Movies based on video games still don't have the best track record, but that isn't stopping producer Marc Platt, who has just lined up a deal with game behemoth SEGA to develop a movie based on its Shinobi franchise.
Originally debuting in arcades back in 1987 to take advantage of the late '80s ninja boom, the game has since spread across multiple platforms and become a successful series of titles, with the most recent version arriving in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS. Presumably the film will take on some manner of a hero learning the ways of the ninja warrior and battling evil martial arts types.
“We love the Shinobi games and believe that the world of ninjas has never been properly explored onscreen,” Platt tells Variety. “We now have the opportunity to do just that. With Shinobi, we hope to make a film that honors the essence of the games and brings this fascinating world to life for moviegoing audiences.”
It's not the first time that SEGA has tried to bring Shinobi and other titles to the big screen; the original announcement about Stories, SEGA's in-house development team, arrived in late 2014. But this is the first we've really heard of anything since then. Are ninjas still hot property? Daredevil's second season recently got a lot of use out of them, at least...