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One of Sega's most popular titles, the Yakuza series, is all set to get a live-action movie adaptation, which aims to bring the saga of Kazuma Kiryu to the silver screen.
According to an exclusive report by Variety, the movie is being produced by 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content. It will be spearheaded by the trio of Erik Barmack, Roberto Grande, and Joshua Long.
Ever since the first game was released on the Playstation 2 in 2005, it has gone on to become Sega's second best-selling series after Sonic the Hedgehog.
The central plot centers around the character of Kazuma Kiryu, who in the first game, was sentenced to jail for ten years for a crime he did not commit. After his release, he finds himself entangled in a web of deceit, redemption, and bloodthirsty villains.
A Yakuza movie is officially happening
The Yakuza live-action adaptation has some big names attached to it, as the duo of Robert Grande and Joshua Long worked together on the 2019 horror movie 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'.
Erik Barmack, on the other hand, has several notable production credits to his name, which include the likes of popular and critically-acclaimed Netflix series such as Sacred Games (India), Dark (Germany), The Rain (Denmark), and 3% (Brazil).
This will technically be the second movie adaptation of Sega's Yakuza series, with Takashi Miike's 2007 Japanese version, titled Yakuza: Like a Dragon being the first.
The game is one of the pioneers of the notable open-world action-adventure genre. It has been praised for portraying the history of the Yakuza and the grim urban underbelly of Japan's criminal enterprises.
In an official statement, 1212 Entertainment said:
"Yakuza offers us a new playground in which to set compelling stories with complex characters in a unique environment that audiences have rarely seen before. "
"The saga of Kazuma Kiryu has a built-in cinematic appeal – a mix of kinetic action with bursts of comedy, multiple converging storylines, and a gripping journey towards redemption. "
With this recent announcement, Sega's Yakuza joins an expansive and exciting list of upcoming movies and tv series based on video-games, which range from Uncharted to The Last of Us.
