Paramount prepping Monument Valley film
Adaptation to be led by director of Oscar-winning Disney animated short Feast
Ustwo Games is hoping Monument Valley can follow Angry Birds on the list of hit mobile games to spawn successful feature films. According to a Deadline report, the developer has partnered with Paramount Pictures and Weed Road Pictures to produce a movie based on the 2014 Escher-inspired puzzle game.
Paramount and Weed Road have tapped Patrick Osborne to direct the film. Osborne's directorial history is brief, but highly regarded. His 2014 Disney short Feast--about a relationship told from the perspective of a man's very hungry dog--was shown before screenings of Big Hero 6 in theaters, and went on to win that year's Oscar for Best Animated Short. His 2016 follow-up Pearl was nominated in the same category. While much of Osborne's career has has been spent in animation, he also wrote and executive produced the Jenna Elfman TV series Imaginary Mary.
"Monument Valley is a one-of-a-kind experience, at once small in its meditative, simple gameplay, as well as enormous in its sense of history," Osborne told Deadline. "I'm privileged to be handed the reins to Ida's mysterious kingdom, to play in her world of impossible architecture where seeing things differently is everything. I am thrilled to bring this unique world to theaters with the talented storytellers of Paramount and Weed Road."
The Monument Valley film will see Osborne continue to branch out from pure animation, blending live-action characters into the game's fantastic world.