Hideo Kojima was offered big-budget, explosion-packed movie adaptations of Death Stranding, but that’s not what he wanted 

Back in December 2023, Kojima Productions officially confirmed that Death Stranding would be getting a live-action movie adaptation. The upcoming film is being co-produced by A24, the studio behind award-winning titles such as Everything Everywhere All at Once.  

At the time of the initial announcement, Kojima was singing the praises of A24, calling the company a “singular presence in the industry, like no other,” and commenting that their approach to storytelling aligns with everything Kojima Productions has been doing for the past 8 years. It seems like the two studios are a match made in heaven for Death Stranding’s big screen debut. However, Kojima recently mentioned that there were other offers for the project that didn’t earn his approval. 

In a dialogue with Civil War director Alex Garland published by Famitsu, Kojima comments, “many of the offers I received [for Death Stranding’s movie adaptation] from other film companies proposed big-budget adaptations with extravagant explosions, but I didn’t want that. Together with A24, I want to make a slightly different film.” Jokingly, the video game designer mentions that even his birthday, August 24, aligns with A24. 

But even with A24 on board, Kojima seems wary of not letting the project become too high budget, as he comments, “With Civil War becoming a huge hit, I have a feeling that A24 is raising the budget and scale [of Death Stranding], so I’m thinking about how to suppress that.” Nonetheless, the game’s original creator seems optimistic about the film, as he comments, “It will take time, but it will turn out well.” As Kojima was not keen on taking the role of director, he is involved in the film as a producer, overseeing the plot and other aspects. 

Kojima Productions is currently also working on the sequel title Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which is scheduled to launch in 2025 for the PS5.