Cult favorite arcade racer Driver is returning to our screens soon, but not as a game. Instead the series is becoming a live-action TV show on a brand new streaming platform, called Binge.com.
Scheduled for launch in 2022, Binge.com is a streaming service aimed at gamers — and not to be confused with the Binge TV and movie streaming service exclusive to the Australian market. According to its blurb, Binge.com will feature “epic series and shows inspired by games”.
While traditionally not a harbinger of great content — Super Mario Bros, for example — there has been a push to turn games into movies in recent years that’s brought the average up a little. Assassin’s Creed, starring Michael Fassbender, was a decent effort, while Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog have their fans. We’ll gloss over Angry Birds Movie 2.
Ubisoft is hoping to follow that upward trend, and the signs are promising. The company’s senior vice-president for film and television, Jason Altman, will serve as executive producer, alongside Danielle Kreinik and Genevieve Jones, who both worked on the Charlie Day/Rob McElhenney video game industry comedy series Mythic Quest. Vincent Talenti (Fallout: Nuka Break) and Allan Ungar (Uncharted: Live Action Fan Film) will produce for Binge.com.
At the moment we don’t know who will star in the show, or even who the characters will be. The Driver series has, other than the best-forgotten Driver: Parallel Lines, always centered on the ex-racer-turned-fed John Tanner and his fight against organized crime. It seems likely the Driver TV series will follow a similar path, though we’ll need to wait for more detail.
Given that the original Driver was inspired by classic movie chases — something more overtly replicated in Driver San Francisco — it should make the transition well.
Binge.com launches in 2022, although we don’t know when Driver will first land on the platform.
I like the news, loved all trilogy cinematics so much, and the story. I think PL was very weak story wise, but Jan Paule, Jerico and Solomon, and Catalina are always in my heart:). Oh, and Tobias. Damn, if only they just make it into a good movie, I will forgive the absence of any new game.
Bleh…shame. New game never.
Lose the tail, loved the 1st one on pc n ps1.
I have fond memories of Parallel Lines, why is it “best forgotten”?
Awww, and i thought would be a new game..shame.
I wonder who will be voicing Tanner. Madsen did a good job in Driv3r but I think the actor in Driver 2 was the best, although that person is unknown.
My heart says “oh yes” but my brain knows “oh no”.
Makes me wonder when we’ll get the Gran Turismo movie we were teased years back, from the creators of Fifty Shades of Gray. Surely the Kaz documentary wasn’t it?
Good question. When we last asked Kaz about it a few years ago in an interview, he said it looked like it “probably wasn’t going to happen”, unfortunately.
And for a second, I thought it was getting a *CGI* TV show
Ubisoft continuing to treat customers and its own series`s like crap.
The fraction of a second, I thought, Driver gets a new game, was a good one.