FromSoftware's gothic masterpiece Bloodborne is one step closer to haunting the big screen. Producer and YouTube superstar Seán "Jacksepticeye" McLoughlin has confirmed that the long-gestating animated film adaptation now has both a writer and a director attached, marking a major milestone for the project.
McLoughlin shared the update during a recent chat with IGN, where he was promoting his upcoming appearance as an elusive target in Hitman: World of Assassination. While he couldn't reveal names just yet, he assured fans that the wheels are turning. "Things are obviously much more along the pipeline than they were back then," he said. "We definitely have a lot more stuff mapped out where we're going with the story, and there are people in place to make this thing happen."
The Bloodborne movie was first announced at CinemaCon, surprising fans who had all but given up on seeing Yharnam outside of the 2015 PlayStation 4 exclusive. At the time, details were scarce, and no writer or director had been named. Now, McLoughlin says he's hopeful that official announcements are on the horizon. "Hopefully sooner than later, we can have announcements where we talk about who's involved and where it's going, and little teases of the story," he added.
As a self-proclaimed superfan—he even sports a Hunter's Mark tattoo—McLoughlin is acutely aware of the pressure to get this right. "It can be really stressful as well at the same time because you're taking on such a monumental IP," he admitted. "I am just there to be like, 'Hey, we need this pinprick perfect.' Will we ever get something perfect? I don't know. It's probably impossible to get everyone's expectations into one central pillar, but as someone who's brought on to do this job, I'm right in the position where I need to be, and we're poised to have something really cool."
One thing McLoughlin is certain about: animation is the right medium for Bloodborne. He believes the game's otherworldly scale and cosmic horror elements would be difficult to capture in live-action. "I think Bloodborne specifically is poised to do that well, because there's so many otherworldly aspects in that that would just be so cool to be able to blow the doors off animated rather than being like, 'Okay, put you in front of a green screen, and let's hope for the best,'" he explained.
That approach puts his film in stark contrast to another FromSoftware adaptation: Alex Garland's live-action Elden Ring movie, which is set to be A24's most expensive production ever with a budget north of $200 million. While both projects draw from the same developer, McLoughlin doesn't see much overlap. Instead, he's looking to films like Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot and Prime Video's Fallout series as models for how to expand a game's universe without retelling the same story.
"I don't want to adapt something if we're just going to tell the same stories with the same characters over and over and over again," he said. "Movies are a completely different medium than video games. What do movies do better than a game does? It's passive versus interactive, so how do we push and pull with that and play with different ideas?"
For McLoughlin, the key is finding a fresh narrative within the world of Bloodborne—one that honors the source material while taking advantage of what cinema can do. "I don't want to be involved in an adaptation if it doesn't feel like there's a story worth telling within it or if it's not a good idea," he stated.
With a writer and director now in place, it seems the pieces are finally coming together. Fans eager for more cosmic horror on screen can also look forward to other game adaptations in the works, such as the BioShock movie update from director Francis Lawrence. And for those who prefer their horror on the small screen, there's always the Task season 2 filming news to keep an eye on.
As for McLoughlin, he remains confident that his team is on the right track. "I am proud of the work I've been doing on it," he said. With any luck, it won't be long before we learn who's helping him bring the nightmare to life.
