Sony’s hit video game franchise Helldivers is heading to the big screen, and it’ll be driven by the man who directed five out of the 10 Fast & Furious movies: Justin Lin.
And the project has already lined up a screenwriter as well: Gary Dauberman, a writer whose experience includes the It movies and the Annabelle films.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lin will produce the movie through his Perfect Storm Entertainment company. The story also notes that Lin used his inexperience as a gamer as a way to pitch Sony on a take that will “find the humanity in the characters and weave timely themes into the story, while building out a world and mythology.”
Lin has been credited with reviving the Fast & Furious films with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. While that movie was a success, he led the franchise to even bigger hits with Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and F9: The Fast Saga. Lin’s lone sci-fi film was 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. Lin is also signed to adapt the One-Punch Man manga and anime as a movie.
The first Helldivers game debuted in 2015, but its sequel, Helldivers 2, has proven to be even more successful across consoles and PC. The game casts players Helldivers, an elite group of soldiers who strive to protect Super Earth from enemy factions including Bugs, Cyborgs, and Illuminate. It’s proven to be a hit on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Sony’s PlayStation Productions banner has had success on the big screen with Uncharted, the film adaptation of Naughty Dog’s action-adventure series. The company is also producing The Legend of Zelda movie in conjunction with Nintendo. On television, Sony’s The Last of Us and Twisted Metal have both been renewed by HBO and Peacock, respectively.
