‘Chronicle’ Helmer Josh Trank Takes On ‘Shadow Of The Colossus’ For Sony Pictures
EXCLUSIVE: Josh Trank has signed with Sony Pictures to develop to direct Shadow Of The Colossus, a big-scale live-action adaptation of the bestselling Sony video game. The film is being produced by Kevin Misher. The studio is 
interviewing writers to work with Trank, who after directing the $13 million sleeper hit Chronicle has become the go-to guy for big popcorn pictures. Trank takes on a Fumito Ueda-created game that has a strong narrative arc, along with the obligatory creature quotient to get the visual effects crowd excited.
The protagonist is a young man who thinks his lover has died. Desperate to bring her back, he heads into a forbidden land, and summons a demon who can wake the dead. The price for bringing back his girl: slay 16 colossi that dominate this mystical place. These are skyscraper-sized giants that rise from the ground, fly through the air and come from the water. As the young man works through his quest on horseback, he begins to wonder if he is on a noble pursuit to bring back his lover, or perhaps has made a deal with the devil and is being used. Trank has been a fan of the game since it launched in 2005, and sought out the job.
Trank is separately developing two Marvel superhero franchises in Fantastic Four for Fox and the Spider-Man spinoff Venom for Sony Pictures, and he’s also aligned to the Warner Bros comic book adaptation Red Star. He’s repped by WME and Management 360. Misher is separately prepping MGM’s remake of Carrie, and Misher Film execs Andy Berman and Kevin Chang are overseeing Shadow Of The Colossus. WME reps Trank.
This sounds like one of the single worst adaptation ideas ever.
It works as a game. It is one of the few games that works solely as a game. To turn this into a movie….? Makes me feel like someone is pulling down their pants and s**ting all over my childhood.
Nice one, Sony!
Nice one, Josh Trank!
Nice one, Hollywood!
I do hope we can see more sequels, remakes, requels, semakes, continuations, reboots, “reimaginings” and Tim Burton movies in the future. Because apparently no one wants anything original anymore. Ever.
If this thing is part of your childhood, you are still a child. Don’t worry, Trank is super-smart, he won’t ruin your precious 7-year-old videogame. This is actually one of the few game properties that makes sense for an adaptation because it has plot but not too much, and it’s incredibly cinematic. Would be excited to see it spiked with some of the edge and character in Game of Thrones.
Your comment itself is less original than the movies you decry.
This could be sweet. Glad the game is going to be opened up to a more mainstream audience.
This will work well it’s better than Battleship or John Carter.
This sounds like one of the single best adaptation ideas ever.
It works as a game. It is one of the few games that doesn’t work solely as a game. To turn this into a movie…? Makes me feel like someone is putting on their shoes and skipping all over with my childhood.
Nice one, Sony!
Nice one, Josh Trank!
Nice one, Hollywood!
I do hope we can see more remakes, adaptations, continuations, reboots, “reimaginings” and Tim Burton movies in the future. Because apparently there are so many great ideas out there.
Fans of the franchise won’t touch it, and those who do won’t be numerous enough to uphold the numbers necessary to make the film’s budget worthwhile… and those who aren’t familiar with the title will assume that it’s too “gamey” for their tastes. Proving this assumption wrong will be a challenge…
This can either be amazing or horrible. I love the idea but if you don’t capture the love between the boy and Aero then I truly believe the people who played the game will not enjoy the movie. Good luck
No this cannot and won’t under any circumstances be good. The revelation that dawns on the player slowly throughout the game, and that is revealed to the so-called protagonist at end-game is dark devastating. Hollywood doesn’t often go for dark and devastating, especially when it involves seeing the hero turn into to a villain. This will turn into a CGI action spectacle, the colossi will lose their sympathetic qualities, the ending will be changed to offer the hero redemption, and the audience the chance to leave feeling “uplifted”. Fail. And shame on every idiot who thinks this is a good idea. As someone else said, how about developing original scripts instead of mining and subsequently ruining every last thing published in every other country and medium.
Once people start attending the “original” films being produced, maybe Hollywood will shift its methods. But for now, all consumers watch are the remakes and the sequels, etc. Don’t hypocritically complain about Hollywood delivering exactly what consumers ask for.
That said, I can’t see this as a great adaptation. I loved the game, and I agree that a lot will be lost in translation. But how an adaptation (or sequel, or anything) can “ruin someones childhood” is beside me. The game will forever be great, and that’s all that matters. If you’re so afraid that Trank and Sony will butcher it, just don’t watch it. Remember the game for what it was and move on.
You’re an idiot. Ever heard of Inception? Or nearly anything produced by Pixar? Audiences do go out to see original titles. The problem is Hollywood isn’t greenlighting original scripts because they feel endless parades of sequels and remakes are “safer”. Don’t post if you have no real knowledge how the industry works.
It’s POSs like you that blindly justify Hollywood’s behavior that keeps the system running the way it does. Congratulations.
This made my day. Not only is SotC one of my favorite games, it will be treated the way a movie adaptation should be by Trank.
My hopes for this venture are low. The beauty of the game was that it was so vague. There was never anything in the game that told you that the colossi didn’t deserve death. The player only realized it after ruthlessly murdering a few of the more peaceful ones (the sky-snake is the main example). Unless a movie were an intensely un-traditional artsy film, it would fall short of this beauty. If it appeals to the masses of moviegoers, if it’s a box office hit, then it would be an insult to the purity of the game.
One question: WHY?
It boggles my mind that people want to make a movie out this so badly. To be honest, it wasn’t that good a game anyway.