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Asteroids on collision course with big screen - Report

Universal comes out on top of bidding war to bring Atari arcade classic to theaters; producer of G.I. Joe, Doom films attached.

In May, Atari Inc. CEO Jim Wilson spoke about the company's plans to boost revenues by licensing out some of its considerable stable of classics. One such licensing agreement has come to light today, as The Hollywood Reporter has news of a big-screen adaptation for Asteroids in the works.

The original Atari 2600 cartridge art is much more eye-catching than the game itself.

The original Atari 2600 cartridge art is much more eye-catching than the game itself.

According to the Reporter, Universal Pictures beat out three other parties in a bidding war for the film rights to the arcade classic. Casting is yet undetermined, but the movie's script is being penned by Matthew Lopez, with Lorenzo di Bonaventura set to produce.

It's a big summer for di Bonaventura, who also has his name attached to current box-office champ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and next month's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. As for Lopez, he worked on Disney's Bedtime Stories and Race to Witch Mountain, as well as the upcoming Nicolas Cage vehicle The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

This won't be Atari's only trip to the multiplex. Leonardo DiCaprio has signed on to play Nolan Bushnell in a bio-pic about the company founder.

169 Comments

  • MrWhite325

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 6:19 pm GMT

    I've Got the Perfect Plot!

    Some time in the future were none of us care...
    EARTH is at war with some powerful, alien enemy that will never show their faces (because the production company is too cheap). Earth has a satellite defense network that can destroy any alien ship. So in a last ditch effort, the aliens launch, you guessed it, MILLIONS OF ASTEROIDS (the satillites don't fire at asteroids for some reason) So, a small squad of space fighters will be sent right into the heart, which, in the process, all but one will be destroyed. The rest of the movie will be a front on veiw of the pilot in the cockpit, with us veiwing his emotional trauma, with the occasional flashback to flight school. Then five minutes of asteroid busting. Then right at the end, he'll find the alien mothership, fly down a big trench being followed by alien drones, fly into the power core, launch a nuke, and save the human race. Then two weeks later, a scout ship will fly near the wreckage and find him in his fighter's escape pod. That will probably be the plot for the Asteroids Movie!!

  • DArkstalker

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 6:16 pm GMT

    How can you make an asteroids movie... it doesn't have a story thats gotta be one of the worst ideas yet.

  • edgewalker16

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 3:42 pm GMT

    Coming soon to a theater near you--

    In a world, where tyranny rules the streets, one...thing, will attempt to right the wrongs, stuff his own face, run around in circles, fight the undead, and search for his long-lost love. HE IS:

    PAC-MAN in: Pac-Man: Who Wrote This Crap

    Starring Angelina Jolie as Ms. Pac-Man and Samuel L. Jackson as The Ghosts

    With cameo appearances by Brad Pitt, Leonardo DeCaprio, and Tom Cruise as THE FRUIT!

    Be A-MAZE-D December 2012!

  • RitterXplode

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 3:39 pm GMT

    pathetic.

  • zako94

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 2:57 pm GMT

    mmm..!!!? , i think hollywood should be go to a mental hospitale hay i have an idea what about making a movie fighting NK or iran or some contry

  • ceyxxx

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 2:06 pm GMT

    Gee, I seem to remember seeing this film before. A ship dodging asteroids. I think it was called..."Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back"!!! And it was only part of the film. Are we going to see "Star Wars Episode 5.5: The Movie That Takes Place Only In The Asteroid Field"?

  • Trooperdx3117

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 10:57 am GMT

    Okay maybe I could understand that Atari wan't to licence this out to make maoney but what I don't understand is that there was a BIDDING WAR FOR FREAKIN' ASTEROIDS THE MOVIE!

  • NigressSutra

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 9:34 am GMT

    Unf***ing believable! This is partly why I don't go to the movies anymore...

  • cashfarmer54

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 7:05 am GMT

    Cool one!

  • edwardc87

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 6:35 am GMT

    Times like this where I really do wish today was April Fool's Day. Then it would make some sense as to why they would release something like this to the public.

  • starduke

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 5:35 am GMT

    I'm thinking Armageddon with more rocks and a ship that blows them up, instead of a dude with a nuke.

    Still, I've played asteroids. Everybody who says there's no story is right. I wonder who's bright idea this was...

    I guess as long as they have a ship blowing up rocks, it'll be accurate.

  • pdevil21

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 3:06 am GMT

    And that's why god doesn't exist kids...

  • Smithgdwg

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 8:29 pm GMT

    Whats next? Pong or Space Invaders?

    Hollywood is CLUELESS!

  • ReaperV7

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 5:33 pm GMT

    will smith better be the main character.

  • SteeleTitan101

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 5:28 pm GMT

    Clearly some movie executive needs to be punched in the face.

  • Burning_Typhoon

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 4:53 pm GMT

    Well, movies based on games fail because they have bad actors that don't look like the characters, and they screw up story lines... They can't possibly do either with this... it's a good thing!

  • RedWolf34

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 4:05 pm GMT

    Wow! really! i am so excited! .............wait what am i excited for again....?

  • 9mmSpliff

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 12:17 pm GMT

    WTF.......?

  • ASG_

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 11:53 am GMT

    How in the name of god will they pull this off?

