You think games take a long time to make? Try movies. We've been hearing rumors of a live-action Just Cause film since waaaaay back in 2011, when The Hollywood Reporter revealed the movie, then called Just Cause: Scorpion Rising. It was already on its second writer.
Here we are almost 15 years later, learning today via The Wrap that the film (it's just called Just Cause again) is now on its ninth writer, Aaron Rabin, writer of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series. A director has also been attached since last year: Ángel Manuel Soto, who has some experience blowing things up from 2023's Blue Beetle.
That's progress, and I'm glad to see that the project hasn't simply died to its long-term exposure to development hell. There's still one big question, though: who's gonna play Rico Rodriguez? In 2017 (when the film was only on its fifth or sixth writer), Jason Momoa was announced as Rico, but that deal apparently fell through at some point and no new actor has been tagged to lead the movie. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 15 years to find out.
My own personal hope is that if a movie is in the works, there might be a new Just Cause game on the horizon, too. I never found Avalanche's destruction sandbox series especially deep, but they sure were pretty and a great place to mindlessly blow stuff up for a few hours every now and then. The last game, Just Cause 4, was released back in 2018, if you can believe it. I'm more than ready to strap on a grappling hook and wingsuit and watch Rico trash another dictator's tropical island.
