Space Channel 5 Comix Zone 1

The video game industry has gone movie mad! Hot on the heels of Uncharted’s impressive $400 million run – and Sonic the Hedgehog’s record-breaking success – SEGA has announced that it’s partnered with PictureStart to bring Dreamcast dance-‘em-up Space Channel 5 and Genesis platformer Comix Zone to the big screen. Earlier this week, Sony also announced plans to adapt Bend Studio’s apocalyptic open worlder, Days Gone.

According to a press release, Space Channel 5 will plot the tale of a “hapless fast-food worker who is recruited by a freedom reporter from the future to save the world from aliens using the one thing that unites all people on the planet: our love of silly viral dances”. It’s being written by Barry Battles (The Baytown Outlaws) and Nir Paniry (Extracted). Push Square can exclusively reveal a line from the script: “Left, Right, Chu! Chu! Chu!”

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Meanwhile, Comix Zone will follow “a jaded comic book creator and a young, queer writer of colour who, when sucked into the final issue of his popular series, must put aside their differences to stop a dangerous supervillain from sowing complete destruction — and in the process wittily explore the ever-evolving power of storytelling itself”. That one’s being penned by Young Justice’s Mae Catt.

There’s no word on a prospective release date for either project, but it’s fascinating to see more publishers explore film like this – especially when it comes to dormant franchises like Space Channel 5 and Comix Zone. To be fair, the former did get a PSVR adaptation a couple of years ago, but the latter has been restricted to retro compilations for decades now, having first released in 1995.