The arcade racing classic Crazy Taxi is being revived as a feature film, as Netflix and Sega announce several nostalgia-bating adaptations. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s time to make some crazy money” someone at Sega almost certainly didn’t say when the company signed a new deal with Netflix. The videogame developer (and erstwhile console manufacturer) is ... Crazy Taxi | Netflix and Sega collaborating on film adaptation of the arcade racer
The arcade racing classic Crazy Taxi is being revived as a feature film, as Netflix and Sega announce several nostalgia-bating adaptations.
“Hey, hey, hey, it’s time to make some crazy money” someone at Sega almost certainly didn’t say when the company signed a new deal with Netflix.
The videogame developer (and erstwhile console manufacturer) is teaming up with the Stranger Things streaming giant to produce a series of adaptations of familiar titles.
Among them is a feature film based on Crazy Taxi – the 1999 arcade racer that asked players to ferry passengers to their chosen destination in tight time limits – speed limits and traffic safety be damned. It was basically Uber before Uber existed.
According to Variety, the Crazy Taxi movie will be written by the team behind last year’s The Naked Gun reboot – Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.
The announcement comes months after Sega announced Crazy Taxi: World Tour – a videogame reboot that aims to revive the original’s frenetic pace and floaty physics. It then soon came to light that Sega has been using generative AI during the game’s development – a disappointing bit of news that has overshadowed the game itself somewhat (Sega says that AI was only used for the “development of background assets”).
Read more: 8 classic Sega games we’d like to see turned into movies
Back in the world of TV and film, Sega and Netflix are also working a new Sonic The Hedgehog animated series, plus an adaptation of Stranger Than Heaven – an upcoming entry in the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series of gangster action games.
They’re the latest round of familiar Sega titles destined for screens small and large. Last year, Michael Bay was said to be adapting the 1980s arcade racer, OutRun, while the fantasy brawler Golden Axe animated series is due for release on the 16th September on Paramount+. Where there’s nostalgia, there’s crazy money to be made.
“Expect something cute yet cool for Sonic, hilariously crazy for Crazy Taxi and a badass action drama for Stranger Than Heaven,” enthused Toru Nakahara, a producer at Sega, “because we’ve got some amazing creative ideas lined up and we are just getting started. The whole team is absolutely thrilled!”
Here’s hoping AI doesn’t figure in the generation of those creative ideas. More on these as we get it.
