Dwayne Johnson is leading the charge on an It Takes Two movie adaptation for Prime Video.
The Red Notice star has signed on to co-produce the project alongside Amazon Studios (per Variety), with Sonic the Hedgehog duo Pat Casey and Josh Miller in tow as lead writers. There’s been no word yet on whether Johnson himself will star in the film, though Variety reports that it remains a possibility at this early stage of development.
Considered one of the best games of 2021, It Takes Two tells the endearing tale of parents Cody and May, a squabbling couple who find themselves (thanks to a little magic) embodying two of their daughter’s handmade dolls. The pair must work together to escape their predicament – all while taking relationship advice from an anthropomorphic therapy book determined to prevent their divorce.
If that sounds like an off-beat choice of story for a Hollywood mega-star like Dwayne Johnson, you’re not alone in thinking so. Johnson has experience when it comes to adapting video games for the big screen – he starred in 2005’s Doom and 2018’s Rampage – but It Takes Two is a far cry from the bullets and brawn of his previous projects.
Alongside Johnson and frequent collaborators Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, It Takes Two’s original developers, Hazelight Studios’ Josef Fares and Oskar Wolontis, will also executive produce the movie – suggesting fans will be treated to a faithful re-telling of Cody and May's story.
Is this the ‘badass’ video game adaptation Johnson teased?
While promoting his upcoming DCEU movie, Black Adam, back in January 2022, Johnson teased to Men’s Health that he was working on a movie adaptation for "one of the biggest, most badass games" of all time.
"I can’t tell you which game in particular we’re doing, but there will be an announcement this year," the actor said at the time. “I’m really excited to bring it to fans around the world. Of course we’re going to do right by our gamer friends – but really we’re just going to make a great movie."
Could It Takes Two be the mystery movie Johnson was referring to? In our opinion, no. As brilliant as Hazelight Studios’ platformer is, you’d be hard-pressed to justify describing it as “badass”. What’s more, Johnson revealed that the game in question is one “that [he’s] played for years” – It Takes Two was only released in March 2021.
It’s almost certain, then, that Johnson was referring to another video game title. He’s previously expressed a love for the Madden and Call of Duty franchises, while Gears of War and Fornite have been touted as other possible candidates.
In any case, given that the actor promised an announcement would be coming “this year,” we’re expecting confirmation of the mystery title in the coming months.
Until then, we’re mightily excited to see Johnson’s vision for an It Takes Two movie. Sure, it’s an unexpected choice for a man of his, erm, stature, but the game’s story definitely lends itself to a Borrowers-style adaptation.
No release date has been put forward for the project just yet, but we don’t expect It Takes Two to arrive on Prime Video until 2023 at the very earliest.
