Director Michael Dowse is pivoting from action comedy to pure action. Having last helmed Stuber, a fun action-comedy tainted by a bad title, he’s now signed on to direct an adaptation of the Just Cause video game. Which is about as action as action gets.
The Just Cause series is pretty much Grand Theft Auto meets Uncharted, cranked up to eleven.
The four games in the franchise follow Rico Rodriguez on a race-against-time mission to stop The Black Hand, a lethal mercenary group. He has a patented grappling hook which allows him to traverse tall buildings and pull helicopters out of the sky, and the games are pure carnage.
Plot details are currently under wraps, but reportedly the tone the producers are hoping to evoke is Romancing The Stone, the 1980s jungle-based adventure movie.
If that is the case, then perhaps we’re looking more at something more adventurous like Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle than pure action like Skyscraper, to arbitrarily compare two Dwayne Johnson movies.
Of course, we all know the troubles video game adaptations have had when trying to make the jump to Hollywood. For a recent, extremely relevant example, the Uncharted adaptation has been going through the absolute ringer despite having Tom Holland on board as the lead. The producers here will be hoping for a similar star for their film, but far less headaches when it comes to development.
Dowse’s background is mostly in comedy, having also directed films such as Goon and It’s All Gone Pete Tong. However many of his comedies do have an action element, and it may be that the Just Cause adaptation leans into adventure and charm more than violence and explosions anyway, so maybe Dowse is a smart choice.
The movie is being produced by Constantin Film, while Square Enix, who developed the game, will also serve in an executive producer capacity. John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, who is also writing Just Cause, will produce as well.
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