In a move absolutely nobody expected, or can really fathom, Fruit Ninja is having a film made about it. Following in the footsteps of the surprisingly financially successful Angry Birds film (which made nearly $350m globally), New Line Cinema has secured the rights to a Fruit Ninja movie.
The project, which was already in early stages of development between the game’s creator Halfbrick Studios and producer Tripp Vinson (San Andreas, Journey to the Centre of the Earth) may sound weird but, as you can probably imagine, it’s only loosely based on Fruit Ninja itself. The story supposedly revolves around a group of misfits who all come together to save the world as Fruit Ninjas – cue comedy montage of people slicing and slashing up watermelons, apples, pineapples and more.
Just like with Angry Birds and the upcoming Tetris movie, it’d be beyond a stretch to expect an Oscar-worthy movie. Not only is Vinson’s back catalogue not the strongest, the writing team is the same group that worked on Anchorwoman – a US pseudo-reality comedy that was cancelled two episodes into an 8-episode season.
For New Line Cinema, this isn’t about winning awards or creating the best film known to man, it’s a commercial play. If Fruit Ninja is capable of generating as much of a buzz around it as Angry Birds has done, the merchandising opportunities are immeasurable. Essentially this is just all about capitalising on one of the most popular mobile games around – albeit years after the initial hype around slicing up fruit with your finger died down.
It’s really anyone’s guess what old mobile game franchise will be resurrected as a film in the coming years, but perhaps we’ll see Doodle Jump make an appearance. At least, it’s either that or Clash of Clans.
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
