Westeros

Via Variety, news is out that A24 and Bandai Namco are producing a live-action film adaptation of Elden Ring, the hit game from FromSoftware whose background mythos was created by none other than George R.R. Martin. GRRM and production partner Vince Gerardis will both receive producer credits for the film, but what’s particularly exciting is the announcement that Alex Garland is set to both direct and write the film.

Garland’s film career started in 2002 when he wrote the classic film 28 Days Later, and went on to become a director of films such as Ex Machina, Men, Civil War. Most recently, he co-wrote and co-directed Warfare with Ray Mendoza, and his next film is 28 Years Later which he wrote for director Danny Boyle.

Elden Ring is a fascinating universe to tell a story in… and a challenging one to do in live action, because it has such a very FromSoft aesthetic with unique monster designs. It’ll be interesting to see whether the film will be a more direct rendition of the game’s main narrative, or if it’ll delve into the past events leading to the catalcysmic event known as the Shattering.

In other production news, it’s now reported that GRRM is producing something else in conjunction with Lion Forge Entertainment: an animated feature film based on the novella “A Dozen Tough Jobs” by GRRM’s late friend Howard Waldrop, transposing the 12 Labours of Hercules to the 1920s Mississippi. Writer Joe R. Lansdale will adapt. His past works have been adapted to film (Bubba Ho-Tep), television (Hap & Leonard), and animation (several episodes of Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots).

Particularly interesting is that Blue Spirit, a French animation company that was one of several who brought the critically-acclaimed Blue Eye Samurai to life, will be providing animation duties for this project. GRRM praised that series after it aired.