Dying Stranding Stay-Motion Film Will get Replace From Director Michael Sarnoski [Exclusive]

In relation to the “Dying Stranding” film, we have gotten a really sluggish drip of knowledge to date. We discovered a movie was within the works in 2022, and the following yr, A24 got here on board because the financier and distributor. In 2025, phrase got here out that Michael Sarnoski, the director of “Pig” and “A Quiet Place: Day One,” can be writing and directing the film, however there hasn’t been a ton of concrete data since then.

I lately had the chance to talk with Sarnoski about his latest movie, “The Dying of Robin Hood” (you’ll be able to hear our full dialog on the upcoming June 24, 2026 episode of our /Movie Weekly podcast), and on the finish, I requested him for a standing replace on “Dying Stranding.”

“I am doing a revision on that proper now,” he replied. “I am tremendous proud of it. A24 and Kojima appear actually enthusiastic about it. It has been going nice.” Then he confirmed the strategy they’re taking with the story:

“Kojima’s given me a ton of freedom to simply discover the world nonetheless I wish to, use all my very own characters, inform a very new story that is inside this world and adjoining to the video games, however actually does its personal factor. And it has been a very cool expertise. I like these video games, and it has been cool to take what speaks to me about these video games thematically and what my expertise of enjoying these video games appears like after which discover a completely different story that type of faucets into that however continues to be all its personal. It has been actually, actually cool they usually’ve been very supportive. In order that’s positively the following characteristic and I am very enthusiastic about that and it has been going nice.”

2019’s “Dying Stranding” was a boundary-pushing online game from trade icon Hideo Kojima, and with Kojima — who’s an enormous cinephile — serving as an govt producer on the film, evidently whoever is approving the selections about this adaptation has discovered the precise classes from Hollywood for as soon as. Zach Cregger’s upcoming “Resident Evil” film seems like an important instance of a sport studio being prepared to cede management to a filmmaker with a imaginative and prescient and let that filmmaker use the mental property as a springboard for a narrative that the director is eager about telling. The underseen “Werewolves Inside” did this as nicely, and even the “Sonic the Hedgehog” motion pictures have carved out their very own id whereas incorporating components that players know and love. It feels like “Dying Stranding” goes to take a web page from that playbook, which is thrilling.

“There are plenty of ‘sport adaptation movies’ on the market however what we’re creating isn’t just a direct translation of the sport,” Kojima stated about this movie in 2023 (by way of Selection). “The intention is that our viewers won’t solely be followers of the video games, however our movie will likely be for anybody who loves cinema. We’re making a ‘Dying Stranding’ universe that has by no means been seen earlier than, achievable solely via the medium of movie, will probably be born.”

Hollywood stays obsessive about IP, however at the least film studios appear to be coming round to the concept that slavishly recreating plot beats from video games on the large display screen is not a recipe for assured success. (A24 already discovered this lesson with “Backrooms,” which isn’t a online game, however the identical thought applies.) With extra online game motion pictures coming down the pike, let’s hope they proceed to worth the filmmaker’s imaginative and prescient over all else.