Tom Blyth already emerged as the future dictator of Panem in last year’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and now the up-and-comer has found his next major film project. Blyth will star alongside Sophie Wilde in New Regency‘s upcoming film Watch Dogs, according to Deadline. The film will be an adaptation of the highly popular video game series of the same name from developer Ubisoft.
The roles for both Blyth and Wilde have not been fleshed out, but the film will continue the recent streak of high-profile video game adaptations. The original Watch Dogs game was released in 2014. It was set in a near-future Chicago where nearly every aspect of the city’s electronic grid was connected and hackable, allowing the player to control bridges, traffic lights, security cameras, and a variety of other machines while making their way through an action-adventure storyline. The first game was followed by a sequel, Watch Dogs 2, set in San Francisco, and a third game, Watch Dogs: Legion, set in London. The premise seems to make for a solid film story and the games themselves have more than 50 million players combined.
Watch Dogs will be directed by Mathieu Turi, known for the 2020 French sci-fi film Meander. Turi will direct from an original screenplay by Christie LeBlanc and revisions by Victoria Bata. The film’s producers include Yariv Milchan, the chairman and CEO of New Regency, Natalie Lehmann, New Regency‘s president of motion pictures and television, and Margaret Boykin, the head of content at Ubisoft‘s film and television division.
Blyth Raised His Profile in ‘Songbirds and Snakes’
The London-born Blyth had a few minor roles in films such as 2010’s Robin Hood and Benediction, but it was his performance in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes that raised him to mainstream success. Blyth‘s portrayal of a young Coriolanus Snow, who would go onto become the future tyrannical president of Panem in The Hunger Games series, garnered mostly positive reviews. Alongside Rachel Zegler as his eventual love interest Lucy Gray Baird, the duo helped The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes garner more than $330 million at the global box office against a budget of just $100 million.
Watch Dogs isn’t the only project on Blyth‘s plate, as he is also starring as the outlaw Billy the Kid in MGM+‘s Western series Billy the Kid. The second portion of Season 2 premiered just days ago on the platform. Beyond this, Blyth will also be starring alonsgide Russell Tovey and Amy Forsyth in the film Plainclothes and an adaptation of the war film A Farewell to Arms.
No release window for Watch Dogs has been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for more information. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is streaming now on the STARZ app.
via Collider