in 2022 alongside producer Seven Bucks Production. With a combination of its record-breaking launch success and the imaginative source material to pull from, it should come as no surprise that Split Fiction is next in line to receive a big-screen transition, although it will still be interesting to see how the film shapes up as it enters further into development.
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.
