From Funkotron to Hollywood

In a reasonably shocking announcement that I don’t suppose anyone noticed coming, Amazon Studios has introduced that it has begun pre-production on a brand new function movie adaptation of the basic Sega Mega Drive journey ToeJam & Earl — The brand new film was introduced yesterday in The Hollywood Reporter.

The brand new movie is being produced by Unanimous Media — the studio based by Stephen Curry — with a screenplay penned by Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo, who’ve labored on the Lodge Transylvania franchise, in addition to the upcoming Disney+ sequence, Superfudge. The film shall be co-produced by Story Kitchen, headed up by John Wick scribe Derek Kolstad and Sonic the Hedgehog producer Dmitri Johnson.

ToeJam & Earl, created by Mark Voorsanger and Greg Johnson, hit the 16-bit market in 1991 and issues the esoteric adventures of two hep-cat area aliens, who turn into marooned on Earth after their spaceship crashlands on our horrible little planet. From there, the 2 tripped-out protagonists should collect collectively the remnants of their ship, whereas avoiding delightfully satirical characters that symbolize the weird nature of human life.

One thing of a cult basic, ToeJam & Earl could be adopted by two sequels: 1993’s Panic of Funkotron and 2002’s Mission to Earth. Extra just lately, 2019 noticed the discharge of crowdfunded title Again within the Groove, which returned the franchise to its split-screen, 3/4 perspective mechanics. Whereas TJ & E have been part of gaming for a lot of a long time, the franchise is tightly held, with many of the video games merely “good” at greatest. As such it appears an odd alternative for a contemporary film adaptation. Nevertheless, the colourful universe and way-out characters and conditions ought to make for some fairly twisted leisure.

The untitled ToeJam & Earl film is at the moment in pre-production at Amazon Studios.