Last year, we reported that PlayStation Productions was working on a TV show based on Twisted Metal, the vehicular combat game series that got its start on the PlayStation way back in 1995. Now, Deadline has an update: the show is happening on Peacock, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie attached as a fast-talking milkman named John Doe who must brave a post-apocalyptic landscape full of people driving deadly murder machines.
“Twisted Metal has been a global phenomenon for more than 25 years,” said NBCUniversal exec Lisa Katz, perhaps overselling things just a tad, “but it was the creative vision for this live-action adaptation, led by Michael Jonathan Smith, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, that blew us away. Also Anthony Mackie starring made it undeniable!”
"This adrenaline-infused comedy series is in expert hands with our partners at Sony Pictures Television, Playstation Productions and Universal Television, and will be the perfect addition to Peacock as we continue to look for uniquely entertaining programs."
Anthony Mackie stars in Twisted Metal show on Peacock
The show will be a half-hour long, and will of course feature the most iconic character from Twisted Metal: the ice cream truck-driving crazed clown Sweet Tooth.
That said, he’s not that iconic; I know Lisa Katz called the series “a global phenomenon” up there, but here in the real world folks might wonder why Peacock would choose to adapt this particular game series given that it hasn’t had much fuel in the tank in recent years. Maybe the pitch was really that good.
The Twisted Metal show is also part of new wave of video game adaptations, from Arcane on Netflix to Fallout on Amazon Prime Video to The Last of Us on HBO. I don’t know whether the Twisted Metal show will be a hit, but it’s clear that studios are taking video game adaptations seriously.
There’s no word on a release date for Twisted Metal as of yet.
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