Lots of games have been made into movies or have announced plans to become films, and now Facepunch’s survival game Rust could join them. Alistair McFarlane, the director and COO of Facepunch, told PC Gamer that the studio has been “talking to people” about adapting Rust for a film.
However, it’s still early days, and there is “nothing concrete” in the works as of yet. McFarlane did not name any potential partners outright but said “big-name companies” are in the mix.
No one should expect Facepunch to announce a Rust movie deal anytime soon, though, as McFarlane said Hollywood can move “very slow.”
Part of what takes so long is the pitching and approval process, McFarlane said, calling out how there are many hurdles and layers to clear before anything actually gets going.
“Between every step of that, there’s about 50 people trying to scam you,” Facepunch founder Garry Newman added. “It has to be someone that you really trust and can count on.”
Another element at play here is how some Hollywood companies are trying to obtain the Rust movie rights simply so another studio can’t have them, and that’s something that Facepunch is taking into account. “What we’ve seen is a lot of people are trying to retain these rights, so no one else gets it, because they might see it as a threat,” he said.
Obviously it’s still extremely early days and a Rust movie is not happening at this point, but people will naturally wonder who could appear in such a film. McFarlane said “anyone” could probably be the star of the movie, in part because Rust does not have much of a story or a main hero.
“I don’t even think you need a big-name star,” McFarlane said.
Rust is a survival game where players are dropped into a world where “everything wants you to die,” including the island’s wildlife and other players. The game is now in its 13th year of ongoing development, with Facepunch shipping close to 400 content updates in that time. The game is available across PC and console.