PlayStation Productions: What Should They Make First? (VIDEO SCRIPT)

(React to PS 1 Logo)

If this isn’t your intro roll for the movies you make, then you clearly don’t know your target demographic.

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Readers, I’ll be the first to admit that this Readus Reacts definitely threw me by surprise.


Not because I didn’t think it would be possible, mind you, but because of what inspired the movement to begin with.


/And that being Sony Interactive Entertainment following in Marvel Studios example and creating PlayStation Productions, in order to develop and produce movies and television series based on PlayStation’s 25 years of video games in house as opposed to licensing out the rights./ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-interactive-launches-unit-adapt-games-film-tv-1211850


And no, Readers; that first part isn’t even an exaggeration.


/Asad Qizilbash -- the head of PlayStation Productions -- admitted in an exclusive article for The Hollywood Reporter that not only did they look to what Marvel did with Marvel Studios as an example, but have talked to multiple writers, directors and producers over the course of 2 and a half years to get an idea of how it is in the industry, including Marvel Studios president Kevin Feisonf;aad;/ PlayStation Productions - THR


Look, I’m aware that its been confirmed the proper pronunciation of his last name is Feige, alright? But its either constantly joke about the pronunciation of his name, or his Attack On Titan ass smile, and I’m not trying to have nightmares tonight.


Now as you would expect, like Paramount Pictures worked with Marvel Studios to distribute their movies before Disney’s purchase of the company, PlayStation Productions is working with Sony Pictures for film distribution. Which I’m sure is gonna be extended to both Tri-Star and Columbia Pictures.


And they’re clearly not wasting any time on the matter either,


/Because with the exclusive at Hollywood Reporter, came the announcement that they’re already working on the production of their first slate of projects/ PlayStation Productions THR2


The question on everyone’s lips though, is “What are they?”


Which is a good question; there are a lot of exclusive PlayStation IPs that are currently in house at Sony Entertainment that they could utilize


As far as which ones those are for the company’s first wave, they’re being pretty hush-hush about it


Which is surprising considering how many movies and television series that ARE PlayStation IPs that are currently in the pipeline


Two specifically - Uncharted and Sly Cooper - have been in and out of the news circuit for film and television respectfully, and I believe because of it are good candidates for PlayStation Productions first foray into the respective mediums.


Sly Cooper especially, because there’s already a significant amount of groundwork made for it to be a PlayStation Production project in the form of the animated series you more than likely forgot they were working on.


Technically the show is supposed to be coming out October of 2019, made by Technicolor Animation -- the same studio behind Nickelodeon’s Sonic Boom -- and globally distributed by PGS Entertainment -- the company that handled global distribution for Iron Man Armored Adventures and the Alpha and Omega tv show that I just found out about.


/The first season is said to consist of 52 episodes that are each 11 minutes long; a technique first used by Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force before it was adapted to Cartoon Network properly with Adventure Time and Steven Universe./ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYud_Veje1Y


But ever since that info and the trailer for the show was released back in 2018, not only has there not been any news about the show, but the information we’ve been previously exposed to has stealthily been redacted.


Specifically any and all association with PGS Entertainment,


/Who not only removed the release dates of the episodes from their website after they were initially announced, but from the looks of the Sly Cooper page of their website, seems as if they’re no longer handling the IP in any way shape or form./ PGS - Sly Page/Address


/Not Technicolor, though; Technicolor’s fine/ Technicolor - Sly Page


Now I’m pretty sure that since Technicolor still has the info regarding the Sly Cooper series on their website, that not only means they’re still involved with it, but ALSO that the show isn’t dead


So if I were to “guesstimate,” I’d say that the possible cut from PGS means that Sony is going to distribute the Sly Cooper series themselves. And now that PlayStation Productions is a thing, it’s more than likely that’s the case


And if this goes well, then that lays the groundwork for OTHER Sony-owned IPs through Sly’s creator company Sucker Punch possibly getting either a TV or movie treatment. Like Infamous for example.


It’s a combination of the property being popular enough to help assure PlayStation Productions that it could work and there already being ground work established for it in its preferred medium; It’s pretty much the same reasoning why they would choose the Uncharted series over The Last of Us to adapt over on the Naughty Dog side.


The reason for Uncharted is because Sony purchased Naughty Dog - the company responsible for its creation - in 2001, so all of the IPs created by them from that date onward are fair game.


Yes, technically Crash Bandicoot is ALSO a Naughty Dog creation, but like Spyro The Dragon, Universal Interactive Studios owned the rights to the IP before they were purchased by Activision. So despite those being characters commonly associated with PlayStation, Sony doesn’t have immediate access to those characters.


But with them owning Naughty Dog now, it DOES mean they have access to Uncharted and The Last of Us, and it just so happens that Sony’s actually been TRYING to make a movie about the former for quite some time.


/Like back when Mark Wahlberg was gonna be Nathan Drake back in 2010 before he was dropped in 2016./ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrzAmmdMnmQ


/Then the movie being redrafted into a prequel with Tom Holland cast to play a young Nathan Drake a year after Marky-Mark was dropped,/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7qaHb4CZNA


/and honestly we haven’t really heard anything about it since 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg was announced he was gonna direct back in January of 2019./ Uncharted - Variety


So out of the two Naughty Dog IPs they currently have access to, getting Uncharted into a solid state of existence and out of Development Hell as part of this PlayStation Productions initiative not only is a smart move considering its current pre-production history


But using an already successful video game franchise with 5 main console games, 2 handheld games and a phone game as one of PlayStation Productions “launch titles” makes the most sense.


Now that’s not to say that The Last of Us couldn’t accomplish the same feat despite only 1 of its 2 games being currently; it would just make more sense to use the property that has more establishment first


And as much as it pains me to say it, because I really dislike the character associated with the franchise, you could use the same argument I made with Uncharted to justify them utilizing God of War


Not only could it work for either film or television considering what HBO did with Game of Thrones and how much money Amazon’s pouring into its Lord of the Rings series


/But at this point, Kratos has pretty much become the mature mascot for PlayStation since the first God of War game was released on the PS2./ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0u_kAWLJOA


The very idea of Asad not taking into consideration the God of War franchise as one of the first projects for PlayStation Productions that they haven’t been trying to get off the ground beforehand is just...foolish. Especially considering how well the PS4 game did.


With Uncharted and Sly Cooper -- two projects Sony’s been trying to to get off the ground even before this initiative was announced -- would not only help give immediate credibility to PlayStation Productions by establishing that they can finish what they start, but also allow them to get their feet wet as a company in film and tv respectively.


Which would then pave the way for them to bring Kratos -- one of their most popular and currently talked about characters -- to either film or tv depending on which media niche for fantasy they’re trying to cater to.


So at least for me, I wouldn’t be surprised if PlayStation Productions first wave of projects were a mix of taking advantage of the current gap in fantasy with a franchise as well known as God of War, and wanting to get projects like Uncharted and Sly Cooper properly launched since they’ve pretty much been on the ground since the dawn of time


And once those prove to be successful, I’m pretty sure that report alone would be enough to help easily launch other IPs for the production company; whether they be ones they already have like Infamous, Horizon Zero Dawn, Twisted Metal, or ones we usually associate with PlayStation like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon.


Time will tell of course, but I’m interested in seeing how this plays out regardless.


Get it? How this PLAYS out? Like PLAYStation? ... This is why I don’t consciously make puns.

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So with that Readers, your homework assignment for the day: Write in the comment section below which IP YOU think PlayStation Productions should work on for its first wave of projects for either film or tv


Should it be something nostalgic? Should it be any of their newer titles? I’d love to know your thoughts.