Arise now, ye Tarnished — an Elden Ring movie is coming! Yes, after weeks of hushed whispers and grapevine rumours doing the rounds, Deadline is rep
Arise now, ye Tarnished — an Elden Ring movie is coming! Yes, after weeks of hushed whispers and grapevine rumours doing the rounds, Deadline is reporting — and Bandai Namco have confirmed — that FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed, epic fantasy video game is getting the live-action film treatment in collaboration with A24. And, what’s more, Alex Garland — yes, he of 28 Years Later, Annihilation, and Warfare fame — is heading into the Lands Between as writer-director on the ambitious project.
Created by Soulslike game guru Hidetaka Miyazaki from a story penned by Game Of Thrones godhead George R. R. Martin, Elden Ring is a sprawling murky fantasy with a deep bench of characters and even deeper lore. At its simplest level, the game sees the player assume the role of a Tarnished (a being once banished from and now returned to the mythic realm of the Lands Between), embarking on a quest to repair the broken Elden Ring — a collection of runes that determine and uphold the laws of reality — and become the Elden Lord. It’s heady stuff, and far less obviously adaptable than the _Fallout_s and The Last Of Us‘ of this world. However, while on the one hand Elden Ring being a game in which extensive swathes of its story and exposition is discovered organically through exploration of the Land Between’s open world doesn’t immediately scream cinema, on the other it’s not challenging to see how the richness and expansiveness of said world appeals to a filmmaker like Garland and a studio like A24.
Both writer-director and studio are renowned for creating immersive cinematic experiences, and neither fear heading into the unknown: Garland’s Annihilation dove fearlessly into challenging sci-fi and the kind of monstrous creations Miyazaki is renowned for, while A24 backed David Lowery’s Medieval fantasy The Green Knight, a movie that tonally and stylistically could provide a very solid framework for mounting an Elden Ring adaptation. Also, it’s worth noting that Garland already has skin in the gaming, er, game, having co-written Ninja Theory’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic adventure offering Enslaved: Odyssey To The West.
Before Garland heads into a realm of Outer Gods, Golden Orders, Omens, Tarnished, and maidenless vassals of the Lands Between however, fans can next look forward to seeing the prolific writer’s handiwork in Danny Boyle reteam 28 Years Later, which is set to hit UK cinemas on 20 June. We’ll keep you up to date on the Elden Ring movie though as more news filters through, and while we wait to be blessed by the Erdtree’s featherlight on the gigantic screen, we probably have just about enough time to (re)work our way through the original game’s six endings. Forefathers, one and all, bear witness!
COMMENTS