John Wick: Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski has given an update on his Ghost of Tsushima film, saying the team is looking for ways to expand it beyond a single movie into sequels and TV spin-offs.
Speaking to ComicBookMovie.com, Stahelski discussed how you transfer the story of a video game, that’s dozens of hours long, into a film, and teased that Sony is perhaps thinking about more than a single bout on the silver screen.
“It’s just: how do I pack that much information into a feature that can go on to other features or a TV project or platform for that?” Stahelski asked.
“How do I pack that much information into a feature that can go on to other features or a TV project or platform for that?”
“The trick is not, ‘do we have great material?’ We know we have great material. It’s how to make it palpable in any platform, you know, how do we make a great two, two and a half hour movie out of this?
“[How do we] make it satisfying and leave it open to expand further from there? That’s the real challenge: how to take so much great and get it down to a watchable level.”
Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions announced the Ghost of Tsushima film in March 2021 and Stahelski said it’s now “in heavy development”.
He continued: “I love the property, look, the game story of Jin Sakai, and it being what I would say is the most anti-samurai samurai movie out there because of the storylines, thematics in it, and the journey that Jin Sakai goes through.”
Jin’s transition from an honourable Samurai to disgraced Ghost of Tsushima, balancing his own pride with the survival of his people, is “so interesting”, Stahelski said. “The characters in the story are definitely something I don’t want to lose in any way,” he continued, though added: “It’s just the visuals I want to keep.”
Stahelski has said previously he wants to do the film just right and have the cast and even the language be Japanese, something Sony is “so on board with”.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.