Movie and TV adaptations of popular video games are all the rage at the moment. Fallout, The Last of Us, Super Mario Bros and more have found success being adapted to the big and small screen in recent years. Dreamworks Animation, the movie studio behind popular animated films such as Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, is reportedly jumping on the video game adaptation gravy train by teaming up with media company Story Kitchen to produce animated movies based on video games.
This deal was first announced by Deadline, which announced that Dreamworks Animation and Story Kitchen have formed a “strategic partnership” to produce animated films based on video games. “We’re incredibly excited to work with DreamWorks Animation as our first -official- film partner, since SK launched in 2022,” Story Kitchen has advised in a statement.
Story Kitchen is a media company which was formed in 2022 specialising in adapting videogames and other “non-traditional” IP into film and TV. Despite Story Kitchen’s relatively recent founding, the company is involved with many video game adaptation projects so far. In December 2022, it was announced that the company was producing a live-action Sifu movie. According to the company’s website, other film projects to which Story Kitchen is attached include movies based on It Takes Two and Dredge, among others. According to Deadline’s announcement, Story Kitchen currently has a similar deal with Amazon to produce video game adaptations for TV.
With the animated Super Mario Bros movie from 2023 ending up as the most financially successful video game adaptation ever, partnering with an animation studio (particularly one with a strong record of critical and commercial successes such as Dreamworks Animation) is a smart move. No specific projects resulting from this strategic partnership have yet been confirmed, however future announcements are expected soon.
