GOTY 2021 Winner ‘It Takes Two’ Making the Jump to Film/TV
Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two, the latest Game of the Year winner, is making the jump to either big or small screens.
The biggest (and most heartwarming) surprise from last month’s Game Awards ceremony was seeing Josef Fares and the Hazelight team run with the main award of the night — EA-published co-op action-platformer It Takes Two is a mid-sized release that went up against 2021’s biggest triple-A games. Now, it seems like Fares and the studio are taking advantage of that momentum to bring the video game to a wider audience, as they’re teaming with dj2 Entertainment to make either a film or TV series.
The news comes from Variety, who state that “no studio or network is attached to the project, but sources say it is currently the subject of a multi-party bidding war.” However, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, the writers behind 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog and its upcoming sequel, are already attached to the project. As stated before, the deal locks down an adaptation that could take many forms. Live-action? Maybe. But the cartoon-like charm of the game also lends itself to be turned into an animated project, so we’ll have to wait and see. Read this quick synopsis if you aren’t familiar with the title:
Cody and May, a married couple, are planning on getting a divorce. After telling their daughter Rose the news, she takes her hand-made dolls, which look like her parents, into the family shed and tries to repair their relationship by play-acting. The parents find themselves trapped inside the dolls’ bodies as a consequence of Rose’s tears landing on the dolls. Dr. Hakim, who has assumed the anthropomorphic form of his relationship therapy book, tells May and Cody that he has been given the job of trying to fix their relationship as they try to reach Rose.
Hazelight founder and creative director Josef Fares said the following:
“Creating the world and story in ‘It Takes Two’ was so much fun for me and the team… Since it has a strong narrative with many crazy characters and just as crazy co-op action moments, the potential is huge for a great adaption to film or television.”
dj2 CEO and founder Dmitri M. Johnson praised It Takes Two and its world:
“dj2 is honored to partner with Josef, Oskar [Wolontis], and the incredible team at Hazelight Studios on the linear media adaptation of ‘It Takes Two’… Just like the rest of the gaming world, we fell head-over-heels in love with Cody, May, Rose, Dr. Hakim and the imaginative fantasy universe Hazelight have created, and can’t wait to bring these characters -and this world- to life on the big and small screen.”
In addition to the Sonic films, the company is also behind the Tomb Raider anime series set up at Netflix, and is currently developing a Disco Elysium TV series plus the film based on Sleeping Dogs that Donnie Yen has been trying to make for years.
As a rather big side note, we must report that American McGee’s Alice, another game published by EA (and released in 2000), is making the jump to television as well.
The THR exclusive points at X-Men and Watchmen scribe David Hayter, mostly known as the voice of Solid Snake (and the other Snakes) in the Metal Gear game franchise, as the man set to bring the classic property to the small screen. Details are being kept under wraps, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see some elements from the sequel, Alice: Madness Returns (pictured above), make it into the show. This is another video game adaptation that has been on-and-off for a long time, much like the upcoming Halo series.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
