Nearly a month after releasing their live-action adaptation of anime “Cowboy Bebop,” Netflix is reportedly developing a live-action film based on the “Mega Man” video game franchise.
What we know so far: A live-action adaptation of the classic Capcom video game was first reported in October 2018, but Netflix was not part of that announcement. At the time, the movie was attached to Chernin Entertainment and 20th Century Fox, with directing duo Henry Joost and Rel Schulman listed as the film’s writers and directors.
- Blogger Rockman Corner claimed to have first spotted the Netflix partnership after seeing a recent website update of Supermarché, Joost and Schulman’s production company. The update listed “Mega Man” as one of the duo’s projects in development.
- “Henry, Rel and their in-house producer Orlee-Rose Strauss maintain an active development slate. Features in the works include an adaptation of Capcom’s ‘Mega Man’ for Chernin Entertainment and Netflix, which they wrote and are directing,” the update said, according to Rockman Corner.
- As of this writing, the update no longer mentions Chernin Entertainment and Netflix. Sources “familiar with the project” have said it remains “very early in development,” according to IGN.
What the creators are saying: Joost and Schulman are fans of the Capcom game. They expressed excitement about the project in a July 2020 interview with IGN.
- “We are super excited about it,” Joost told the media website. “It’s a project very near and dear to our hearts and we’re psyched.”
- Schulman said “Mega Man” was his first Nintendo video game. “I like that he’s an underdog hero,” he said.
- Screenwriter, director and producer Mattson Tomlin, who wrote the duo’s “Project Power,” will be joining them in writing “Mega Man.” In an August 2020 interview with Polygon, Tomlin said he plans on digging deeper while exploring Mega Man as a character.
- “We all kind of know him as this cartoonish Blue Bomber who jumps and shoots, and to kind of go beyond that and knowing that, OK, visually it’s going to be a certain thing that is going to please the video game fan, but you know what is the story at the center?” Tomlin told the outlet. “It’ll be universal and primal and emotional and everybody can kind of relate to.”
Featured Image via Mega Man / Capcom
