After winning over millions of players, Cyberpunk 2077 is about to try its luck on the big screen. According to Deadline, a live-action film based on CD Projekt Red's game is in development. To get the project off the ground, the producers have brought in Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a Hollywood name best known for his work on the Transformers films. For now, the project is only in its earliest stages, so let's not jump to conclusions. No director, writer or cast member has been announced, and we still don't know what story will be told. Will the film follow the adventures of V and Johnny Silverhand, or would it rather explore other characters from Night City? On that front, we'll have to be patient.
Night City on the big screen is already Blade Runner
Released in December 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 dropped players into a megacity eaten away by inequality and violence, with multinationals wielding considerable power on top of that. Players took on the role of V, a mercenary whose fate changes when a chip is implanted in their brain. From then on, V is connected to the personality of Johnny Silverhand, a former rock star played by Keanu Reeves. Then, in 2023, the "Phantom Liberty" expansion brought Idris Elba into the cast as Solomon Reed. Which raises the obvious question: could Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba reprise their respective roles if the film picks up these characters? Admit it, that wouldn't be bad at all...
If Cyberpunk 2077 is generating so much transmedia interest today, it's also because the game has passed 40 million copies sold, while its expansion has crossed the 15 million mark. The series has also found its audience on Netflix with the anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners, whose second season is due on 20 October 2026. And it was far from a sure thing, since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was chaotic, thanks to the PS4 and Xbox One versions arriving in a battered state, riddled with bugs and technical problems. CD Projekt Red never gave up and kept patching its game with a long run of updates, before reigniting public interest with Phantom Liberty. The challenge now will be making this adaptation work for an audience that doesn't necessarily know the game.
Paramount is stacking up video game adaptations
Either way, this new project confirms an increasingly pronounced trend at Paramount Pictures, which keeps bringing video game licences to the big screen. The studio has already found a winning formula with Sonic, whose first three films were box office hits, while a fourth instalment is in development. The same goes for Street Fighter, due in cinemas on 14 October, while a Call of Duty film is also in production, with Peter Berg directing and Taylor Sheridan writing.
That said, Paramount's strategy of courting the geek audience isn't limited to video games: for several years now the group has been mining pop culture licences, starting with Transformers. There's also GI Joe, another adaptation of Hasbro toys, as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with several live-action and animated films already out. And let's not forget Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, which likewise reflects this urge to bring tabletop role-playing games to the screen, even if it flopped good and proper on its cinema release. You can't win them all, but at least there's a willingness to have a go.
