Latest news with #OutRun
Metro
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Iconic Sega composer retires after 41 years, is immediately rehired
The man responsible for the best video game soundtrack ever is technically still at Sega, despite just retiring. While a lot of people may not know his name, gamers of a certain age will already be massive fans of Hiroshi Kawaguchi. He's the composer responsible for the music in Sega arcade game OutRun, aka the best video game soundtrack ever made. Although his most prominent work comes from 80s era games like OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner, and Fantasy Zone, Kawaguchi has remained a part of Sega ever since, even contributing music to modern games like Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble and Sonic X Shadow Generations. After 41 years at the company, it wasn't too surprising to learn Kawaguchi had retired, after turning 60 this past April. What is surprising though, is that Sega immediately hired him back. The official X account for Sega Sound Team (which collectively refers to all the musicians and composers employed at Sega) broke the news on April 30, announcing Kawaguchi's retirement alongside a photo of him receiving a letter of appreciation from Sega. However, the same post stated that he will continue to work at Sega in his 'second form.' Kawaguchi corroborated this himself via his personal X account earlier today. 'Starting today, I will be rehired as a new employee at Sega,' says Kawaguchi, while sharing a photo of his original employment letter from 41 years ago and joking that he didn't receive a new one. As for why this is happening, Time Extension theorises that it's to do with Japan's continuous employment system. Per Japanese law, companies have to set mandatory retirement ages. The minimum is 60 years old, which is how old Kawaguchi is now. However, companies are technically allowed to keep on staff who reach retirement age by effectively rehiring them under different terms. This means Kawaguchi will probably continue in the same or similar role that he's always had. More Trending Hopefully, he'll stick around long enough to do music for a new OutRun game. There hasn't been a new entry since 2009's OutRun Online Arcade, a digital only title you can't even play anymore, after it was delisted from the Xbox and PlayStation stores. Sega's interest in revisiting dormant franchises, like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi, has us hopeful that a new OutRun game could happen. If not, he should at least get to contribute to the OutRun movie that's been greenlit. Said movie is just one of many film projects Sega has announced, which includes movies for Space Channel 5, Shinobi, Streets Of Rage, House Of The Dead, Comix Zone, and even Eternal Champions. None of them have release dates, though, with the exception of a fourth Sonic The Hedgehog movie that's locked in for March 19, 2027. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Yu Suzuki would like to make a new OutRun and Virtua Fighter MORE: 90s Sega icon Ristar is 30 years old and fans are demanding a new game MORE: Sega tops Metacritic list of the best game publishers for third year
The Guardian
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Playing to win: are video game movies replacing superhero blockbusters?
Margot Robbie and Sydney Sweeney are two of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. As such, they've both logged their time in superhero movies of recent vintage (though Robbie's turn as Harley Quinn is probably better-known than whatever Sweeney found herself doing in Madame Web). It feels notable, then, that in recent weeks they've both been connected to multiple projects based on video games. Robbie's Lucky Chap plans to produce a movie based on The Sims; Sweeney, meanwhile, will produce OutRun, based on a 30-year-old arcade game, and has also signed to star in a movie based on the more recent hit game Split Fiction. Score a bunch of points for the gamers. Is the dawn of gamer cinema finally here? Regardless of this Hot Lady defection, superhero movies and other comics-based properties will likely stick around for years to come. Marvel still kicks off the summer movie season this week with Thunderbolts, and the MCU series in particular has probably reached (and touched) too many people to go the way of Transformers movies quite yet. Still: games are providing major competition as far as Hollywood's favorite IP. While Marvel and DC movies have flopped left and right in the past two years, that same period has seen the release of the top three videogame-based movies of all time. That list includes A Minecraft Movie, which is still raking in money even after the Chicken Jockey riots have quieted. As with superhero cinema before its 2000s-era boom, video games provided the source material for plenty of movies over the course of several hit-or-miss decades, with an emphasis on miss: The first try at adapting Super Mario Bros into film was crushed by the summer of Jurassic Park (and its own frenetic weirdness); an attempted Tomb Raider franchise only lasted two