Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Creator Sets Up New Media Company With Writer John Wick

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Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Dmitri Johnson has teamed up with John Wick writer/creator Derek Kolstad to form new media company Story Kitchen.

Johnson is the founder of dj2 Entertainment, which specializes in bringing beloved game franchises to wider entertainment with the hit movies Sonic the Hedgehog as well as Tomb Raider: The Animated Series for Netflix.

In other words, we can expect to see more video game franchises made into movies, which is the big Hollywood trend right now and is the opposite of what used to happen when movies were made challenges. I consider this to be reverse transmedia, and it reflects the growing audience for games. Kolstad and Johnson have spoken about this at our previous GamesBeat Summit events. I asked Johnson if that meant he would always adapt video games into movies and TV shows.

“Absolutely! If anything, we're going to triple the adaptations. We already have unannounced adaptations on the way, so we couldn't be more excited,” Johnson said in an email.

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Dmitri Johnson is co-founder of Story Kitchen.

The partners said in a statement, "Having spent the past few years working together and admiring each other to tell stories, their energy, their tastes and ideas, we collectively came to the same conclusion: that the only way to double set up the most incredible franchises and worlds possible was for us to unite into one."

We've seen a lot happen lately, with Sony's Uncharted movie, based on the Uncharted game series, and the upcoming TV series HBO touting Sony's The Last of Us video game. This is the usual transmedia strategy, except in reverse, as it has focused on movies to games in the past.