The next idea for a video game movie is so off-the-grid even I forgot the game that it’s based on ever existed. But Skydance, the production company behind 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, as well as a slew of G.I. Joe and Transformers flicks, is going forward with an adaptation of Sega’s Eternal Champions, a 1993 fighting game for the Sega Genesis.
If you’re scratching your head wondering what the heck Eternal Champions is, you are not alone, and I was 20 years old when the game published. If Capcom’s Street Fighter is the sun, and Mortal Kombat is Earth’s orbit, with Tekken either Mars or Jupiter, Eternal Champions is somewhere in the Oort Cloud of obscure fighting games arising from the early-1990s craze of cheap Kombat ripoffs.
The game had one sequel, coming in 1995 for the Sega CD; it didn’t sell well either, but that’s because the Sega CD was a flop of an idea for which nothing sold well. Eternal Champions also had controller shenanigans going on — you either had to pony up for a six-button Genesis controller, or use the start button to toggle a three-button controller between punches and kicks.
Additionally, Eternal Champions launched about a month after the arrival of the execrable Sega Activator, an early (and futile) stab at motion-controlled gaming. I’m sure that’s jogging your memory now. The Activator was an $80 bundle of sticks that you laid out in a hexagon on your floor. Punches, or kicks (or any body part) crossing one of the eight panels would be translated into a move on the screen — after the CPU rained about 12 hits on your noggin meantime. Think of the NES Power Glove, except with zero of the affection or ironic humor.
So yeah, someone in Hollywood looked at all this and said, “There’s a story in there.” This comes after Borderlands, a triple-A console game millions have actually heard of and still play, is destined to end up a money-loser for its producers, director Eli Roth, and Lionsgate Films.
The Hollywood Reporter reported Friday that Skydance had tapped Jurassic World writer Derek Connolly to pen the Eternal Champions screenplay. Such that it had a story, Eternal Champions drew its roster from human history, choosing individuals who were destined for greatness but died before reaching it.
This group of woulda-beens are forced together in a tournament to the death, with the winner getting their life back and the losers sent back in time to the moments just before they croaked. The eclectic roster was probably Eternal Champions’ only point of praise, as it involved a cast as wide-ranging as a cat burglar from the 1920s, a caveman hunter from 50,000 BC, a bounty hunter from the future, and a Vietnam War veteran who turned into a vampire.
Connolly worked with Colin Trevorrow on the critically and commercially successful reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise with 2015’s Jurassic World, and two sequels in 2018 (Fallen Kingdom) and 2022 (Dominion). He’s currently involved in an untitled Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie for Paramount.
Featured image via Sega and YouTube.
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