The Super Mario Bros. Movie made a mockery of the video game adaptation being a cursed genre, earning over three times as much as previous record-holder Warcraft to become the highest-grossing console-to-screen movie ever made. And yet, if there’s any justice in the world, Stray will shatter those benchmarks.
The viral sensation – which also happened to be a widely-acclaimed best seller that made “Best Of” lists the world over – allows players to control a cat to traverse an underground city inhabited by robots alongside a friendly drone. Does it sound cinematic? Kind of, but does it have the potential to weaponize its existing popularity to become a massive smash hit? Absolutely.
As per Entertainment Weekly, Annapurna Animation – fresh from rescuing Nimona from the clutches of Disney and turning it into a worldwide Netflix sensation – is building up a new slate of in-development projects, and one of them is said to be an animated feature based on Stray.
Annapurna Interactive is being viewed as a potential content factory, with the gaming arm of the multimedia studio poised to be the launchpad for what could become a constant string of film and television projects. If there’s one above all that’s capable of indicating right off the bat whether or not it’s a good idea, then you can’t really think of a better candidate than Stray.
Will it have the same sort of impact when you’re not able to take over and steer the feline favorite’s destiny? That remains to be seen, but it’s worth a shot.