Movie adaptations of video games have rarely been successful, but that hasn't stopped Hollywood from trying to break the cycle of frequent mediocrity. Now that app games are out for consumers to enjoy, that opens up even more possibilities for big screen potential. Earlier this year, we saw The Angry Birds Movie haul in over $346 million worldwide despite receiving mixed reviews. Fruit Ninja will attempt to replicate that same theatrical success and then some, as announced back in May, and now we have a basic idea of what its movie will be about.
THR dropped the news earlier today that New Line Cinema has scored the film rights to make the Fruit Ninja movie, and along with the announcement came a brief plot synopsis. The story, which is a live-action family comedy, will revolve around a "team of misfits" that are recruited to become Fruit Ninjas so that they can save the world. That's all we have to work off of for now, but it will suffice until the project heads deeper into development. Writers J.P. Lavin and Chad Damiani, who worked on Robert Zemeckis' How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack, will tackle the script, and Tripp Vinson will produce with Halfbrick Studios, making this his latest in a long line of collaborations with New Line, including the Dwayne Johnson-led Journey movies.
While the Fruit Ninja plot synopsis is certainly helpful, it doesn't help making this movie adaptation seem any less ridiculous. It's hard to imagine how being able to rapidly slice up projectile fruit will be useful in saving the world, but since this be a movie that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, there will be a comical reason for why this makes sense. Still, with all the success the Fruit Ninja game has enjoyed since its release in 2010, it's no wonder that this was looked at for movie potential. It is the second-highest selling iOS game of all time, clocking in at over 1 billion downloads. With numbers like that, you can't help but think about expanding to other media.
There's no release date attached to the Fruit Ninja movie yet, but once pre-production starts progressing further, we should start getting a better picture in our heads of what this project will look like, especially once a director and actors are announced. Granted, maybe they would have had better luck capitalizing on the Fruit Ninja craze if they made this movie a few years earlier, but since the game is still quite popular, its chances of success are still reasonably high.
We'll keep you apprised of all relevant details surrounding the Fruit Ninja movie as more news comes in, but make sure to let us know what you think of this basic premise in the comments below.