  • PepitoneConQues

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 11:44 am GMT

    Yeah with Bioshock and Uncharted movies on the horizon we clearly need an movie based on Asteroids....

  • Deugar

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 11:27 am GMT

    This is like... a joke.... right?

  • bibbo

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 10:37 am GMT

    Why in the hell would anyone pay money for rights to make a movie about an 80's arcade game that had no characters, no plot, no....anything?! It's like making a movie about Pong! Don't get me wrong-I loves me some asteroids but come on. A movie? Here's a thought-make a movie ABOUT asteroids and call it.."Big Rock in Space"..or something. You see Universal? I could have saved you millions.

  • Blade-of-Erril

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 10:16 am GMT

    This is how I picture it. Awesome looking sci fi movie trailer. A space ship shooting at other ships, narrowly dodging space debris, explosions from a space station as it plummets into a planet's atmosphere, two lovers kissing and a guy shouting "NOOO!" and then "Asteroids" appears and everyone in the audience goes "WTF?"

  • am1damaru

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 9:46 am GMT

    Next movie? DIG-DUG Hell yeah!!

  • salvucci91

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 8:22 am GMT

    uh.. why?

  • NukedUSN

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 6:57 am GMT

    Here's a retype of the original Atari Asteroids manual, in case anyone wanted to see potential "spoilers" for the "story"

    http://www.atariage.com/manual_html_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1007

  • JGoWild

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 12:34 am GMT

    Anybody here wana produce a movie m gonna make about WHACK-A-MOLE?

  • mikethemonkey

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 8:54 pm GMT

    ??? Asteroids had no story to speak of so why would you pay money for the rights. Rights to what? A space ship shooting rocks? I remember playing Asteroids in the arcades when I was 13...Trust me there is no story in this game worth the big screen (or the small screen)

  • IFLYLIKEWILMA

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 7:15 pm GMT

    Hmmm... this is a little strange.

  • parhar67

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 2:09 pm GMT

    The director of doom....are you friggen serious.....doom was one of the worse pieces of crap I ever watched as a movie....oh man why would someone give that guy another movie to work on?

  • MattyWoah

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 12:23 pm GMT

    Anybody who says "Epic Fail" is automatically deemed a tool.

  • TheMudora

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 1:00 am GMT

    I'm actually looking foward to this, a movie adapted off of a game with no plot. It's better than making a movie off of a game which already has a plot. There is no need to make movies on games that have plots (thats what playing the game is for).

  • MrDrew816

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 10:30 pm GMT

    Where is the entertainment value in this movie?

    Epic Fail.

  • WizengamotX

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 7:51 pm GMT

    GameSpot forgot the article.

  • tunaface

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 6:50 pm GMT

    lets make a movie about pong.....or frogger. seriously? WTF?

  • Terminator736

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 6:42 pm GMT

    And the award for worst movie based off of a game goes 2.... ASTEROIDS!!!!!

  • AwesomeMegaMan

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 5:42 pm GMT

    Well, think about it. Since there isn't a story, they can make up their own story without making fans cry out "That character is not right for the actor" or "That totally ruined the plot!". And if the movie ends up being good, people won't start complaining about how different it was from the game (because honestly, there wasn't much to the game now, was there?) Plus there's also a factor that people won't care whether it's different from the game if it's bad or good.

  • DJ_Magneto

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 2:52 pm GMT

    How the hell do you make Asteroids into a movie?

  • joeyfine

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 1:09 pm GMT

    da da da da pew pew da da da da pew pew da da da

    great movie.

  • TheLunaDivider

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 10:24 am GMT

    Why

  • klugenbeel

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 8:53 am GMT

    Asteroids....into a movie....uh...there are a lot of other IPs out there, with more..content to turn into a movie. Asteroids...wtf!

  • Scarshi

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 2:17 am GMT

    Oh yes ... Lets just make every game/book/animation into a live movie. Original ideas? Pffff, that's so un-original! Gack! Ugh ... just threw up in my mouth a little.

  • Atheno

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 6:13 pm GMT

    Actually..this isn't that bad of an idea. See people get upset when they make movies from games and don't get the story right. Well with this, they can have a movie, make their own story that somehow includes giant waves of asteroids (possibly from a planet being destroyed?) and send out one bad ass mofo to destroy them all. Oh...wait..don't we have a movie like that?

  • brilhasti

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 6:12 pm GMT

    Next up? Pong: The Motion Picture

  • Spuzzy77

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 5:57 pm GMT

    Make a movie from a game with no story but to survive endless waves of asteroids. Brilliant. Throw Uwe "The King of Bad Video Game Movies" Boll at it. It's not like it can be made much worse...

  • aceoaces

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 5:30 pm GMT

    The movie will be 120 minutes of someone playing asteroids.

  • Noise964

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 4:31 pm GMT

    Its not even a documentary? wow.

  • Cecil_Highwind

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 2:56 pm GMT

    That's going to be really really weird.

  • Setsuka13

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 2:42 pm GMT

    Haha. This should turn out interesting.

  • Shredfest

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 1:40 pm GMT

    Damn, I was hoping for a Star Castle movie adaptation myself. At least the rotating rings around the capital ship would be visually interesting. Not to mention when the holes line up and the giant cannon blast comes out.

    Asteroids as a movie? Man, that is a reach and a half.

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