‘Just Cause’ Movie Adaptation Being Written By ‘John Wick’ Writer Derek Kolstad
If you threw some comic books, a couple third-person shooter video games, and some B-list action films from the 1980s into a special Movie Blender™, you’d probably end up with theJohn Wickmovies. Then again, depending on the specific content of those ingredients, you might instead end up with the destruction-heavy adventure storyJust Cause.
So it’s no surprise, then, thatJohn Wicktrilogy writerDerek Kolstadhas been hired to write the script for aJust Causemovie based on those games. Read more about that franchise (and watch some truly insane gameplay videos) below.
The Hollywood Reportersays Kolstad has officially been hired to writeJust Cause, which waspreviously in developmentwith Brad Peyton (San Andreas) on board as a director and Jason Momoa (Aquaman) attached to star. There’s no word about whether the latter two are still involved or if this is a completely new vision for a new group of filmmakers.
The plot of the games are very much secondary to their open world action sensibilities, which allow the protagonist, a special ops guy named Rico Rodriguez, to perform daring stunts and blow shit up in spectacular ways. Unlike something likeGrand Theft Auto, another open world franchise in which players derive pleasures from blowing things sky high, theJust Causegames are explicitly about destruction: you’re actually tasked with destroying enemy bases and blowing up things like communication towers, but the games let you make the decision of how exactly you want to implement that carnage.
That freedom works wonders in the games as you dive out of airplanes, use a wingsuit to cruise through enemy territory, drop bombs, and randomly hook enemies together using a grappling hook. But it goes back to the age-old video game movie adaptation question: will turning an actively creative experience into a passive one be successful? Based on what he did with theWickfilms, Kolstad may be able to capture the anarchic glee of these games, but it remains to be seen if that can sustain an entire feature-length script.
ProducerAdrian Askarieh, who’s been trying to adapt this into a movie for ten years, is still on board, and now the movie will be produced by Constantin Film, the company behind films like theResident Evilsaga, every live-actionFantastic Fourmovie, andThe Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. And last we heard, Kolstad was alsodevelopinga TV version of the video gameHitmanfor Hulu.
Here are a few gameplay videos highlighting the truly ridiculous amounts of destruction you may unleash in the games:
And this one shows how you’re able to attach items together with a grappling hook device when Rico Rodriguez hooks an enemy jeep to an attacking helicopter and blows them both up:
