The A24 produced adaptation of Elden Ring may have found its leading man as director Alex Garland is said to be in talks with British actor Kit Connor over the role, though the specifics of the negotiation are still to be determined. The two have previously collaborated on this year’s Warfare, co-directed and co-written by Garland with Ray Mendoza, where Connor performed with an American accent as one of the Navy SEAL platoon members.

Backing Garland as the writer-director are the majority of the producing team of Warfare, constituted by producers Peter Rice, Andrew Macdonald (going back to a decades long working relationship with Garland from hiring him as a screenwriter for 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Never Let Me Go along with producing all of Garland’s directing ventures to date) and Allon Reich. Joining as executive producers are writer George R. R. Martin (of the A Song Of Ice And Fire book series which has spawned the TV series Game Of Thrones and House Of The Dragon for HBO) and Martin’s manager, Vince Gerardis. Martin composed the backstory for the world of Elden Ring while the game’s leading director, Hidetaka Miyazaki of FromSoftware, devised the in-game main narrative, although Martin had been given extensive creative freedom in his task.

Elden Ring is also set to continue Garland’s prominent relationship with A24, who distributed Ex Machina, Men, Civil War, and Warfare in the USA (Entertainment Film Distributors had been the UK distributors for the former three). Timing with this, if Elden Ring makes it deeper into production, it is likely to be developed at a higher budget projection than any other film in A24 or Garland’s previous repertoire. In recent years, adaptations of video games have been more common as box office successes as seen by Minecraft, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Sonic The Hedgehog. While Elden Ring is a darker fantasy action RPG, it has sold 30 million units worldwide, suggesting there is a sizable audience for a film take, should it eventually see the light of release.