SAN FRANCISCO, May 23 — PlayStation Productions, the new film and TV division set up to adapt PlayStation video games, is looking to convert car combat game Twisted Metal, with help from Crank and Happy! director Brian Taylor.

A TV show based on 10-title video game franchise Twisted Metal is in development according to Sony Pictures' Chairman and CEO, Tony Vinciquerra, IGN reports.

"We have a TV show we just agreed to get underway,” Vinciquerra told a group of investors during a May 21 presentation, shortly after PlayStation Productions had been announced.

The franchise debuted in 1995 on the original PlayStation console and was characterised by a weaponized ice cream truck operated by a psychotic clown called Sweet Tooth.

Its story mode saw players battle to survive a series of gladiatorial rounds in order to be granted a wish, no matter how generous or impossible, by the tournament organiser.

Speculatively speaking, the franchise's last-person-standing format combined with its anarchic theming suggests that an episodic TV adaptation could fit somewhere between The Purge and Mad Max, within a Fortnite-style Battle Royale format.

Vinciquerra also acknowledged the ongoing and "advanced” development of a movie based on the Uncharted franchise.

The film project is currently associated with director Dan Trachtenberg, of bunker-based post-apoc thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane, a Black Mirror episode called Playtest (in which a temp employee works on a survival horror game), and Sony Pictures' anti-superhero series The Boys, due on Amazon Prime Video in July.

Before 10 Cloverfield Lane, he was known for directing video game homage Portal: No Escape and for his participation in film, TV, games and comics podcast The Totally Rad Show. — AFP-Relaxnews