Steve Pink, director of Hot Tub Time Machine and writer of High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank, has signed on to write and direct the Rent a Hero movie, a film adaptation of the SEGA video game title. Pink will write the project with Jeff Morris, who penned the upcoming Netflix action adventure The True Memoirs of an International Assassin, starring Kevin James.
Rent a Hero tells the story of a reluctant slacker genius who joins a high-tech startup pitched as an “Uber for heroes,” aimed to improve people’s daily lives at an affordable price. But when company insiders plan to weaponize the tech, the slacker and his fellow Rent A Heroes must band together to stop them.
Tomoya Suzuki, President and CEO of Stories International, INC., the production arm and joint venture of renowned video game brand SEGA Group and Hakuhodo DY Group will produce. Evan J. Cholfin of Stories International will oversee the project as Executive Producer.
Stories International is producing multiple film, television and digital projects based on SEGA intellectual properties, including the beloved game franchises Shinobi with Marc Platt, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Virtua Fighter, The House of the Dead, Streets of Rage and Crazy Taxi, and is in the process of partnering with the major studios, producers and filmmakers to co-develop adaptations of these properties as English language feature films, television and digital series for worldwide release.
Pink explains, “As SEGA fans, we are excited to dive into the near future with these Rent a Heroes, and explore what it means to be an everyday hero in a comedic, high-energy, action adventure.”
Suzuki adds, “’Rent a Hero’ is high-concept video game, yet has a very important theme we believe audiences today can connect with—we can help our society at our own capacities. We found the perfect creative team in Steve and Jeff to bring this unique action adventure based on one of our favorite SEGA titles to life as a feature film.”
Pink and Morris, who set up Cop Swap at MGM, The Yank at Sony and Shore Leave at DreamWorks, are repped by UTA. Suzuki and Stories are repped by CAA.
