Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, picked up the movie rights to Chris Sawyer's strategy/sim PC series RollerCoaster Tycoon, planning to adapt it into a live-action/CGI hybrid film.
Harald Zwart, who directed the upcoming remake of The Karate Kid, is helming the project and could possibly direct the movie version, too. He will serve as an executive producer for the film, as will Nick Reed and Atari CEO and president Jim Wilson.
RollerCoaster Tycoon made its debut in 1999, tasking players with building roller coasters and managing theme parks. Hasbro Interactive released the first game, but Atari/Infogrames acquired the company a couple years later and put out two sequels and several expansions for the series.
The franchise has generated more than $300 million in sales, according to a report from Heat Vision, which broke the news of the big screen production. Though Atari hasn't released a new RollerCoaster Tycoon game in several years, Frontier Developments' Thrillville is considered its spiritual successor.
David Ronn and Jay Scherick are writing the script for the Rollercoaster Tycoon movie. They're both also working on Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs project, and Scherick is penning a film titled The Zookeeper -- a comedy from The King of Queens actor Kevin James, not an adaptation of the addictive GBA/PS2/DS puzzler.
I wonder if Chris Sawyer (the guy that made Transport Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, and Locomotion, mostly alone, and using Assembly...) get any money from that...
Hmm I live in a seaside town which used to have a sucessful themepark (margate) which may infulence my view but indulge me :p
I think this could potentially be a very fun, enjoyable film. If we take the basics of the game to be the general plot of the film, then we have ourselves a classic 'working hard getting nowhere, big break thru' type of film. I think it will be incredibly predictable, but if they can capture the charm of RCT, then I', all for it.
Could be one of those films where 3D actually looks good! And hey, who doesn't love RCT?!
I think this could potentially be a very fun, enjoyable film. If we take the basics of the game to be the general plot of the film, then we have ourselves a classic 'working hard getting nowhere, big break thru' type of film. I think it will be incredibly predictable, but if they can capture the charm of RCT, then I', all for it.
Could be one of those films where 3D actually looks good! And hey, who doesn't love RCT?!