Hey hey hey, it's time for Netflix to make some crazy money (as if they don’t have enough already)! Are you ready? Here we go! As part of a major push for more video game adaptations, the streaming service's has partnered with Sega to adapt the publisher's beloved 1999 racing game, which will switch lanes and become a feature film.
To ensure that the level of ridiculousness on the road meets demand, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, who wrote The Naked Gun reboot, have been tasked with taking the wheel and penning a script (per Netflix). Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, and Sega’s Toru Nakahara are overseeing things as producers.
The news lines up nicely with the impending arrival of Crazy Taxi: World Tour, which everyone was beeping their horns over until we learned it was set to use generative AI. Like it or not, we're getting a lot more Crazy Taxi than we expected.
But while an audience for Crazy Taxi seems like a sure thing, they’re also gambling on a video game that the world hasn’t gone hands on with yet. Like a Dragon prequel video game, Stranger Than Heaven, is set to arrive next year, and Netflix seems so confident that they’re turning that into a movie as well. Set in Japan across different eras between 1915 and 1965, the game lets players control Makoto Daito, a Japanese-American orphan who ends up in Japan and eventually forms the Tojo Clan.
Strange as it might sound, adapting the game that sees documented cabbies ripping up the streets and running into hot dog vendors might seem easier to adapt than the Like a Dragon prequel, when you consider some of the important pieces involved. The game drew a lot of attention after it was announced that deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, as well as actor Bunta Sugawara, who died in 2014, would be included as integral characters. Putting characters that look like famous dead people is one thing, but it begs the question of how they’ll be integrated into whatever live-action plans they have in place.
Finally, the last project coming down the pipeline is a new Sonic the Hedgehog animated kids series, which honestly sounds like the easiest project of the bunch. Discussing the upcoming entries, Sega’s head producer said, "Expect something cute yet cool for Sonic, hilariously crazy for Crazy Taxi and a badass action drama for Stranger Than Heaven, because we’ve got some amazing creative ideas lined up and we are just getting started. The whole team is absolutely thrilled!"
The Crazy Taxi and Stranger Than Heaven movies are currently undated. For more, check out our list of upcoming video game movies.
