Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
Sega dancing its way toward adaptations of ‘90s video games ‘Space Channel 5’ & ‘Comix Zone’
Cult classics coming to a big screen near you.
If you’re a nerd of a certain age, you might remember the 1999 Sega game Space Channel 5, where the intrepid Ulala must report (and copy) the dance moves of invading aliens in order to save the network, the titular Space Channel 5, as well as the world.
Viral dance moves are making a comeback (if they were ever really a thing in the ‘90s?), and The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Sega has partnered with Picturestart to make a feature adaptation of the game.
According to THR, the comedic, dance-filled adaptation is currently called Channel 5 and has a script written by Barry Battles (The Baytown Outlaws) and Nir Paniry (Extracted). The movie will focus on a hapless fast-food worker who is recruited by a reporter from the future to save the world from an alien invasion. How will this fast-food worker save the world? By flipping fries? Don't be ridiculous — they'll do so via silly viral dances.
Space Channel 5 isn’t the only game Sega is looking to adapt; THR has reported that 1995’s Comix Zone will also be getting the adaptation treatment. The adaptation, Zone, will focus on a jaded comic book creator (the character players controlled in the original game) and a queer writer of color who find themselves trapped inside the final issue of the writer’s series with a very nasty supervillain. Throughout their journey, THR promises, the two “wittily explore the ever-evolving art of storytelling itself.”
Zone will be written by Mae Catt (Young Justice, How To Train Your Dragon), with Royce Reeves-Darby and Erik Feig managing both projects for Picturestart.
This isn’t Sega or Picturestart’s first foray into video game adaptations. Sega is currently working on its third Sonic the Hedgehog film, and Picturestart is one of the producers behind the adaptation of Borderlands.
No news yet on when these two adaptations will make their way to a screen near you.
Suddenly in the mood for some sci-fi fun? Check out Resident Alien on SYFY and on Peacock.
