At CES 2025, Sony officially announced that feature film adaptations of Horizon Zero Dawn and Helldivers are currently in development. For the Horizon film, Sony’s Columbia Pictures company will produce the movie, which is set in a post-apocalyptic future where human civilization has reverted back to a primitive state following a cataclysmic robot uprising. With machines now the dominant lifeforms, the mainline Horizon games focus on Aloy, her mysterious origins, and the future of humanity.
This isn’t the first time that Sony and Columbia Pictures have worked on a live-action video game project, as the film company previously produced an adaptation of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted back in 2022. Starring Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mustachioed mentor Victor Sullivan, Uncharted was a modest hit at the box office and made $407 million worldwide. Head of PlayStation Productions Asad Qizilbash briefly spoke about the Horizon film at CES 2025, explaining that it’s currently in an early stage of development.
What’s also interesting is that Horizon was originally lined up to get a live-action Netflix series, but last year it was reported that the project wasn’t moving forward due to workplace misconduct allegations surrounding The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman.
Sony’s other big film project, Helldivers, is based on the games developed by Arrowhead. Helldivers 2 was released last year and was one of the big hits of 2024, and in case you missed it, the games are essentially a fusion of Starship Troopers and Warhammer 40K. Set in a distant future, the games are heavily inspired by Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers film, as they depict overzealous soldiers violently protecting Super Earth and its planets from aliens while they attempt to spread their philosophy of “Managed Democracy” across the stars.
Additionally, developer Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima game will be getting an anime adaptation based on the game’s co-op Legends mode. Sony is partnering up with anime distributor Crunchyroll and Demon Slayer studio Aniplex to bring the animated project to life. A live-action Ghost of Tsushima movie has also been in development for several years now, with John Wick’s Chad Stahelski attached to direct. Updates on the project have been minimal as of late, but back in 2023, Stahelski did mention that the script had been completed.
