GoKawiilSomething to look forward to: In another example of how every video game in history will eventually be turned into a movie or TV show, Sega and Netflix have announced a partnership that will see Crazy Taxi, Stranger Than Heaven, and Sonic the Hedgehog turned into films or television adaptations.
Crazy Taxi, the classic racing game that was one of the best reasons to buy a Dreamcast, will be turned into a feature film written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, the duo who penned the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun. It will be produced by Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, and Toru Nakahara, the producers behind the Sonic franchise.
The Netflix/Sega collaboration will also see an animated Sonic the Hedgehog series. It's currently in development with Carlos Stevens, who directed the excellent 'Mason's Rats' episode of Love, Death + Robots Volume 3, and Nakahara, head producer at Sega.
Sonic will be aimed at an upper preschool audience. According to the press release, it's a "high-voltage, comedic, yet emotionally grounded series built for kids who want to feel a little edge, a little attitude, and a lot of 'that's my crew' wish fulfillment."
While Yakuza/Like a Dragon developer RGG Studio's Stranger Than Heaven game isn't scheduled for release until January 15, 2027, a live-action movie is already planned.
Set in early 20th-century Japan, Stranger Than Heaven follows a foreigner who claws his way from destitute stranger to feared yakuza to entertainment tycoon. Nakahara is also producing this one.
"Expect something cute yet cool for Sonic, hilariously crazy for Crazy Taxi, and a badass action drama for Stranger Than Heaven, because we've got some amazing creative ideas lined up and we are just getting started," Nakahara said.
Crazy Taxi is expected to be the first of three projects to be released – it's slated to arrive next year. Crazy Taxi: World Tour, the new entry in the gaming franchise, is also set to launch in 2027, so the timing could be beneficial for both – assuming the controversy over the game's use of generative AI "as part of the ideation process for background objects" doesn't overshadow things.
Video game movies and shows are the hot Hollywood trend right now. In July, Atari signed a deal with Universal Pictures to give 10 of the company's classic games the movie treatment, including Pong and Centipede.
Elsewhere, the Resident Evil reboot is looking promising, a Broken Sword movie is in the works, and Dave Bautista has taken over the role of Kratos in Amazon's God of War series.