A24 has begun production this week in the U.K. on its Elden Ring adaptation, putting Alex Garland’s version of the blockbuster game into motion with a cast that now includes Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Jonathan Pryce, Ruby Cruz, John Hodgkinson, Jefferson Hall, Emma Laird and Peter Serafinowicz. Kit Connor, Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny and Nick Offerman were already attached, giving the film a nine-name ensemble that underscores how heavily A24 is backing the project.
The studio has set a March 3, 2028 theatrical release for Elden Ring, and sources say the budget is well over $100 million, with principal photography expected to run around 100 days. For A24, that makes the film its most ambitious feature to date, a rare swing for a company better known for smaller-scale releases than for a fantasy production of this size. Garland wrote the script and is directing the film, which adapts Bandai Namco Entertainment’s 2022 game.
The game has been a commercial and critical outlier since launch. Elden Ring has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and, according to Bandai Namco, has received over 400 Game of the Year awards. The story is set in the Lands Between, a mythical realm thrown into war and chaos after the Elden Ring is shattered, with the player tasked with restoring it. That built-in scale is part of why the film has drawn so much attention, and why A24’s move into a budget above $100 million marks a clear step beyond the company’s usual lane.
What remains most telling is the gap between the scale of the source material and the demands of the production. A film built around a world as sprawling as Elden Ring now has a release date, a director, and a cast large enough to suggest a serious studio commitment, but it also has to prove that the game’s mythology can survive the leap to the screen without losing the pull that made it one of the defining titles of the decade.
