Ghost of Tsushima Movie Director Says Film Is in "Heavy Development"

Chad Stahelski, the director of Sony's upcoming Ghost of Tsushima movie, has shared a new status update on the project. Following the release of the Ghost of Tsushima video game back in 2020, Sony soon after announced in 2021 that a movie adaptation helmed by Stahelski was in the pipeline. Since that announcement, there hasn't been any major news on the film to come about, but according to Stahelski, that doesn't mean that it's not being worked on in any capacity. 

Speaking to ComicBookMovie, Stahelski said that himself and those working on the Ghost of Tsushima are in "heavy development" on the movie. Stahelski didn't clarify the stage of pre-production that the film is in or how close it might be to passing its next major milestone. He did happen to expand on what he wants to see from the adaptation, though, and how he had broadly approached conveying the game on the big screen. 

"That's something we're in heavy development on. I love the property, Stahelski said. "The game story of Jin Sakai, and it being what I would say is, 'The most anti-samurai samurai movie out there,' because of the storylines, thematics in it, and the journey that Jin Sakai goes through [...] is so interesting to me. The characters in the story are definitely something I don't want to lose in any way.

"The trick is not do we have great material, we know we have great material," he continued to say. "It's how to make it palpable in any platform. You know, how do we make a great two, two and a half-hour movie out of this? Make it satisfying and leave it open to expand further from there. That's the real challenge. How to take so much great and get it down to a watchable level."

Currently, Sony hasn't provided a specific release date or window on when its film version of Ghost of Tsushima might hit theaters. In the near term, though, the next big PlayStation movie adaptation, Gran Turismo, is poised to launch in just a couple of months on August 11, 2023. It will be accompanied by the TV show iteration of Twisted Metal, which is planned to release on Peacock at the end of July.