Just Cause Film Moves Forward With Blue Beetle Director After Years in Development Hell
The adaptation has been a long time coming.
Back when Avalanche Studios and Square Enix launched the highly anticipated sequel to the first Just Cause game, the series started to get the attention it deserved, as the second title is considered to be the best installment. With the kind of success that the game garnered, it was clear that more entries in the series were going to follow, but when it caught Hollywood’s eye, a film adaptation seemed like the obvious route to take to cash in on the triumph.
However, from multiple title changes to directors getting assigned and removed, the movie never saw the light of day and has stayed in development hell for more than a decade, but things could finally be moving forward for the long-overdue Just Cause adaptation.
The Just Cause Movie Has Yet Another Director Taking the Helm
According to a recent report by The Hollywood Reporter, the film adaptation based on Avalanche Studios and Square Enix’s action-adventure video game series will be helmed by Ángel Manuel Soto.
If that name sounds familiar, it is because just last year, Soto directed the DC Comics film Blue Beetle, which is considered to be one of the better entries in the now-dead DC Extended Universe. Moreover, the upcoming Just Cause film will be produced under 87North, which is the studio behind the hit John Wick movies and the recently released The Fall Guy, as part of its first-look deal with Universal.
It has also been confirmed that the Just Cause movie will be produced by David Leitch, the director of films like Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde, along with Kelly McCormick.
Additional producers listed for the film are Story Kitchen’s Mike Goldberg, Timothy I. Stevenson, and Dmitri M. Johnson, who have been behind game-to-movie adaptations like the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Tomb Raider. And considering their past experience with adapting video games into motion pictures, it seems like the Just Cause adaptation may actually be in safe hands.
The Adaptation Has Been in the Works for More Than a Decade
Fourteen years ago, a film called Just Cause: Scorpion Rising was reportedly in the works, fresh off the success of the second installment in the video game series.
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That concept never really came to fruition, and what followed were years of drastic changes that plagued the adaptation’s development, ranging from a potential connected universe with other Square Enix IPs to Jason Momoa signing up for the Just Cause film in 2017.
Additionally, directors like Brad Peyton and Michael Dowse have taken over the project and left without anything substantial taking place for the movie to proceed.
But there is a specified right time for everything, and with the recent emergence of effective video game adaptations like HBO’s The Last of Us, maybe Just Cause can now receive the proper film treatment that it deserves.
