It sounds like movie production company A24 is pumping more money into the live-action Elden Ring film than any project it’s ever worked on before.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Elden Ring has a budget well over $100 million, with around 100 days of principal photography planned. It is, according to the publication, A24’s “largest and most ambitious” project ever.
That means Elden Ring is a costlier production than A24’s Civil War, which was number one for the company before Marty Supreme starring Timothée Chalamet took the budget top spot. Alex Garland, who wrote and is directing Elden Ring, also wrote and directed Civil War, so A24 has form in handing Garland big bucks to make big productions.
This week, A24 announced production on Elden Ring had begun (something we knew given the recent set leaks emerging from England), and confirmed the full cast, which is headlined by Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus, Civil War, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery), Ben Whishaw (Q in James Bond films Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die, and the voice of Paddington Bear), and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, The Last of Us). The characters they play remain unannounced, but we do have a release date: March 3, 2028.
Elden Ring full cast:
- Kit Connor (Warfare, Heartstopper)
- Ben Whishaw (Peter Hujar’s Day, This is going to Hurt)
- Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus, Civil War)
- Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Black Bag)
- Havana Rose Liu (Tuner, Bottoms)
- Sonoya Mizuno (Ex Machina)
- Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes, The Crown)
- Ruby Cruz (Bottoms, The Threesome)
- Nick Offerman (The Last of Us, Margo’s Got Money Troubles)
- John Hodgkinson (Dear England, Napoleon)
- Jefferson Hall (House of the Dragon, Oppenheimer)
- Emma Laird (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, A Haunting in Venice)
- and Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)
The Elden Ring movie is created “under the guidance” of FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki, and “based on a mythological story” written by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin. This month has seen a number of leaks apparently straight from the Elden Ring set, with fans getting an early look at, for example, a game accurate statue of Marika. We’ve also seen some of the pylons from which people hang across Limgrave.
Last year, the New Yorker said that writer and director Alex Garland completed an “epic” 160-page draft, with 40 additional pages of imagery, as a script on-spec, then flew to Japan to pitch FromSoftware himself.
That came as little surprise, because while we know next to nothing about the Elden Ring movie, we do know that Garland is an Elden Ring pro. In June last year, he told IGN he was on his seventh playthrough of Elden Ring, and revealed the boss he found the toughest to take down.
Speaking to IGN ahead of the release 28 Years Later — the zombie apocalypse film he wrote 23 years on from penning the first movie in the franchise — Garland revealed which of all of the famed foes in Elden Ring that he has settled on being the most difficult: Malenia, Blade of Miquella.
“It’s Malenia who’s the tough one”, Garland explained. “I’m now on my seventh playthrough of that game. I’ve leveled up, I’ve got lots of juice, and a cool sword, and stuff like that, and I just throw myself at them again, and again, and again, and again.”
“That was the technique I learned with Dark Souls,” he continued. “It’s not that you get better, it’s more like monkeys and typewriters. You just keep doing it, and eventually, one day they’re dead.”
Certainly, Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, who worked on the Elden Ring video game with FromSoftware, seems excited. Last year, Martin described Garland as a “first rate director” and production company A24 as “kickass.” Martin said his current mood upon hearing the project announcement was “hopeful,” as he shared a YouTube video titled “Why the Elden Ring Movie WON’T SUCK.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
