At CES 2025 earlier this week, Sony revealed that cinematic film adaptations of Horizon Zero Dawn and Helldivers are actively being worked on, according to Asad Qizilbash, the leader of PlayStation Productions.
The Horizon film will be produced by Columbia Pictures, a Sony subsidiary, and will explore a dystopian future where humanity has regressed to a tribal lifestyle following a catastrophic robotic uprising. With machines ruling the earth, the Horizon games follow the journey of Aloy, her enigmatic past, and the survival of humankind. Qizilbash, shared a brief update during CES, noting that the Horizon movie is still in its preliminary development phase.
Interestingly, Horizon was initially slated to become a live-action Netflix series, but in the previous year, it was reported that the project had been shelved due to allegations of workplace misconduct involving Steve Blackman, the showrunner of The Umbrella Academy. Meanwhile, Sony’s other prominent film project, Helldivers, is based on Arrowhead Game Studios’ cooperative shooter series. Helldivers 2, which launched in 2024, became one of the standout titles of the year. Set in a distant galaxy, they portray fanatical soldiers aggressively defending Super Earth and its colonies from alien threats while pushing their ideology of “Managed Democracy” across the universe.
Additionally, Ghost of Tsushima, developed by Sucker Punch, which was originally reported to be getting a theatrical film release (which may still happen), will also receive an anime adaptation inspired by the cooperative Legends mode from the game. Sony is teaming up with Crunchyroll and Aniplex, the studio behind Demon Slayer, to bring the animated series to fruition. A live-action Ghost of Tsushima film has also been in the works for several years, with Chad Stahelski of John Wick fame set to direct. Though updates have been sparse recently, Stahelski confirmed in 2023 that the screenplay had been finalized.
