Death Stranding film: Michael Sarnoski scouts Iceland for filming

According to earlier comments from Sarnoski, Iceland and Northern Ireland are the intended filming countries for the project, but the latest update still points to scouting and preparation.

The film is being described as an original story set in the world of Death Stranding, rather than a direct adaptation of Hideo Kojima’s game plot.

What happened

IGN reports that director Michael Sarnoski is in Iceland looking at locations for the Death Stranding film. The same report also mentions cinematographer Pat Scola, who shared images of the Icelandic landscape during the scout. According to the source, those images included waterfalls and moss, matching the natural look the production appears to be after.

The update lines up with earlier remarks from Sarnoski, who reportedly said he wants to shoot the film next year in Iceland and Northern Ireland. That suggests the production is still in pre-production. The available information confirms a concrete step in preparation, but not that principal photography has started.

A social post from @naven0m, cited by the source, explicitly says Sarnoski is on a location scout in Iceland for the A24 and Square Peg film. The post also says the director was wearing a Death Stranding T-shirt during the scout. That supports the idea that the project has not yet moved into main shooting, but is being actively prepared.

Taken together, the IGN report, Sarnoski’s earlier comments, and the social post paint a fairly clear picture: the film is moving toward production, but is still in the location-scouting phase. No specific Icelandic locations have been named yet, and there is no confirmation that filming has begun.

Background

Death Stranding originally launched as a game by Hideo Kojima, and the film version is being framed in the reporting as a new story set in the same universe. That distinction matters, because the movie is not being presented as a one-to-one adaptation of the game’s plot. The available information does say Kojima is involved with the project, alongside A24 as producer and Square Peg as an additional production company.

The choice of Iceland fits with Sarnoski’s earlier comments about the planned filming countries. The reporting also mentions Northern Ireland as a second location for the intended shoot next year. That means two countries have been named as part of the production plan, although no specific locations or sets have been confirmed yet.

The current status suggests the film is still in the preparation phase. Sarnoski and Pat Scola being in Iceland shows the production is actively searching for suitable environments, but the sources do not indicate that cameras are already rolling. The @naven0m social post mainly supports the fact that a scout is happening, and not much more.

There are still several open questions. It is not clear whether the film will bring back familiar characters from the game, although the provided context says Sarnoski has teased that before without confirming names. The exact release date also remains unknown. An external context source does point to a previous expectation for 2027, but that date is not confirmed in the current update.