Strange Scaffold’s El Paso, Elsewhere, a Max Payne-inspired shooter set in a reality-shifting motel, is being adapted for film, with actor LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah, Haunted Mansion) currently in talks to star and produce. The news arrives courtesy of Variety, which notes the film is in very early development.
Stanfield would be a producer on the film, alongside Colin Stark, working with Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s Di Bonaventura Pictures to adapt the video game.
For those unfamiliar, El Paso, Elsewhere is the creation of Xalavier Nelson Jr., a prominent and award-winning game developer known for An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs, and Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.
Read: 9 Show-Stopping Games From GDC 2023
El Paso, Elsewhere is one of Nelson Jr.’s latest games, and was noted on launch for its spooky aesthetic, neat slow-mo gameplay, and strong supernatural themes. There’s a touch of Constantine about the game, as well as those aforementioned Max Payne influences, so it’s not hard to see why it’s been optioned for adaptation. It’s rocks some really cool ideas that would certainly translate well on screen.
At this stage, it does appear the announced adaptation is only in its early stages. While Stanfield, Stark, and Di Bonaventura Pictures are circling, nothing is confirmed just yet.
Should the project go ahead, it would join a strong class of upcoming video game adaptations. Since recent adaptations like Mortal Kombat, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Last of Us proved successful (commercially and critically in some cases), there’s been a bigger push to snap up the rights to adapt new video games.
Already, we’ve seen titles like Dredge, Disco Elysium, It Takes Two, and Streets of Rage being optioned for adaptation – and there’s likely plenty more in the works that are yet to be publicly announced. El Paso, Elsewhere will now join these titles on the development pile, hopefully with more updates arriving in the near future. There’s likely much more to come here, so stay tuned.
