An episodic live-action adaptation of videogame epic Final Fantasy XIV is being put into development by Sony Pictures and The Expanse company Hivemind.
With cast, crew, story and distributor to be announced – likely, still to be defined – Final Fantasy XIV is making its way to TV via a live-action episodic series.
Sony Pictures and Hivemind Entertainment are teaming up on the project, which promises “an original story set in the fantastic [Final Fantasy XIV] world of Eorzea”.
Audiences can expect to “explore the struggle between magic and technology in a quest to bring peace to a land in conflict”, while franchise hallmarks such as “magitek and beastmen, airships and chocobos” will be involved, plus characters from the game.
“This show is about embracing and embodying all of the elements that have made the mythos such an endlessly captivating phenomenon, and it’s an immense honour to be bringing all of Eorzea’s iconic characters, settings, and concepts ... to a television audience,” said Sony Pictures TV’s co-president, Chris Parnell.
The Final Fantasy franchise has a long relationship with TV and film, though usually via computer animated features such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005), and Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016), or non-theatrical works such as CGI web series Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV.
Hivemind’s track record suggests that this latest adaptation could attain a robust level of quality, given its association with sci-fi series The Expanse.
It’s also involved with Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher, first a series of fantasy novels and then popularised as an extremely well-rated videogame franchise.
Final Fantasy XIV previously inspired Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light, a soap opera about the strengthening bonds between a father and son as mediated by the game.
Writing partners Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton, who collaborated on 2011 horror short Blood Soldiers: Interrogation, have been assigned the Final Fantasy XIV project.
Together, they have several other projects in various stages of development, including Winter’s Knight (inspired by a novel by Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum), comic book adaptation THUNDER Agents, and fictional H.G. Wells origin story The Wells Initiative. – AFP Relaxnews
