I’m Calling It: The Elden Ring Movie Will Live Off The Success Of The Mario Movies

As a gamer, I enjoy the current renaissance of video game adaptations. Even the new 3D-animated The Super Mario Galaxy movie or Sonic movies or award-winning TV series such as The Last of Us, It falls again Cyberpunk: EdgerunnersHollywood is now full of fan-favorite creators, a change from the 1990s when licenses were often bought to benefit small audiences.

on monday, A24 featured a live-action cast of Elden Ring movie, to be directed by Alex Garland (Civil War, Extinction) and was released on March 3, 2028. Although this looks promising on paper, it is hard to ignore the scale of the challenge of adapting a game known for its impersonal character, secret belief and multiple endings. However, there is reason to believe that this can be one of the most effective ways to adapt to a video game.

For starters, A24, the studio behind the production, is known for acclaimed films like The Brutalist, Moonlight and Everywhere Everywhere All at Once — all very unique films that follow unique, human visions. While the studio often produces smaller films with budgets under $50 million, the Elden Ring film will reportedly surpass the $100 million budget.

Filming is already underway, and leaked images show what appears to be a near-perfect recreation of the game’s locations and scenes. On Wednesday, a video uploaded to YouTube showed a crowd of people cheering as the actor known as Mdli Wobolongwe was hanged, watching closely the opening cinematic moment of the game.

Watching that short clip of a character who isn’t central to the story, yet portrayed with such precision, is amazing. What worries me the most, however, is the story of the Elden Ring. Unlike other changes in development, such as Death StrandingThe Legend of Zelda and Resident Evil, Elden Ring is just one game with one DLC (The reputation of Erdtree) and one multiplayer spinoff (Nightreign). That’s all.

Still, developer FromSoftware packs a huge amount of history into the game, though not in the traditional sense of dialogue or readable scripts. Instead, as with its other titles, the studio distributes background information about the characters and the world through descriptions of items, weapons, armor and spells.

This world-building method, first used by FromSoftware in 2009’s Demon’s Souls, is like a jigsaw puzzle. But instead of putting together the pieces of his picture, it’s about taking two or three sentences to build a whole book. In fact, fans who create YouTube videos about the game’s story are now publishing a 400-page book.

Not only is there a huge amount of lore to dig into, the scope of the Elden Ring is vast. The main story of the game follows the journey of the player character to become the Old King of Middle-earth, the god over the mysterious immortal lands. That desire is shaped by wars and betrayals that take place long before the events of the game. It appears as a season of Game of Thrones, which is appropriate since George RR Martin helped develop the story of the Elden Ring.

Fortunately, there is hope that director Alex Garland understands the assignment when it comes to adapting the Elden Ring. Unlike previous video game scenarios, where screenwriters were often tasked with conceptualizing stories from games they hadn’t played yet and forcing them into a 90-minute plot, this production is led by a fan of the game.

A New Yorker article about A24 last year recounts an anecdote involving Garland and Noah Sacco, the studio’s head of film. Sacco visited Garland, who was interested in the play, and proposed that it be filmed. Sacco agreed to the idea, and Garland proceeded to write a 200-page script that included 40 pages of visuals. The two later went to Japan to ask permission from the game’s director, Hidetaka Miyazaki. Miyazaki was reportedly impressed with Garland’s knowledge of the game, which came from completing it at least seven times — a huge feat considering it takes 60 hours or more to beat.

We still don’t know when the Elden Ring movie will screen. Another thought is that it could serve as a prologue, focusing on the Shattering, an in-game historical event that sets the stage for the game’s present-day story. An overarching story surrounds those events, and because FromSoftware leaves many details open to interpretation, there’s room for Garland to develop a compelling narrative while staying true to the source material.

If you look at all the elements of this production, the pieces are in place of a successful film. The award-winning studio is making its largest investment in a video game adaptation, led by a dedicated fan director. He has permission from the game’s creator, who has not been quick to grant licensing rights, and Martin is involved as a producer. The Elden Ring movie has the potential to be not only a decent adaptation, but one of the best video game adaptations ever made.

At least, that’s the hope.