A classic Sega game franchise is being brought to life. Filmmaker Sam Hargrave, best known for his work on the Extraction film series, is working with Universal on an upcoming Shinobi movie, an adaption of Sega’s 1987 ninja game of the same name.
Originally released as an arcade game, Shinobi follows protagonist Joe Musashi, a skilled and respected ninja of the Oboro Clan, who faces off against the ninja crime syndicate Zeed. The Shinobi franchise was highly successful, spawning 14 games from 1987 to 2011, and selling over 4.6 million copies. A new Shinobi game is currently in the works, first announced during last year’s The Game Awards.
The movie’s script will be written by Ken Kobayashi, with Marc Platt and Adam Siegel producing via Marc Platt Productions. Dmitri M. Johnson will produce through Story Kitchen, and Toru Nakahara will produce through Sega. Mike Goldberg will serve as executive producer, with Timothy I. Stevenson as co-producer.
Universal has seen great success in their video game adaptations lately, with Five Nights at Freddy’s grossing US$297.2 million worldwide, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossing US$1.36 billion worldwide. Sega has similarly seen success with its Sonic the Hedgehog movie series, with a third film set to be released in December 2024.
No release date has been announced for the Shinobi movie.
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.
Si Jia
