Hybrid CG-animation/live-action film based on the acclaimed mobile puzzle game by Ustwo Games to be produced by Akiva Goldsman and Weed Road Pictures.
‘Monument Valley 2’ by Ustwo Games.
Oscar-winning director Patrick Osborne has been tapped to develop and helm Monument Valley, a hybrid CG/live-action feature film based on the popular mobile game from Ustwo Games.
Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures and Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures have hired Osborne, winner of the Academy Award for Disney’s 2014 animated short film Feast, with the aim of creating a live-action/CG hybrid family franchise. Goldsman is set to produce the project, which will be overseen by Paramount’s Elizabeth Raposo and Weed Road’s Greg Lessans.
Monument Valley first launched on mobile devices in 2014, allowing players to navigate optical illusions and impossible objects in a world inspired by Japanese prints, minimalist sculpture, M.C. Escher drawings, and other indie games such as Fez and Sword & Sworcery. The 2017 sequel, Monument Valley 2, built on the original game with more story-driven narratives, telling the tale of a mother and child as they embark on a journey of discovery.
The first game, Monument Valley, won two BAFTAs, an Apple Design Award and Apple’s iPad Game of the Year in 2014, among numerous other accolades, and has more than 160 million downloads worldwide. Monument Valley 2, which won Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2017, has sold nearly 3.5 million copies to date, and has been downloaded more than 30 million times.
“Monument Valley is a one of a kind experience, at once small in its meditative, simple gameplay, as well as enormous in its sense of history,” Osborne told Deadline. “I’m privileged to be handed the reins to Ida’s mysterious kingdom, to play in her world of impossible architecture where seeing things differently is everything. I am thrilled to bring this unique world to theaters with the talented storytellers of Paramount and Weed Road.”
Osborne is currently working on his first feature film for Fox Animation, Nimona, an animated action-adventure adapted from the webcomic and graphic novel of the same name by Noelle Stevenson. Nimona is slated for release in early 2020.
Paramount’s current production slate also includes Wonder Park, the forthcoming CG-animated feature from Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies and Ilion Animation Studios. Wonder Park will arrive in theaters on March 15, 2019.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
