Live action Contra film and TV series in the works

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

This is a bit of news that's arriving about thirty years later than it should have – Konami Digital Entertainment has announced that they are developing a live action feature based on the video game franchise CONTRA, with a television series also in the works.

A "run and gun" game featuring a pair of commandos battling terrorists and aliens, CONTRA began as an arcade game that was released in 1987, with a Nintendo version following the next year. I've been wanting to see a CONTRA movie get made pretty much ever since the game hit Nintendo, and now… finally…

Konami didn't reveal any details about who would be writing or directing the film, but it does already have a synopsis: 

In 1988, a huge meteorite lands on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea.

Chen Qiang and Li Zhiyong investigate but come up empty handed. 29 years later, Chen sends commandos Bill and Lance into a combat mission there to neutralize the villainous Red Falcon Organization, but end up facing a different enemy altogether.

Well, the original game was set in the year 2633, but other than the modern day setting that synopsis sounds like CONTRA to me.

I'm looking forward to watching this project come together, and hope we'll be getting a film along the lines of ALIENS and PREDATOR.