Sega and Netflix have announced that a film adaptation for Crazy Taxi is in the works.
This feature adaptation of Crazy Taxi will be written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, the writing duo behind the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun. Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, and Toru Nakahara are producing the film. The live-action Crazy Taxi film will be a comedy.
“We couldn’t be more excited to continue our longstanding relationship with Sega and bring Crazy Taxi to life with our partners at Netflix,” said Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher.
“This film is for anyone who’s spent hours behind the wheel of a yellow cab on their Dreamcast, with the music cranked up, smashing through everything in sight just to make the next fare.”
The long-dormant franchise of a beloved arcade and Dreamcast game about driving from point A to point B like a lunatic and getting paid for it will return in 2027 with a new entry called Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
This is one of three adaptations of video games into a Netflix production. The second one is based on Sonic The Hedgehog and is simply titled Sonic.
Unlike Sonic Prime (available to stream on Netflix), Sonic will be an animated series targeting “upper pre-school audience” and described as “a high-voltage, comedic, yet emotionally grounded series built for kids who want to feel a little edge, a little attitude, and a lot of “that’s my crew” wish fulfillment.”
The Sonic The Hedgehog series has been adapted into an animation series multiple times in various forms already, from the anime style of Sonic X to the dark and edgy Sonic The Hedgehog (a.k.a. Sonic The Animated Series, Sonic SaTAM). The most recent adaptation is the Netflix series Sonic Prime, which ran for three seasons. Carlos Stevens and Toru Nakahara are attached to this project.
Finally, Stranger Than Heaven, the big blockbuster crime drama from RGG Studios, will be turned into a live-action film. The upcoming game, set to release in January 2027, will see a foreigner climbing the ranks of the Yakuza in 20th century Japan, which loosely connects to the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series. Toru Nakahara is set to produce.
The game itself will boasting some upcoming newcomers and big stars from the US and Japan, living and dead. Two characters are set to be portrayed by Bunta Sugawara and Tupac posthumously. So a live-action film adaptation makes a lot of sense.
Netflix has a number of video game adaptations in the works, including a live-action Assassin’s Creed series, a live-action Gears Of War film, and an animated series based on Minecraft, to name a few. Netflix has even gotten a video game trailer to debut on the streaming platform.
Sega meanwhile has found success in the silver screen with the recent hits from the Sonic The Hedgehog movie adaptations, and are also working on a film based on Outrun. The company is actively pursuing a transmedia strategy, engaging fans of Sega (and Atlus) IPs through non-video game means. One of such moves includes an ongoing worldwide activation campaign with merch brand Animate.