Elden Ring Film Reportedly Eyes Nearly Three-Hour Runtime as New Story Details Emerge

The theatrical Elden Ring adaptation may be preparing to give the Lands Between an appropriately enormous canvas. New details suggest writer-director Alex Garland has delivered a screenplay that runs to at least 180 pages when its visual material is included, a scale that could put the finished film close to the three-hour mark.

That running time has not been confirmed, and a screenplay's page count does not automatically translate directly into a final cut. Still, the reported length is a notable sign of A24's ambitions for the project. Elden Ring is a fantasy world built around vast landscapes, cryptic mythology, formidable demigods, colossal creatures, and a player-driven journey that can unfold in dramatically different ways. Compressing that kind of experience into a conventional two-hour fantasy feature would always have been a daunting prospect. A film approaching three hours would give Garland more space to establish its world, develop its central traveler, and stage the confrontations audiences will expect.

The movie wrapped filming in July and is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 3, 2028. Its cast includes Kit Connor, Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny, Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Jonathan Pryce, Nick Offerman, and Peter Serafinowicz.

Kit Connor is reportedly at the center of the journey

Much of the movie's specific plot remains under wraps, but the broad outline now taking shape points to Kit Connor as the protagonist. The film is described as a faithful adaptation following his character's journey, with major battles against monsters and dragons forming part of that path.

For useful background on this topic, read Doom Veterans Debate the Origins of Deathmatch's Rise.

That setup naturally evokes the role of the Tarnished in FromSoftware's game. In Elden Ring, players begin as an exile returning to the Lands Between after the shattering of the titular Elden Ring. Guided by grace and drawn toward the throne, the Tarnished crosses an open world full of competing factions, broken dynasties, haunting ruins, and powerful beings tied to the realm's fractured order.

Whether Connor's character will be explicitly identified as the Tarnished, or whether Garland has created a more defined protagonist inspired by that role, has not been detailed. The distinction could be important. The game's hero is intentionally flexible, allowing players to choose appearance, combat style, alliances, and decisions. A film needs a more fixed dramatic perspective, and placing Connor at its center suggests the adaptation will give viewers a character with a clearer personal arc through the setting's mysteries.

A "faithful" approach does not necessarily mean recreating every quest, boss battle, item description, or ending route from the game. Instead, the description may indicate that the movie intends to preserve the tone and fundamental appeal of Elden Ring: a perilous pilgrimage through a fading mythic kingdom where victories come at extraordinary cost. Garland's script will need to decide how much lore to explain outright and how much to leave atmospheric, suggestive, or deliberately unresolved.

A longer film could suit the scale of the Lands Between

The prospect of a near-three-hour fantasy feature will inevitably invite debate. Some viewers will see a long runtime as essential for a property as dense as Elden Ring, while others may wonder whether the story can maintain momentum across such a substantial length. For an adaptation of this particular game, however, duration may be one of the most useful tools available.

The game is not built around a rapid march from plot point to plot point. Its identity comes from exploration and discovery: emerging from a dark tunnel into a sweeping vista, finding an unfamiliar tower at the edge of the map, meeting characters whose motives are unclear, or realizing that a distant landmark is far larger and stranger than it first appeared. A shorter film could capture individual images from that experience, but a longer one may have a better chance of conveying the feeling of moving through an unknowable world.

There is also the matter of the game's creatures. The reported outline specifically mentions impressive monsters and dragons, and those encounters are likely to be among the movie's biggest visual events. Elden Ring contains no shortage of candidates, from dragons that dominate the sky to grotesque, many-limbed horrors and towering bosses whose designs carry pieces of the game's hidden history. Garland and his team will have to balance spectacle with story, ensuring each major confrontation reveals something about Connor's character or the state of the world rather than functioning only as a visual showcase.

At its best, a lengthy runtime could allow those sequences to breathe. It could establish the danger of the Lands Between before asking its protagonist to overcome it, while also allowing moments of quiet tension between larger action scenes. The game's most memorable environments are often beautiful and mournful as much as they are violent. Preserving that contrast may be just as important as delivering huge battles.

A24's largest production faces a major financial challenge

The size of the movie is not limited to its prospective runtime. The project is reported to be A24's most expensive production to date, with a budget estimated between $175 million and $200 million, closer to the higher end of that range. A24 fully financed the film, putting significant pressure on the company to turn one of gaming's biggest modern properties into a global theatrical event.

That budget places the adaptation in a very different category from the studio's more typical releases. It reflects the cost of mounting an effects-heavy fantasy epic with major creatures, expansive environments, and an ensemble cast, as well as the challenge of translating a world known for gigantic scale into live-action. It also makes international distribution and streaming arrangements especially consequential.

Amazon MGM Studios has reportedly acquired a package of international pay-one streaming rights covering a large number of territories. The agreement is said to be worth tens of millions of dollars, though exact financial terms have not been made public. Such a deal could reduce some of the risk attached to the production while giving the film an eventual streaming path in numerous markets after its theatrical and earlier distribution windows.

The arrangement may also create room for activity connected to Amazon's Twitch platform. Nothing specific has been announced, but the possibility is notable given Elden Ring's popularity among streamers, challenge runners, lore creators, and speedrunning communities. Any future Twitch activation would need to be revealed separately, but the game's online audience gives the film an unusually direct connection to a major live gaming platform.

American Film Market presentation could offer the first footage

The movie is expected to be a prominent title at next month's American Film Market, where prospective buyers will reportedly receive an Elden Ring presentation. That presentation could include the first footage from the film, although the exact material has not been confirmed.

For fans, even a brief look would be meaningful. Set photos have already circulated following production, but official footage would provide the first real indication of Garland's visual interpretation: the costume and architecture choices, the way monsters are realized, the tone of Connor's protagonist, and the degree to which recognizable locations or imagery from the game have been retained.

It could also answer practical questions about the adaptation's approach. Is the film aiming for grounded medieval fantasy, dreamlike horror, grand mythic adventure, or some combination of all three? Will its action resemble the deliberate, punishing rhythm of FromSoftware combat? How much of the game's strange humor, melancholy, and ambiguity will survive the transition? Those are questions a trailer may not fully resolve, but first footage could offer a valuable early signal.

Why the adaptation has such high expectations

Elden Ring arrives on screen with a formidable reputation. FromSoftware's game became a landmark release by broadening the studio's famously demanding action-RPG formula into a gigantic open-world format, while retaining its intricate combat and layered storytelling. Its fantasy setting was created in collaboration with George R. R. Martin, adding another dimension to the property's mythology even as the final game told much of its story through environmental clues and fragmented encounters.

That success brings a built-in audience, but it also raises the standard for the film. Fans will be looking for more than familiar names and creature designs. They will want the adaptation to understand why the Lands Between feels distinct from other fantasy worlds: its sense of isolation, its ruined grandeur, its unsettling beauty, and its persistent suggestion that every triumph is entangled with loss.

Garland's reported 180-page script indicates the film may be willing to meet that challenge with scale rather than simplification. A nearly three-hour runtime would not guarantee a successful adaptation, but it would signal confidence that Elden Ring needs room to become a cinematic journey rather than merely a collection of references. With filming complete, a March 2028 release on the calendar, and the possibility of first footage approaching, the long road to the Lands Between is beginning to come into view.