After three years, a new expansion, and $120 million of additional investment, the video game Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying renewed attention and appreciation right now—and it turns out that will lead to a live-action adaptation, according to a press release on developer CD Projekt Red’s website.
The creative team behind the game will partner with Anonymous Content—a media company known for the TV series Mr. Robot and True Detective and the film The Revenant, among many other productions—to bring the franchise to live action. The announcement didn’t specify whether the live-action production would be a TV series or a movie, nor did it specify when it would come out or on which platforms.
It does, however, state that it will be a “brand-new story set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077,” and that it is “at an early development stage”—so early, in fact, that the team is looking for a screenwriter. The fact that it will be a new story makes it seem unlikely that we’ll see Keanu Reeves reprise his role as Johnny Silverhand.
This won’t be the first time either Cyberpunk 2077 or CD Projekt Red has ventured outside of video games, though. In 2022, Netflix released an anime titled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners that drew widespread critical acclaim and was a smash hit. It also led to substantial renewed interest in the game, which suffered a maligned launch in late 2020. Netflix also released a live-action TV series based on The Witcher, though it’s worth noting that it was a series of books before it was a video game franchise or a TV series.
The Cyberpunk franchise wasn’t initially a video game, either; it originated as a tabletop role-playing game.
Still, Hollywood studios and streaming platforms have been on a tear with video game adaptations these past few years. There have been successful theatrical releases of Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon, and Mario movies, acclaimed streaming TV adaptations of The Last of Us and The Witcher, and a whole bunch more, like TV shows or films based on franchises like Twisted Metal, Uncharted, and Gran Turismo.
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1974195