So this news appear to be legit, after all? It’s a bit of a long story, but yesterday, gigantic news broke at a little-known site, Nexus Point News, that Civil War and Ex Machina director Alex Garland would be taking on an Elden Ring movie for A24. This was huge for a bunch of reasons. Elden Ring is one of the most popular action-RPG video game franchises in the world, and this would clearly be A24’s next big leap into making blockbusters. Well, the story spread quickly, only for it to be removed from the site just as fast. Well, today Jeff Sneider has confirmed the news, saying that Garland is in talks to direct Elden Ring, after all.
Kinda makes you wonder who forced Nexus Point News to remove their story, right? My guess is it was someone at A24, not wanting to risk any potential deal. Sneider is a considerably more credible source, and it’ll be interesting to see if he faces any push back on this.
So let’s take it at face value because Sneider wouldn’t post it if he wasn’t sure. Not after yesterday’s debacle. Garland had been talking about retirement from directing, but he doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. Elden Ring is expected to be his next project with production to start in 2026.
Elden Ring is a fantasy action-RPG directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki (Dark Souls) and co-directed by Yui Tanimura, with storytelling and worldbuilding elements provided by Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin. And if you ever play the game, it certainly feels like you’re traversing Westeros.
The story of Elden Ring takes place in the Lands Between, a mystical realm controlled by the Outer Gods, one of which created the powerful Elden Ring, later shattered by its vessel, Marika. An exiled group known as the Tarnished is gifted power from a mysterious source, and tasked with repairing the Elden Ring, defeating hordes of enemies, to become the Elder Lord.
Along with directing Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, Civil War, and co-directing Warfare, Garland is the writer behind such films as Dredd, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, 28 Days Later, and the new 28 Years Later trilogy with Danny Boyle. He’s staying busy, for sure, but Elden Ring is a movie that should be bigger than anything Garland has ever done before.
As for A24, they also have a Death Stranding movie in the works that promises to be huge and quite costly. They’re clearly looking at video game adaptations to fuel their drive to be a major Hollywood player.
