Sega is partnering with PictureStart to develop two film adaptions of classic video games Space Channel 5 and Comix Zone. Most recently, Sega has found success with Sonic the Hedgehog being adapted and is now looking to continue its success with other properties.
Picturestart is a media company that has worked on films like Am I Ok? and Cha Cha Real Smooth and has helped work on the Borderlands film.
Space Channel 5 is a comedy/dance adaptation of the 1999 dance game where a fast-food worker is recruited by a freedom reporter from the future to save the world from aliens. The only catch is the only way to stop these aliens is by using the power of dance.
The adaptation is written by Barry Battles and Nir Paniry. Battles worked on The Baytown Outlaws while Paniry directed Extracted, a sci-fi drama nominated for the Emerging Visions award at South by Southwest.
Comix Zone is an adaption of the 1995 beat’em up from Sega, a game that has become influential over the years. It follows a jaded comic book creator and a young, queer writer of colour, who is sucked into the final issues of his comic book. Together they must put aside their differences to stop a supervillain from enacting complete destruction while learning to evolve the power of storytelling.
The Comix Zone adaption will be written by Mae Catt, who wrote on the HBO Max original, Young Justice and the How To Train Your Dragon spin-off, Dragons: The Nine Realms.
Royce Reeves-Darby and Erik Feig are overseeing both projects for Picturestart and will produce alongside Samie Kim Falvey. Sega’s Vice President Co-COO Shuji Utsumi is overseeing both projects and Toru Nakahara, a producer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movies serves as executive producer. Takumi Yoshinaga (SEGA video game director) will join the team for Space Channel 5 and Kagasei Shimomura (SEGA video game producer) will join the team for Comix Zone.
