Netflix and Sega announced on Monday (14) a new partnership to adapt games from the Japanese company into films and series. The first project will be a live-action Crazy Taxi film, while new productions based on Sonic the Hedgehog and Stranger Than Heaven are also in development.
The agreement expands the relationship between the companies across different formats. Crazy Taxi will be turned into a live-action comedy written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, the duo responsible for the screenplay for the reboot of The Naked Gun from 2025. Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher and Toru Nakahara, involved in the Sonic film adaptations, will be the producers.
Netflix is also preparing a new animated Sonic series, aimed at older preschool-age children. Carlos Stevens and Toru Nakahara are involved in development. The platform already distributes Sonic Prime, which had three seasons.
Meanwhile, Stranger Than Heaven, a new game from RGG Studio, responsible for the franchise Like a Dragon/Yakuza, will get a live-action film. The production will be set in the early 20th century and will follow the rise of a foreigner who goes from a life of poverty to organized crime and, later, to running an entertainment empire.
The adaptations come at a time when Sega is also preparing new releases for two of the properties involved. Crazy Taxi: World Tour is scheduled for 2027 and will be the first all-new title in the series in nearly two decades, with online multiplayer for the first time in the franchise.
Stranger Than Heaven, in turn, has a release scheduled for January 15, 2027 on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Steam and PlayStation 5.
Netflix and Sega did not announce release dates for any of the three adaptations. The streaming company only said that Crazy Taxi will be the first project to move forward within the new collaboration.
