A Just Cause movie is in production, with Blue Beetle director in charge

Destructive third-person action game Just Cause is getting made into a movie, produced by the men behind The Fall Guy and Nobody, according to the Hollywood Reporter. This isn't the first time the over-the-top explode 'em up has been in line to get the big screen treatment. Another version spent years in development hell until the rights lapsed. But it's been picked up again by Universal, who are no strangers to turning video games into box office burger bucks (they did The Super Mario Bros. Movie). So, it might result in an actual movie this time.

The flick is set to be directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, who directed superhero movie Blue Beetle. That might be reassuring to anyone worried about the representation of the game's hero Rico Rodriguez, who is largely coded as Latin American, even though his origin nation is supposedly somewhere in the Mediterranean (the Just Cause games always take place in fictional nations, so there is a lot of generalised hand-waving at the atlas). Blue Beetle had a largely Latin American and latino cast, so it's unlikely the starring role will be given to eg. Timothée Chalamet. Right? RIGHT?

Two of the producers in charge, Kelly McCormick and David Leitch, were behind Ryan Gosling stuntman movie The Fall Guy and the "everyday bloke lets loose" action of Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk. Another producer on the team, Dimitri M. Johnson, was involved in Sonic The Hedgehog 3, plus the co-op videogame It Takes Two. So, that seems like the right crowd to make a movie largely about grappling hook hijinks. Pray they get further than the last crowd who optioned the rights back in 2010, as that plan slowly fizzled out.

Just Cause as an open world shooter has had ups and downs. Its most recent installment, Just Cause 4, was our least-liked so far, suffering bugs and annoying menus. "How did such an established and entertaining series end up in such a quagmire?" asked John (RPS in peace) in our Just Cause 4 review. Maybe the movie will take us back to simpler times, when it was enough to ride along in your speedboat, the pleasure of the sea spray in your hair, an enemy soldier screaming sonorously as you drag him along behind you on a rope. Ah, el mar.