The long-running Just Cause series has been on hiatus for quite some time now, so forgive us if we didn’t expect a movie announcement to come before Just Cause 5’s release.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, we’ve learned that the long-rumored big-screen adaptation of Just Cause has finally taken a firm direction, as Universal Pictures and 87North (the film subsidiary of Kelly McCormick and David Leitch) have tapped Blue Beetle’s Angel Manuel Soto to direct the film.
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As THR’s report points out, talent like Brad Peyton (Rampage, Atlas) and Derek Kolstad (John Wick series) have come and gone in the past to get the adaptation off the ground “before the rights finally expire.” It remains to be seen who will be in charge of the new script, but Ángel Manuel Soto is a natural choice for the film, especially considering the need for a true Latino voice for the story and Rico Rodriguez. If they can find a good cast and get the plot right, the film should be an easy win.
Blue Beetle didn’t do very well at the box office, mostly because it focused on a relatively unknown DC superhero and didn’t star a big-name star, but the film did just fine with critics and fans alike. Personally, while I felt its basic structure and central conflict were all too familiar, I must admit that it was all handled fairly well, culminating in a bland — though admittedly charming — superhero movie with lower stakes than usual, which is a bit refreshing at this stage in the genre’s life cycle.
Universal Pictures quickly jumped on the opportunity to adapt the film “as the studio believes that the film is part of a wave of video game adaptations that appear to be taking over the superhero genre at the box office.” And you know what? That’s probably true. In 2023 alone, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Five Nights at Freddy’s grossed over $1.4 billion and $290 million worldwide for the studio, and we all know that shows based on famous video game franchises are slowly taking over the television market.
