Video games are the hot new thing in Hollywood AKA the next content library to mine for ideas and stories. Atari has announced a 10-movie deal with Jurassic World and The Odyssey studio Universal to adapt some of the company’s legendary video game properties for the big screen.
Announced at San Diego Comic-Con, Atari has partnered with Entertainment 360 to make a deal with Universal Pictures to give the movie studio the option to develop 10 Atari games into films. Not all of them are expected to go forward, as is often the case with development deals in Hollywood.
According to Deadline, Universal has, however, already bought the first project from the 10-movie deal and hired Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe to write and produce.
What this movie is, however, remains a mystery, but Deadline said it’s an “original spec” from Reilly. He is a former Universal executive who switched to screenwriting and producing. Hampe, meanwhile, was a producer on 2019’s Hellboy and also worked on Jungle Cruise.
The 10-movie deal includes the following Atari properties:
- Asteroids
- Adventure
- Berzerk
- Breakout
- Centipede
- Crystal Castles
- Millipede
- Missile Command
- Pong
- Yars’ Revenge
Atari CEO and chairman 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.”
There are 50+ video game movies currently at various stages of production in Hollywood. In terms of movies that are definitely coming out, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie arrives in September, followed by Street Fighter in October.