PlayStation Productions sets up for film shoots

PlayStation Productions has been set up by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) to produce film and TV versions of PlayStation videogame.

Like many in Hollywood, PlayStation Productions has been inspired in part by the extraordinary success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The MCU has generated 22 films over just 11 years and has made $2.6bn so far from Avengers: Endgame alone.

PlayStation has more than a hundred videogame titles in its back-catalogue that have their own established fan bases. The Tomb Raider franchise is among the highest-profile and has already been adapted into three separate films with varied success, the most recent of which starred Alicia Vikander (pictured) and was released last year.

The new PlayStation Productions will be directly responsible for shooting projects – rather than licencing game titles and concepts to other studios – and sister company Sony Pictures will distribute.

“We looked at what Marvel has done in taking the world of comic books and making it into the biggest thing in the film world," said Shawn Layden, chairman of Worldwide Studios at SIE, in comments to The Hollywood Reporter.

“It would be a lofty goal to say we’re following in their footsteps, but certainly we’re taking inspiration from that. We don’t have to rush to market. We don’t have a list of ‘X number of titles must be done in this year’ – none of that.”

Film adaptations of high-profile videogames are notoriously tricky to get right. Indeed, the latest screen iteration of Tomb Raider - shot largely in South Africa - was only a modest success.

PlayStation adventure franchise Uncharted and zombie survival story The Last of Us have been in and out of development as movies for years, so it seems possible the establishment of PlayStation Productions could help breathe new life into these titles.

The Resident Evil games have generated one of the most successful film franchises so far, with six movies released since 2002. Halo is another popular franchise and is scheduled to be turned into a new TV drama that will shoot in Budapest from later this year.

Image: Warner Bros/Ilzek Kitshoff