Source: Strange Scaffold / El Paso, Elsewhere / LaKeith Stanfield
Video game film and television movie adaptions are enjoying newfound success, so it’s no surprise that Indie darling El Paso, Elsewhere, is getting the Hollywood treatment.
Deadline reports that Academy Award nominee LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta, The Book of Clarence) will star in the upcoming film adaption of the hit neo-noir video game El Paso, Elsewhere, from Strange Scaffold.
The website reports that Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s Di Bonaventura Pictures (Transformers, G.I. Joe franchises) and Colin Stark will also produce.
Like the game, the film will focus on James Savage, who is fresh out of a toxic relationship with his ex, Janet, who also happens to be “Draculae,” queen of the vampires. Savage embarks on a reality-bending journey of Janet’s doing to stop his ex from completing a world-ending ritual while fighting monsters and other creatures of the night while facing his own inner demons and addictions.
El Paso, Elsewhere’s Origin Story
HHW Gaming spoke with the game’s developer, BAFTA nominee Xalavier Nelson Jr., about its origin, and he revealed that it became a reality due to a road his family would drive down when they moved to El Paso.
“When my family came to El Paso, Texas about five years ago… There’s this long road that goes through the mountains that overlook the city. They’re called the Franklin Mountains. The road is called Transmountain Woodrow Bean,” he told HHW Gaming.
“Within days of us arriving in El Paso and driving on that road, this road that acts as a shortcut between the east and west side of town, this image embedded itself in my head of a Black monster hunter driving on that road in the middle of the desert late at night, hunched over his steering wheel, looking for a place to bury and burn the body of a vampire that was inside of his trunk.”
He continues, “I didn’t know what his name was, I didn’t know what the wider story and world he was within, but the idea of that character and this… really grounded a personal urban fantasy story and universe, stuck with me and I knew that it was a story I would have to tell sooner than later.”
It’s Not John Boyega, But LaKeith Stanfield Is Still A Win
Also, in our interview, we asked the Forbes 30 under 30 member if he would love to see his groundbreaking game turned into a film, and his answer was a resounding yes, but at the time, he had someone else in mind for the lead role, not LaKeith Stanfield.
“I would love to see El Paso, Elsewhere make the jump to other mediums. And in fact the very core of that story, before Draculae even existed, but just around this character and introduction to this world, that was a comic book strip. Seeing that make the jump to a variety of other places would be amazing. And if I can humbly put my name forward to at least audition for that main character, I would love to do it again,” Nelson Jr. told HHW Gaming.
He adds, “Yeah, but also, if we can get John Boyega or something… I want to play my character, but also… I’m open. I’m open to what makes the thing happen and also if something cool could happen.”
El Paso, Elsewhere getting a film is a massive win for indie games, especially Black video game designers. Of course, there was plenty of praise for Nelson Jr.’s enormous accomplishment.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.