DreamWorks Animation and LA’s Story Kitchen have inked a first-look agreement to collaboratively mine the high-in-demand content well of gaming IPs.

Under the deal, Story Kitchen will hunt the marketplace for “exciting” and “iconic” video game properties with strong potential for screen adaptation as per Deadline—and DreamWorks will evaluate optioning their movie rights. 

The NBCU-owned company is the first official film partner for Story Kitchen, which already has a first-look TV deal in place with Amazon. Sonic the Hedgehog producer Dmitri Johnson set up the studio in 2022 with Derek Kolstad (John Wick) and former APA partner Mike Goldberg. Over the past two years, Story Kitchen has quickly lined up multiple gaming-based projects that are currently in development, including movies based on classic SEGA title ToeJam & Earl and the popular Slime Rancher game from Monomi Park. 

Gaming adaptations have been seeing a significant uptick in profitability and engagement lately. Ampere Analysis broke down the trend in a report last month, noting that content based on video games is ranking higher than ever on the research firm’s “popularity score” metric.