Just Cause | Long-in-the-works videogame adaptation hires new writer

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Nobody 2ā€™s Aaron Rabin has been drafted in to try and crack the planned adaptation of open world videogame Just Cause.


A couple of years from now, a handful of movies could have Hollywood executives all in a lather about the next new big thing: open world videogame to film adaptations.

It was announced in the past few days that Simu Lui is set to produce and star in a take on the Hong Kong open world action game, Sleeping Dogs. Thereā€™s also a take on Cyberpunk 2077 heading to TV, not to mention the celebrated Fallout TV show that landed last year. Oh, and thereā€™s Sonyā€™s Ghost Of Tsushima adaptation on the way as well.

The biggest open world franchise of all time, Grand Theft Auto, is yet to lend its name to a film adaptation, but another one of its long-time rivals, Just Cause, has had a movie in development for several years now. The series sees you overthrow a dictator in whichever country protagonist Rico Rodriguez happens to land in, and one of the gamesā€™ big selling points is the huge amount of havoc you can wreak in its various island settings. Oh, and David Tennant also played the voice of an increasingly nervous broadcaster in Just Cause 3.

Read more: In praise of Just Cause 3ā€™s radio broadcasts

A film adaptation was first announced back in 2020, with Derek Kolstad, who brought John Wick and Nobody to life on the big screen, penning the screenplay for the film. He was joined by Stuber director Michael Dowse, but given all thatā€™s happened in the years since 2020, itā€™s probably no surprise that this earlier incarnation failed to make it through development.

The latest version has been set up at Universal, and has Blue Beetle director Ángel Manuel Soto in the directorā€™s chair. According to The Wrap, Nobody 2's Aaron Rabin has been drafted in to write the screenplay. The script for this one really is going to have to be something, because given the scale of the set pieces needed to recreate the magic and the mayhem of a Just Cause game, thereā€™s probably going to be a lot of digital effects involved (unless Universal is planning to take Mission: Impossible's mantle and run with it). Therefore, a punchy and absorbing story will be essential to balance out all of the digital shenanigans.

The Just Cause movie sounds as though itā€™s a way off, but as always, weā€™ll bring you more as we hear it. Meanwhile, Nobody 2 lands this August.

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