Atari has signed an agreement handing Universal Pictures the rights to turn 10 of its best-known games into feature films, according to a Deadline report cited by PC Gamer. The deal was struck in partnership with the management and production company Entertainment 360.
The titles named in the report are drawn from Atari’s arcade and Atari 2600 catalogue:
- Asteroids
- Adventure
- Berzerk
- Breakout
- Centipede
- Crystal Castles
- Millipede
- Missile Command
- Pong
- Yars’ Revenge
The intent, according to the report, is to develop the properties into what it describes as big-scale action-adventure fare.
For more than five decades, Atari has created games and worlds that have remained part of popular culture long after their original release.
Rosen added that the company is excited to work with Universal and Entertainment 360 to bring the spirit of its brand and games to a new medium.
Guymon Casady of Entertainment 360, a producer on the first film to come out of the deal, said that he and Matt Reilly grew up playing Atari 2600 games and have remained fans since. The best Atari games, he said, dropped players into a world and let their imagination do the rest.
Casady said the screenplay writers Carl Hampe and Matt Reilly saw an opportunity to take that same spirit and build an original, large-scale adventure around it, and that from the moment the team read the screenplay it believed there was a film in it.
Neither the report nor the statements attributed to Atari and Entertainment 360 identify which of the 10 games the first film draws on, and no director, cast or release window has been announced. Atari has not said whether the agreement is exclusive or how long it runs.
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