Amazon has first dibs on adaptation of Disco Elysium

Oh, the irony

DJ2 Entertainment has been making their rounds in the news lately — last month, they went public with news of their upcoming film adaptation of It Takes Two. In the same vein, this time they’ve signed a first-look deal with Amazon. Although DJ2 owns the film/TV rights to all kinds of games, such as Disco Elysium, Life is Strange, Sleeping Dogs, Echo, Little Nightmares, and many more, this deal basically means that Amazon gets first dibs on any of the IPs DJ2 owns, if they want them.

With game-to-film/TV adaptations becoming more and more prevalent, studios and production companies are doing their best to grab up rights as fast as they can — and this appears to be Amazon’s latest move to secure the bag.

What this deal doesn’t mean is that any of these shows are in active production, but I’d wager that that’s going to change within the next few months.

Properties like Disco Elysium and Life is Strange in particular are hot right now, and would telegraph well to a serialized television format if executed well. So with all the rumors flying around, let’s set the record straight: these shows aren’t getting made… for now.

ludonarrative dissonance is amazon studios producing the disco elysium tv show

— Robert Brookes 🩷💜💙 (@Sphynxian) February 18, 2022

I was one of the people who previously said that a Disco Elysium show is one of my dream adaptations, but now that it might be happening, and by the hand of Amazon no less, I kind of want to take it all back. For a game that’s so blatantly Marxist and anti-capitalist, the irony is not lost on its fans that its adaptation rights currently rest with the biggest corporation in the world. The worst part is, even if Amazon does go through with a Disco Elysium show, I’m going to watch it anyway, if nothing else out of morbid curiosity.