rewrite this title Michael Sarnoski is almost done with the script for the Death Stranding movie

Back in 2019, director Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions brought us the video game Death Stranding, and there has been a film adaptation in the works at A24 for while now. A year ago, it was announced that Michael Sarnoski, director of the Nicolas Cage drama Pig and the creature feature A Quiet Place: Day One, had signed on to take the helm of the Death Stranding movie. Now, while promoting his new film The Death of Robin Hood, Sarnoski has revealed that he’s almost finished writing the Death Stranding script.

What is Death Stranding about?

The Death Stranding film will delve into the mysteries surrounding the “Death Stranding” – a catastrophic series of events that blurred the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead, bringing forth nightmarish creatures into a fragmented world on the brink of collapse. For the video game, players assume the role of Sam Porter Bridges, a character tasked with reuniting a divided America, rebuilding hope, and re-establishing connections among the last remnants of humanity. 

There’s no word on whether or not Sarnoski plans to bring the cast of the video game, which includes Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Guillermo del Toro, and Margaret Qualley, over to the movie.

What did Michael Sarnoski say about Death Stranding?

Speaking with IGN, Sarnoski said, “I’m writing the script right now and hopefully almost done with that and really excited to dive into it. I’ve been talking to Kojima and A24 a lot about it. They’ve read a draft. We’re working on some revisions together, and they all seem super excited and happy with it. Kojima has been really generous in letting me play in his world but letting me tell a story with my own characters and my own sort of corner of this world, but keeping it honest to the game and doing something that fans will really like. So it’s been a great process so far, and I’m really excited to share it.“

While Sarnoski’s script focuses on different characters, “You might see some characters from the game pop up. But it definitely feels like something that could happen alongside the game and honors what’s going on in the game but very much is its own thing.“

He told our friends at Bloody Disgusting, “It’s not going to be as dark as The Death of Robin Hood. That was a movie that really had to capture this kind of visceral violence so that we could go to this deeply soulful place, and feel that contrast, yet also feel how those things coexist in this world. That was really important to me. Death Stranding is a game that deals with heavy stuff like the veil between life and death, isolation, connection, loss, and the distance between people both in space and time generationally. And so it has all of these pretty weighty themes, but it’s also like an adventure game and an adventure movie. So, I think it will definitely have some darkness to it, because yeah, there are ghosts and things like that in that game. There’s heavy stuff to explore, but I think it’s going to be a different kind of darkness. I think I like making movies that don’t shy away from the darkness, don’t try and sugarcoat it, don’t try and make it easy, but find a way through it, and a way to integrate it into the light and hope as well.“

Are you looking forward to seeing what Michael Sarnoski does with Death Stranding, and are you glad to hear that he’s (hopefully) almost done with the script? Let us know by leaving a comment below.