Fruit Ninja, the swipe-and-slice-on-your-iDevice industry conqueror, is heading to Hollywood.
The game’s developer Halfbrick confirmed that the IP once thought to be installed on a full third of all iPhones is in the draft stage of production.
Details aren’t known about the movie, but it lines up with Halfbrick’s other moves to leverage the brand in multiple ways. There’s already a comic book series out, and it has hinted at expanding some of its other properties in the same way.
Watch this space for Michael Fassbender as the Jetpack Joyrider.
What would a Fruit Ninja movie be about?
If an emoji feature film can exist, anything can happen. Much of my deep, curmudgeonly skepticism dissolved when The LEGO Movie turned out to be pretty damn good.
If you’re wondering what a Fruit Ninja movie could possibly look like, we may already have some clues. There are no guarantees it’ll be similar, but there’s already an official Fruit Ninja: Frenzy Force kids’ show on Youtube Red.
The show features four wide-eyed youngsters named Seb, Niya, Peng and Ralph, on a quest to master the art of “juice jitsu”.
The “modern” Halfbrick is more publisher than developer, in both the TV and games spaces. It (in)famously axed the last of its game designers around this time last year. Even the original designer of Fruit Ninja, Luke Muscat, has long been at his new studio, PrettyGreat.
Having slowly reassembled itself over the years, the Theseus’ Ship of developers-come-publishers appears to be focusing on sit-back entertainment. Both Fruit Ninja: Frenzy Force and Smighties benefit from its massive 530k subscriber surge on the pit end of 2013.
Hmm. That spike was around the time of Halfbrick’s last attempt to characterise Fruit Ninja, but I’ve still never known Youtube subscriber numbers to act like that. Must’ve been one hell of a promotion.
Don’t expect any crazy or innovative moves from the Fruit Ninja movie. Halfbrick will play it safe — but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll play it poorly. Whether it’s ripe or rotten, my eyes are peeled.
