Times are tough on the Aloy front: one one hand, Sony is gearing up to release a Horizon Zero Dawn movie — a live action adaptation, no less. On the other, “badder” side of things, the legal fisticuffs between the Japanese giant and Tencent has seen a new development where the former reinforces its demand for an injunction over alleged intellectual property (IP) violation from the latter.
Well, both sides of the coin had some development this week, and it all depends on how you wanna see things — favorably or not — to the beloved PlayStation 5 exclusive franchise developed by Guerrilla Games.
Read on as we give you a full breakdown of what’s going on.
That Horizon Zero Dawn movie inches closer to a release date (we hope!)
After the roaring success of the Super Mario Bros. movie and…not much else, you’d be forgiven if your itch for good cinema flicks based on video games needed some scratching — we’re right there with you.
Luckily, we have some good news on the Horizon Zero Dawn movie for you, albeit some unconfirmed ones for now: according to Game Post (thanks, fellas!), head of PlayStation Productions, Asad Qizilbash, revealed that the flick already has a working script, and Sony is actively looking for a director.
If you didn’t even remember a movie about Aloy’s post-apocalyptic world was in the works, again, we won’t blame you: it was announced way back in 2022 (as a series with Umbrella Academy’s Steve Blackman leading the project) and once again briefly mentioned in this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), now in movie form. So here’s a quick go-to guide on what we know:
- The Horizon Zero Dawn movie will be done by Columbia Pictures, which have worked with Sony-related movies in the past: Uncharted (2022) and Gran Turismo (2023);
- Currently, no cast nor director have been chosen
- Sony expects to zero in on a director in 2026 earliest capacity in order to start filming (also 2026) for a 2027 release window
Qizilbash himself told the news in a sworn statement, which follows:
“We are in development for a film based on Horizon in partnership with Columbia Pictures. We already have a working script and are actively searching for a director, with the goal of shooting the picture in 2026 and releasing it in 2027. The live-action film follows the recent collaborations between Columbia Pictures and PlayStation Productions on the 2022 film Uncharted and the 2023 film Gran Turismo.”
Asad Qizilbash, Head of PlayStation Productions
Now, you’ll notice we said “sworn statement”, which is a term that usually comes up during legal proceedings. That’s what the Sony executive was doing, which leads us to…
Sony puts Tencent on blast, demands injunction against the Chinese’s upcoming game
We have talked about this recently: Sony is suing Tencent for its game, called Light of Motiram, which, admittedly, does look eerily similar in concept and artform with Horizon Zero Dawn.
Granted, the story goes deeper than that, as Light of Motiram was, at first, a pitch Tencent made to Sony in hopes for a collaboration. Sony refused, but Tencent allegedly followed through with the idea on its own.
Now, this is all allegedly since the legal kerfuffle is still ongoing, but the most recent update comes from Sony, who answered Tencent’ latest attempt at defense in a…rather colorful manner:
“The copying was so egregious that numerous journalists and Horizon fans called Light of Motiram ‘a major Horizon rip off,’ ‘an obvious knock off,’ a ‘copycat’ with a main character that ‘resembles Aloy to a tee,’ and ‘extremely similar to Horizon Zero Dawn’.”
Not only that, but Sony has entered an injunction request to prevent Tencent from continuing pre-promotion of its Light of Motiram title as well as minor-but-surely-close-looking elements, like a red-haired protagonist and other visual motifs that may or may not resemble Horizon Zero Dawn in any way. You know, in case the game does in fact come out and Sony then wouldn’t have to contend with explaining that no, they’re not the same (via GamesFray through IGN).
Not only that, but the injunction request was made to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, handed to a certain judge called Jacqueline Scott Corley — you know, the same that analyzed and ultimately denied the injunction requested by the FTC agains Microsoft, during the whole “Microsoft wants to buy Activision” thing. That deal ultimately went through, by the way.
We’re not ones to, well, judge, so we’ll leave videos from both titles for you to form your own opinion. Make sure to let us know what you think in the comments!
Check out every Horizon Zero Dawn reviews on Opencritic.com!
