Last year we reported that Sword Art Online was getting a live-action TV adaptation in Hollywood. While details were sparse we did know it was being made by Skydance, the same guys behind movies like the Mission Impossible franchise, Jack Reacher and this year’s hit movie, The Hitman’s Bodyguard.
More details on the project have surfaced recently with Skydance announcing the producers for the Sword Art Online (SAO) live-action series. The production company has inked a deal with writer-producers Patrick Massett and John Zinman, whose credits include the TV series, The Blacklist and the Friday Night Lights and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies.
Both Masset and Zinman will serve as writers, showrunners and executive producers on the series, and it is only one of many projects that they’ll be doing with Skydance.
The pilot script for the show will also be written by them together with Laeta Kalogridis who wrote the screenplay for the Nightwatch, Terminator: Genisys and Shutter Island movies. Kalogridis will also be serving as executive producer for the series and was the one responsible for introducing Sword Art Online (SAO) to Skydance.
On top of Kalogridis, Skydance CEO and Founder David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross will also be serving as Executive producers for the series.
“Patrick and John have shown incredible range in their storytelling capabilities, from subtle character drama to big, world-building action, and we are beyond fortunate that they have joined the Skydance family,” said Skydance Television president Marcy Ross.
“We’re already deep in development with Patrick, John and Laeta on our larger-than-life Skydance SAO series in which we aim not only to satisfy the franchise’s enthusiastic sci-fi and anime fan base but also to appeal to new TV audiences the world over.”
Let’s hope that’s going to be the case and it doesn’t meet the fate that most anime have gotten in live-action Hollywood remakes. And with the live-action One Piece series in Hollywood in the works as well, we really, really hope they won’t suck.
Portrait Photo credits: The Hollywood Reporter
