There’s a pretty good chance that, like many of us, you had no idea that Ubisoft was working on a Driver series adaptation with startup streaming service, Binge – no, not that Binge. The other one. The series was officially announced back in 2021.
If you were hanging out to see a live action exploration of the story of John Tanner (I thought his name was just Driver), the bad news is that the series doesn’t look to be going ahead, at least not in the same form or with the same partners.
In a (paywalled) report from Game File’s Stephen Totilo, who’s done the work and combed through all 356 pages of Ubisoft’s Annual Report, it’s revealed that the company had shuttered a subsidiary involved with its film/TV operations, which was believed to have been spun up for the purposes of the Driver series. Ubisoft since confirmed to Game File that the show is no longer going ahead with Binge.
“We are no longer moving forward with our partnership with Binge for a Driver series,” a spokesperson from the company confirmed.
It’s not the end of Driver though, as it seems that Ubisoft is still exploring the franchise, though whether that’s still through video or with new video game projects is yet to be seen. “We are actively working on other exciting projects related to the franchise and can’t wait to share more information in the future,” the Ubisoft spokesperson also confirmed to Game File (thanks VGC).
This news comes just a couple of weeks after Ubisoft teased that it’s finally begun filming on the long-awaited Watch Dogs movie, so it definitely seems as though its video ambitions remain.
The update came via an image posted to Ubi’s social media which showed a clapperboard calling out director Mathieu Turi (The Deep Dark, Meander) while behind it was the obscured image of a person sitting at a computer in a dimly-lit room – very Watch Dogs of them.
While this image didn’t give away much of anything else, we know thanks to recent reporting from Deadline that the film has picked up two breakout stars in Tom Blyth (Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds) and Aussie actress Sophie Wilde of Talk to Me fame.