Sony Unit to Produce Movies, TV Shows Based on Games
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has launched PlayStation Productions to transform the company’s 100+ video games into film and television projects. The production company, headed by Asad Qizilbash, is at work on its first projects on Sony Pictures’ Culver City lot. SIE Worldwide Studios chair Shawn Layden, who also oversees the new production company, noted that, with 25 years developing games, the company believes “now is a good time to look at other media opportunities across streaming or film or television.”
The Hollywood Reporter, in an exclusive, notes that the original content library includes “adventure to sci-fi to action to mystery to horror.” “Instead of licensing our IP out to studios, we felt the better approach was for us to develop and produce for ourselves,” said Qizilbash. “One, because we’re more familiar, but also because we know what the PlayStation community loves.”
Although film adaptations of games haven’t always worked well, Hollywood is friendlier to the concept of adapting games largely because today’s directors and producers play them.
Layden agreed, noting that his goal is, “to be the first gaming entity to do something lasting and meaningful in a completely different medium.”
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