A few months back, we reported on the slightly surprising news that Alex Garland—whose filmography runs through strange, frequently subversive, but also highly modern cinematic worlds like Annihilation and Civil War—was getting into the video game adaptation game. Specifically, Garland had been announced to write and direct a film version of Elden Ring, our (and many other outlet’s) 2022 pick for Game Of The Year. It was a bit of a weird fit, partly because Garland’s never dipped a toe into fantasy, and partly because Elden Ring is such a deliberately eclectic property in its own right, filled with ambiguities, and highly hostile to straightforward interpretation. But, it turns out, Garland really, really wanted the job, to the point of generating 160-page scripts on spec and then flying across the planet to pitch them to the game’s creators.
This is per IGN, reporting on a wider story from The New Yorker about film studio A24, which is bankrolling Garland’s project. Said story makes it clear that “Let’s make an Elden Ring movie” was an idea that came pouring out of Garland’s brain, full stop: He apparently called up the company’s head of film, Noah Sacco, to rant at him about the game, before showing him its fantasy fighting in action to try to get a green light. (“The lush visuals and fantasy setting reminded Sacco of the Lord Of The Rings movies. He replied, ‘Fuck yeah.'”) Garland then spent some not-inconsiderable amount of his own time writing a script for a movie nobody had actually asked him to make yet, which he then took to Japan to present to the developers at From Software. (He also apparently compiled another 40 pages of visual references to help make his pitch, apparently successfully, to From’s highly esteemed designer and president, Hidetaka Miyazaki.)
So, regardless of how it ends up going, never let it be said that A24’s Elden Ring movie suffered from a lack of passion. (Even if we can’t help but get a little nervous about another video game adaptation anecdote from that same New Yorker piece, centered on the studio’s planned adaptation of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding games. Learning that Sacco asked Kojima—a man possessed of both brilliant ideas and absolutely no ability to edit or modulate them—“Are you sure you don’t want to direct?” the movie himself produced in us the same feeling that the question “How about we go outside in the dark woods and split up for some pre-marital sex?” might generate in connoisseurs of slasher flicks. Blessedly, Kojima apparently said no to the offer.)
