“Shinobi” Videogame
Action filmmaker Sam Hargrave (Unlucky Stars), who is widely known for 2020’s Extraction and 2023’s Extraction 2, is directing a live-action adaptation of Sega’s Shinobi videogame franchise for Universal Pictures.
Hargrave is part of the stunt team for many of the Marvel movies (usually doubling for Chris Evans as Captain America). If you’re a die hard martial arts cinema fan, chances are you’ll know him more for his work on the likes of Blood and Bone (in which he acted as fight choreographer and fought against Michael Jai White) and Unlucky Stars (in which he played the main villain, and was also one of the fight choreographers). It was thanks to Hargrave’s talents that Wu Jing’s Wolf Warrior 2 turned out to be so entertaining, leaving the forgettable original in the dust, so to see what he can create in the director’s chair is an exciting prospect.
Ken Kobayashi (Sunny, Move On) is writing the screenplay for Shinobi. The original 1987 game followed Joe Musashi, a modern-day ninja who confronts great evil. Shinobi spawned 14 games include spinoffs and ports for a total 5 million copies sold around the globe. A new entry in the series was revealed in late 2023 (via Deadline).
At this time, there are no casting or plot details.
We’ll keep you on this project as soon as we learn more. Until then, here’s the classic commerical for the Sega Master system version of Shinobi:
Very good news!