‘Samurai Spirits’ Video Game Movie in the Works From ‘Altered Carbon’ Creator (Exclusive)
Laeta Kalogridis is unsleaving her sword for Samurai Spirits. The Altered Carbon creator will write a film adaptation of the video game for The Arena, the the new production company run by Erik Feig.
The 1 vs. 1 fighting game took place in feudal Japan and launched in arcades in 1993. After putting in their quarters, gamers were met with text that read, “A samurai fears not death, struggles to triumph over evil, and lives for one purpose: to destroy all enemies.” Samurai Spirits was known for allowing characters to use weapons, such as swords, or battle without them. It launched numerous sequels, most recently the 2019 entry Samurai Shodown.
Samurai Spirits is The Arena’s latest swing as it builds a slate of projects, many of which are adaptations of titles from SNK, the company that financially backs The Arena and is known for creating a number of influential arcade games in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Arena already has The Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer writing a Fatal Fury movie, while Reptiles filmmaker Grant Singer is developing a standalone prequel, Geese, focusing on the villain of Fatal Fury. The company also has the animated series Fatal Fury: The Vow in the works with Robert Kirkman’s Skybound.
Kalogridis created and showran Netflix’s Altered Carbon, based on Richard Morgan’s novels set in a future in which people can slip their consciousness into other bodies (also known as sleeves). She’s worked on Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, was credited as an executive producer on Avatar for her work on the script development, and co-wrote Terminator Genisys and Alita: Battle Angel. She is repped by WME.
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