movies (one big hit and one expensive flop); and plenty of shoot-em-up games like Doom were shot down. Adding insult to injury, many of the most popular game-related or game-imitative movies, like Wreck-It Ralph or Free Guy, weren't based on actual games at all. Meanwhile, actual game-based hits often seemed to use those titles as a brand-name foot in the door, not depending much on their storytelling or lore; Paul WS Anderson, for example, imposed his emerging style and fixations on the six-movie Resident Evil cycle like a much lower-rent version of Tim Burton reshaping Batman to fit his own sensibilities. That's not the case with the new crop of game movies. A Minecraft Movie has plenty of bits that obviously share a film-maker with Napoleon Dynamite, to be sure, but for the most part, these recent hits based on Minecraft, Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Five Nights at Freddy's have been aimed at a crowd of super-young and dedicated fans (and, with the older games like Mario and Sonic, their nostalgic parents), sometimes to the point of not much resembling real movies to older audiences. Just as superhero movies belatedly reflected comic books' transition to an audience that was older than their kid-stuff reputation, these new movies offer proof of just how culturally dominant video games actually are, especially for millennials, zoomers and emerging Gen Alpha kids. And compared to comics, which in their traditional newsstand-style form peaked well over half a century ago and have experienced major ups and downs since, the game industry hasn't spent as much time teetering on the edge of oblivion. If it has taken a while for games to step into the Hollywood spotlight, well, decades also passed between big hit movies starring Superman, Batman and Spider-Man. This doesn't mean that game movies are now automatic blockbusters; just ask the recent release Until Dawn, adapted from a horror survival game (although, to be fair, the bar for a smaller-budget horror movie based on a less kid-friendly game is much lower). None of those aforementioned Robbie or Sweeney projects have the legacy or automatic kid appeal of Minecraft, Mario or Sonic. Minecraft and Mario in particular are part of the cultural fabric in ways that Hollywood seemed to, perhaps, collectively disbelieve. At best, they may not be great at telling the difference between a lasting cultural legacy and a fad. That's because as much as executives can be chastised for mindless trend-chasing, they're often enormously cautious about anything that's genuinely new. Even the seemingly unlikely B-team that Marvel used to support its first push toward the Avengers initiative – Iron Man and Thor were hardly Spider-Man, Wolverine or the Fantastic Four – had decades of publishing history behind it. For an older executive, Minecraft might have looked like a flash in the pan; despite its relatively robust history, Chris Hemsworth has been playing Thor longer than the game has existed. As with the post-Batman slate of movies inspired by pulp superheroes of the '30s and '40s, rather than comics of the '70s and '80s, there will doubtless be movies based on games that no one under the age of 30 has actually spent much time playing. Hence Sweeney and Michael Bay getting a deal to make a movie out of OutRun, a car-racing game from 1986 that doesn't exactly feature Mario-and-Luigi-level icons. (It would be lucky to boast a Wario.) Artistically, though, these smaller games could still prove to hold a major advantage; no one has made a great movie out of a game as beloved as Mario or Sonic, and despite their success and fan love, many recent attempts still barely clear 'good'. In other words, there is still room to experiment before the process hardens into formula. While superhero comics have narrowed in their on-screen interpretations, adapting games might be a sidelong way of embracing a more diverse slate of genres. The upcoming Legend of Zelda movie could bring back Lord of the Rings-style fantasy, while whatever the movie of The Sims is, it probably won't be an action-adventure extravaganza. Then again, there's always the danger that attempting to honor sometimes-janky source material will simply result in movies that feel as if they have been backwards-engineered by people who don't actually know anything about movies. Five Nights at Freddy's, for example, plays less like the unlocking of a cultural phenomenon, or even a competent genre movie, and more like a horror movie translated into another language, then re-translated back with such haste that everything about it feels off. Regardless, there is more where that came from; the sequel to Five Nights at Freddy's is on its way, as are more Sonic, Mario, and Minecraft movies. Surely someone (probably Nintendo) will try to forge a Marvel-style cinematic universe. The truly lingering question about the state of game-based movies is whether they bring a younger generation back to the big screen in greater numbers, or turn the moviegoing experience into a large-scale simulation – a bonus level to occasionally play through before returning home to their consoles.
