Video game fanatics are getting the royal treatment this year with ‘Warcraft‘ and ‘Assassin’s Creed‘ coming out so they should be thrilled that Atari is now set to bring both ‘Missile Command’ and ‘Centipede‘ to the big screen as well! Because, as we all can clearly remember, a lackluster base plot worked so well with board game films such as in ‘Battleship‘ and that most video game movies to date have been critical flops. Not to be down on the idea but while these two Atari franchises are cult classics with millions of fans having loved them for years, the arcade games don’t really have the kind of in-depth story that would be suited for watching a movie about it.
At this time, we know that Stephen Belafonte, Wayne Marc are on board as executive producers but past that, the directors and writers have yet to be announced. Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films have inked the deal with Atari and according to Atari’s CEO Fred Chesnais:
“[Atari is] thrilled to partner with Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films to develop feature films based on two of our most beloved titles. Centipede and Missile Command are part of Atari’s unparalleled and rich library of popular games and we cannot wait to see the movies come to life.”
The idea of classic 80s video games coming to life had limited popularity in the short film ‘Pixels‘ which was later butchered by Adam Sandler last year. While the plots for both of these games are so open-ended that they could easily craft a story around them, it is hard to see what the draw from the video game fans would be to just with the name alone.
Fox previously was working on adapting ‘Missile Command’ in 2011 though clearly that plan didn’t go anywhere.
For those who aren’t big into classic video games, the rough breakdown is that in ‘Missile Command’ you are controlling a weapons platform that is defending six cities in California from incoming missiles while in ‘Centipede,’ you are controlling a shooter that is trying to take out the Centipede that is constantly moving closer through mushrooms and other items. There are multiple iterations of both games out there but none that can be considered heavy on plot.
Are you excited for ‘Missile Command’ and ‘Centipede’ or like me do you wonder why they are making it to the big screen? Share your thoughts below!
Sources: Newsarama and Slash Film
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
