Atari wants to bring the enduring missile-commanding thrills of Missile Command to the big screen with a feature film adaptation of its classic arcade hit.
According to a Los Angeles Times blog report, Atari is in talks with numerous studios, but Fox and Chernin Productions -- a production company recently founded by former Fox Entertainment CEO Peter Chernin -- are the front-runners to distribute and produce the project.
Created by Dave Theurer and released in 1980, Missile Command became an arcade sensation, and has since been ported to innumerable platforms. Another Atari arcade all-star, Asteroids, was released one year earlier -- and its film rights were signed by Universal last year.
If this trend of 30-year Atari arcade game film option gestation continues, it is possible next year will see a major Hollywood player acquire the movie rights to Donna Bailey's Centipede or another Dave Theurer hit, Tempest.
Steven Spielberg, a film director, is pictured above next to a Missile Command cabinet. He has not been reported to be involved with the Missile Command movie project.
Missile Command, which depicts the inexorable and simultaneous siege of six cities, was partially born out of Cold War fears of nuclear holocaust. Theurer, who worked long hours and lived near a NASA facility that frequently conducted loud aeronautics testing, suffered nightmares during development of the game.
Theurer's original premise for the game had its six besieged metropolises representing the Californian cities San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Eureka, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara. Atari's official canon, however, revised the plot to center around an invasion of the planet Zardon -- "the last of the peaceful planets" -- by the forces of the planet Krytol -- whose citizens are "warriors out to destroy and seize."
It is unclear which take on the Missile Command saga Atari hopes to depict on the silver screen.
I imagine that fans of the game and its gripping narrative will be interested in seeing what further directions the commanding of missiles will take in this sure to be opus. I personally am hoping for a trilogy.
And maybe they can get Vin Diesel to do the Night Driver movie, but only if they shoot it in b/w with a yellow car on the road. The whole background has to be CGI, all the black night and the white poles at the side of the street. Awesome ;-)
Can't wait. This will be the most deep, engaging experiece cinema has and ever will produce...
In other news, Uwe Boll wins six Oscars and Best Director/Producer/Male Lead and Male Support for his work in the splendid documentary of "Frogger: The Fight For Safe Roads".
The last scene in the movie will involve the protagonist from his stable bunker lining up a shot and taking out the last missile before it destroys Washington DC.
This could be some executive doing an IP sweep as per an internal memo. Sometimes mundane pieces of IP can be worth a lot. The song "Happy Birthday" commands a hefty pricetag every time it's used in a film/tv show.
So anybody wants to use the image of these games in any period film or whatever, now they have to pay.
It might also be that there is an internal screenplay that involves characters in a game, or a TV series about the history of videogames, or whatever, and the producers are quietly snatching rights to make it doable. Who knows?
In other news, Uwe Boll wins six Oscars and Best Director/Producer/Male Lead and Male Support for his work in the splendid documentary of "Frogger: The Fight For Safe Roads".
;)
So anybody wants to use the image of these games in any period film or whatever, now they have to pay.
It might also be that there is an internal screenplay that involves characters in a game, or a TV series about the history of videogames, or whatever, and the producers are quietly snatching rights to make it doable. Who knows?