News18
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Euphoria Star Sydney Sweeney To Star In Split Fiction Penned By Deadpool And Wolverine Screenwriters
Sydney Sweeney joins the cast of 'Split Fiction', directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Sydney Sweeney has joined the cast of 'Split Fiction'. 'Deadpool and Wolverine' screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are penning the script for the forthcoming film, a big screen adaptation of video game 'Split Fiction'. According to Variety, Sweeney is set to star in the movie, which will be directed by Jon M. Chu. It will tell the story of authors Mio and Zoe trapped in fantasy worlds they wrote about. But it's not yet known whether 'The White Lotus' star Sweeney will portray Zoe or Mio. The 'Split Fiction' game sold more than two million copies in its first week after being released in March. This is not the only time Sydney Sweeney has been linked to a video game movie in recent days. Earlier this week, it was revealed Sweeney and Michael Bay are to make an 'OutRun' film. According to Deadline, the 'Euphoria' star, 27, and the 60-year-old filmmaker are teaming up for a movie adaptation of Sega's iconic 1986 arcade video game of the same name for Universal Pictures, with Sweeney attached to produce and Bay set to direct. As well as helming the upcoming movie, the 'Transformers' filmmaker is also due to produce the 'OutRun' flick, with partner Brad Fuller, through their Platinum Dunes banner, and alongside Toru Nakahara and Shuji Utsumi for Sega. While Sweeney is on board as a producer, the 'Anyone but You' star isn't currently in talks to appear in 'OutRun'. No plot details or potential cast members have been revealed yet. The original 'OutRun' game launched in 1986, and challenged players to dodge traffic and reach their destination before time runs out. The game pioneered a new genre of driving games, and spawned several other instalments, such as 'OutRunners' in 1993 and 'OutRun Online Arcade' in 2009. In March, it was revealed Sweeney is to star in and produce film 'I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl' through her Fifty-Fifty Films firm. First Published:
Perth Now
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Sydney Sweeney joins cast of Jon M Chu-directed Split Fiction movie adaptation
Sydney Sweeney has joined the cast of 'Split Fiction'. 'Deadpool and Wolverine' screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are penning the script for the forthcoming film, a big screen adaptation of video game 'Split Fiction'. According to Variety, Sweeney is set to star in the movie, which will be directed by Jon M. Chu. It will tell the story of authors Mio and Zoe trapped in fantasy worlds they wrote about. But it's not yet known whether 'The White Lotus' star Sweeney will portray Zoe or Mio. The 'Split Fiction' game sold more than two million copies in its first week after being released in March. This is not the only time Sydney Sweeney has been linked to a video game movie in recent days. Earlier this week, it was revealed Sweeney and Michael Bay are to make an 'OutRun' film. According to Deadline, the 'Euphoria' star, 27, and the 60-year-old filmmaker are teaming up for a movie adaptation of Sega's iconic 1986 arcade video game of the same name for Universal Pictures, with Sweeney attached to produce and Bay set to direct. As well as helming the upcoming movie, the 'Transformers' filmmaker is also due to produce the 'OutRun' flick, with partner Brad Fuller, through their Platinum Dunes banner, and alongside Toru Nakahara and Shuji Utsumi for Sega. While Sweeney is on board as a producer, the 'Anyone but You' star isn't currently in talks to appear in 'OutRun'. No plot details or potential cast members have been revealed yet. The original 'OutRun' game launched in 1986, and challenged players to dodge traffic and reach their destination before time runs out. The game pioneered a new genre of driving games, and spawned several other instalments, such as 'OutRunners' in 1993 and 'OutRun Online Arcade' in 2009. In March, it was revealed Sweeney is to star in and produce film 'I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl' through her Fifty-Fifty Films firm.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sydney Sweeney to Star in Jon M. Chu's 'Split Fiction' Film Adaptation
Sydney Sweeney will star in Jon M. Chu's adaptation of the video game Split Fiction, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The Split Fiction co-adventure video game, from developer Hazelight Studios and publisher Electronic Arts, centers on a pair of authors, Mio and Zoe, who become trapped in the worlds they wrote. The game was designed to allow a split-screen co-op gameplay. More from The Hollywood Reporter Michael Bay, Sydney Sweeney Jump-Start 'OutRun' Movie Based on Racing Video Game Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo Reveal First 'Wicked: For Good' Footage as Dorothy Makes Debut Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried Debut First Trailer for Thriller 'The Housemaid' The role for which Sweeney will take on has yet to be announced. Chu will direct the film with Deadpool & Wolverine screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick penning the screenplay. Mike Goldberg and Dmitri M. Johnson's Story Kitchen and Chu's Electric Somewhere will produce. Sweeney is set to executive produce. The Split Fiction video game, released in March, sold two million copies in its first week on the market. 'SPLIT FICTION has sold 2 MILLION copies in 1 WEEK!! Holy crap, we're blown away here! Simply amazing… Thank you to all of our new and old fans – we love how excited you are for our game' Hazelight Studios wrote when announcing the game's success. The film marks another project underway for Sweeney. The Euphoria star is also set to star and produce an adaptation of an English teacher's Reddit story 'I pretended to be a missing girl' and star in a Christy Martin biopic. Sweeney is also starring in The Housemaid, based on Freida McFadden's bestselling novel of the same name, alongside Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. The film will release on Netflix on Dec. 25. Variety was first to report the news of Sweeney's casting. Best of The Hollywood Reporter "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong
