MOVIE NEWS – Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding universe is moving closer to becoming a live-action movie, and director Michael Sarnoski has now revealed a major update on the A24 adaptation. Location scouting will begin within a month, with filming reportedly scheduled to take place in Iceland and Northern Ireland in 2027.

There was a time when video game adaptations could almost automatically be dismissed as cheap and embarrassing misfires, but that era is clearly over. The Super Mario Bros. movies have generated enormous box office returns, while HBO’s The Last of Us has earned prestigious awards and widespread critical acclaim. Video game adaptations are no longer unwanted Hollywood curiosities; they have become some of the industry’s hottest intellectual properties.

Even A24, the studio known for prestigious movies such as Moonlight and Marty Supreme, is investing heavily in the trend. The company is already developing a big-screen adaptation of FromSoftware’s epic fantasy game Elden Ring, while Michael Sarnoski has been chosen to direct a live-action movie based on Death Stranding. The source material is the distinctive open-world action-adventure created by Hideo Kojima, the legendary game designer behind Metal Gear Solid.

Sarnoski, who previously directed the horror prequel A Quiet Place: Day One and this year’s Hugh Jackman movie The Death of Robin Hood, discussed the current status of Death Stranding in an interview with BAFTA. The director confirmed that the project is now approaching genuine preproduction, revealing: “We’re going on a scout in a month to scout some cool locations.”

According to Variety, the Death Stranding movie is expected to shoot in Iceland and Northern Ireland in 2027. No official release date has been announced, and with principal photography still months away, a theatrical release in 2027 currently appears unlikely. The important development is that after a lengthy development period, A24’s adaptation is now making tangible progress toward production.

Death Stranding takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a catastrophic event has made traveling between isolated human settlements extraordinarily dangerous. A mysterious form of rain known as Timefall rapidly ages anything it touches, while supernatural entities called BTs constantly threaten the surviving population. Norman Reedus plays Sam Porter Bridges, a courier tasked not only with delivering vital supplies but also with reconnecting isolated cities through a vast communication network.

Michael Sarnoski previously confirmed that the movie will not simply retell the game’s story. Hideo Kojima has allowed him to create his own characters and explore a new corner of the Death Stranding universe while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original. Sarnoski told BAFTA that he is extremely happy with the screenplay, even though he continues to revise it, and wants to make an emotional adventure capable of satisfying longtime players while also resonating with audiences who have never experienced Kojima’s game.

The original Death Stranding already featured a remarkably star-studded cast, including Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley and Guillermo del Toro, with several returning for the 2025 sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. It remains unclear whether any of them will appear in A24’s live-action movie. The franchise is expanding in several directions regardless, as an animated Death Stranding movie and a television series are also currently in development.

Source: MovieWeb