Fans have reacted with a mixture of excitement and caution to the news that hit game Elden Ring is to be made into a live-action film.
The epic dark fantasy game will be adapted by Alex Garland, who is known for movies like Ex Machina and Warfare, along with US entertainment company A24.
“I am very excited,” said TikToker Blue Thunder, adding that he hopes it will stay faithful to the game. Grant Greenly added on TikTok: “All the lore, all the action, all the Elden lords, all the fights… it’s more than we could ask for. This is going to be awesome.”
However, gaming journalist Christopher Dring, host of the Games Business Show podcast, told the BBC that “translating something like Elden Ring is no small feat”.
“Video games have become the new comic books for Hollywood right now,” he said.
“After the huge success of Minecraft, Mario and Sonic at the box office, plus Fallout and The Last of Us on the smaller screen, movie producers have been scrambling to sign all sorts of games, from the biggest proven brands to entirely unproven properties that haven’t even come out yet.”
Elden Ring is “one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy games out there”, he said, with more than 30 million players and the involvement of Game of Thrones author George RR Martin, who helped create its original story. “So it has a lot going for it.”
But he added: “We have seen plenty of game adaptations fail to succeed on the big screen, including last year’s Borderlands movie, which had a strong cast and was directed by Eli Roth. But it’s very much the trend, and it’s only growing.”