In a surefire sign Hollywood has reached the desperation stage of its insatiable hunger for video game properties to swallow up and spit out in dubiously recognisable big-screen form, Atari has somewhat improbably announced a deal with Universal Pictures to produce ten movies based on classic retro games from its expansive backcatalogue, including Pong, Breakout, and more.
As reported by Deadline, the full partnership – which also involves Entertainment 360 – gives Universal the option to create movies based on Asteroids, Adventure, Berzerk, Breakout, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong and Yars’ Revenge. The aim of all this is reportedly to create “big-scale action-adventure fare”.
I’m already picturing Adam Sandler’s much-maligned video game movie Pixels (which also featured a Centipede cameo), only instead of squeezing everything into a one stinker we’ll be expected to endure ten of them. Or perhaps I’m just being cynical and an action movie about two vertically mobile paddles with a grudge will turn out to be a winner (the ball can be the love interest – and Universal, you can have that one for free).
“For more than five decades, Atari has created games and worlds that have remained part of popular culture long after their original release,” Atari boss Wade Rosen said. “We are excited to work with Universal and Entertainment 360 to bring the spirit of our iconic brand and games to a new medium.”
Universal reportedly already has one project in the works as part of the deal, and while the specific Atari game it’s adapting currently remains undisclosed, the script is being developed by Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe. Universal, of course, has had huge recent success in the video game adaptation realm as the distributor of the hugely lucrative (if critically unloved) Mario Galaxy film and Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. It also distributed 2005’s Doom movie and the 2016 World of Warcraft adaptation so, you know, swings and roundabouts.
There’s no word when the first fruits of Atari’s new movie partnership might emerge, but if it means I get to write a “Breakout hit” headline at some point, who am I to complain?