We’ve been hearing quiet rumblings for quite some time about a planned film adaptation of the PlayStation 2 classic Shadow of the Colossus. The game centers around one man’s quest to hunt down and kill a dozen utterly massive monsters, and as such would lend itself quite well to an action flick with a decent budget. In that regard Sony Pictures has just picked up a crucial new piece in its plan to adapt the title’s pixelated source material.
According to a new article published by The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s script will now be written by Seth Lochhead. Lochhead is relatively new to the Hollywood scene, so though you likely don’t recognize his name you may recall his work on the screenplay for the 2011 action movie Hanna. Though Lochhead is now the key name on the Shadow of the Collossus script, he’s actually the second scribe to take a crack at the film. Justin Marks, the writer behind 2009’s objectively terrible Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, wrote a first draft of the script when Sony initially opted to bring Shadow of the Colossus to theaters, though it remains to be seen how much of Marks’ work remains in the final film. If nothing else, Lochhead’s prior efforts gives us more faith in the Shadow of the Colossus film than Marks’ would have, so while we’re always wary of video game to movie adaptations this project is suddenly looking a bit more rosy.
In further positive news, it’s important to remember that Lochhead is not the only member of this film’s crew with an exciting list of credits. In May of 2012 Sony Pictures hired Josh Trank to direct Shadow of the Colossus and while his name is as recognizable as Lochhead’s, he’s much more notable as the director and co-writer of 2011’s surprisingly excellent superhero movie Chronicle.
The involvement of these two men doesn’t necessarily guarantee that Shadow of the Colossus will be anything other than a terrible film, but those who’ve seen Hanna or Chronicle and played Shadow of the Colossus would likely agree that this project now has the potential to be something excellent (or, failing that, something very interesting). Hopefully Trank and Lochhead can manage to avoid the omnipresent curse that seems to hobble all films based on existing video game franchises.