Sydney Sweeney To Star In Split Fiction Movie Adaptation — Jon M. Chu Will Direct

If we had a pound for every time Sydney Sweeney boarded a buzzy new movie adaptation of a popular video game this week then we'd have two pounds, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice. Yes, just days after news broke that the Immaculate star is revving up to produce a Michael Bay directed take on Sega arcade classic OutRun, Variety are reporting that the in-demand actor has jumped aboard a movie adaptation of hit co-op video game Split Fiction, which none other than Wicked helmsman Jon M. Chu is set to direct.

The latest effort from Hazelight Studios, the couch co-op game developers behind the likes of A Way Out and It Takes Two, Split Fiction — despite its mercurial brand of gameplay-focused storytelling — actually makes a lot of sense to be given the cinematic treatment. Centred around struggling writers Mio and Zoe, the former a sci-fi writer and the latter a fantasy aficionado, Hazelight's game sees the pair trapped in a VR simulation of their shared works as nefarious, faceless Big Tech corporation Rader Publishing literally tries to steal their work and churn it into "content". In our current moment of existential anxiety inducing AI discourse, it's a timely story to be telling — and the VR worlds-within-worlds set-up would lend itself naturally to a blockbuster spectacular in the vein of a Ready Player One or a Tron.

It is unknown at this point whether Sweeney is up for the role of Mio or Zoe, but we do know that the script for the feature is being worked on by Deadpool & Wolverine duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, which should give you at least some idea about the tone that the big screen version of Split Fiction will carry. And in terms of the game-to-screen pedigree backing the project, Story Kitchen — the company who've helped shepherd Sonic The Hedgehog, Tomb Raider, and Streets Of Rage film and TV ventures — are on the Split Fiction train as a package for the movie gathers momentum, too. All of which is to say that if you're a fan of Hazelight's co-op instant classic with an itch to see a movie take on Mio and Zoe's story, like us, then... well... game on!