Following the success of the first two Sonic the Hedgehog films, it seems like Hollywood is mining as many Sega properties as it can to try and replicate this success.
Earlier this year, it was announced that John Wick writer Derek Kolstad was working on a script for Streets of Rage movie with Lionsgate attached, while Sega itself revealed a partnership with the production company Picturestart to create films based on lesser-known games like Space Channel 5 and Comix Zone.
Now it seems that Amazon Studios is getting in on the action too, with the company announcing that it is bringing Sega and Johnson Vorsanger Productions' ToeJam & Earl games to the big screen, in an exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter (h/t: Film Stories).
According to that report, Story Kitchen and Stephen Curry's Unanimous Media are set to co-produce, with Hotel Transylvania 4 writers Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo penning the film's screenplay.
ToeJam & Earl is an action-roguelike that was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. It focused on two aliens — a red, three-legged critter named ToeJam and his larger-than-life buddy Earl — who crashland on Earth and must work together to fix up their spaceship.
A platforming sequel called ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron followed a few years later, as well as an action-adventure game for Xbox called ToeJam & Earl: Mission to Earth in the early 2000s. In 2019, series co-creator Greg Johnson released the latest sequel, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, under his own company HumaNature Studios. This was a project that was brought to life through crowdfunding.
A brief synopsis shared in The Hollywood Reporter article gives some details on the plot:
"Earth, their legends tell them, is the Paradise where the music that created their culture originated. Unfortunately for our heroes, not only do they wreck their ship, but they find that Earth is . . . well, not the haven they expected. But the music – that part was true. So begins their quest to find as much of that music as they can in the hope of saving their planet, and maybe ours as well.”
We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more!