Cast your mind back to April 2020, and you might recall the wholly unexpected announcement that infamous 80s jungle horror Cannibal Holocaust would be getting a video game sequel. The project's seen a tumultuous few years - and several changes in direction - since then, but its developer has now shed a little more light on its behind-the-scenes struggles, and provided an update on the form it'll take when it eventually arrives next year.
Cannibal, as the project was initially known back in 2020, was announced as a collaboration between Italian developer Fantastico Studio and Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato. Based on one of Deodato's unpublished screenplays, it's technically the fourth sequel to Cannibal Holocaust - a movie that gained notoriety on its original release for its graphic violence, depictions of sexual assault, and actual animal cruelty, making it something of an unlikely candidate for the video game treatment.
In a new interview with PC Gamer, Fantastico's creative director Andrea Valesini explains its original concept for the game was to adapt Deodato's screenplay into a format resembling a visual novel. As per its initial announcement, the project was due to release by the end of 2020, but after an unexpectedly positive response to Cannibal's reveal, the studio decided "it definitely made sense to invest more money into the game" and opted to tackle the screenplay in a more ambitious form, turning it into something closer to an point-and-click adventure.