At one point in time, Mighty No. 9 was merely an up-and-coming Kickstarter project being headed up by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, in the hopes of reviving an old-school side-scrolling shooter for a new generation to enjoy. Little did anyone realize, however, that the game would become one of the biggest crowd-funding projects in history, making over four million dollars during its campaign.
Now, the heroic little adventurer is expanding his limits beyond video games. Variety has reported that a partnership between Legendary Digital Media, Contradiction Films and Mighty game studio Comcept (headed up by Inafune) will work together on a live-action Mighty No. 9 film project.
The game, being developed by Comcept and set to release later this year through Deep Silver, focuses on a hero named Beck, the ninth model in a line of Mighty Numbers droids, as he takes on his cohorts after a computer virus makes them run rampant.
Tomas Harlan and Tim Carter are on board to develop and produce the movie. There’s no word yet if Inafune will play a role, but he is likely to consult somewhere on the project.
Legendary Digital Media and Contradiction Films have dealt with video games before, having produced the movie Dead Rising: Watchtower for release exclusively on Sony’s Crackle network. The film has been a huge draw for fans that have been enjoying Capcom’s games in that series, so Mighty No. 9 should see a similar draw from its growing fanbase.
This is just the latest indication that old-school properties – or spin-offs of them, thereof – can still draw the right kind of audience. Koji Igarashi, producer of Konami’s Castlevania series, recently proved this with his Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night project for Kickstarter, raising even more than Mighty with a total of $5.7 million dollars. And producer Yu Suzuki is doing something similar with his Shenmue III project, which is nearly at $4.5 million dollars with ten days to go in its campaign.
Could these see movies as well As Mighty has easily proven, the possibilities are there.
Meanwhile, Mighty No. 9 will be available for various consoles on September 15th, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, 3DS, PS Vita and PC. The trailer is below.
