atari Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Atari Video Game 'Asteroids' Gets the Big Screen Treatment
Filed under: Fandom », Newsstand »
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Hopefully some of you are old enough to remember the classic Atari video game Asteroids, where the object of the game was to navigate this space ship through an asteroid field and shoot down whatever crazy flying object got in the way. That was it -- no storyline, no insane graphics -- just a bunch of glowing dots on a screen. Obviously the cinematic possibilities are endless (ahem, sarcasm), and so that's why there was a four-studio bidding war (!) for the film rights. Yup, four studios fought to win the film rights for Asteroids. That's where it's at right now in Hollywood ...Read the rest at SciFi Squad
Leonardo DiCaprio to Play Video Game Inventor in 'Atari'
Filed under: Casting », Deals », Paramount »
Did you know that Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari Corp. and inventor of Pong, is also responsible for unleashing Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theaters upon the world? Well, he is. He founded the "restaurant" after selling off Atari -- which he built up from scratch -- for $28 million in 1977. In addition, Wikipedia says that Bushnell later invented "autonomous pizza-delivery robots" for Little Caesar's Pizza, but I think that might be someone's idea of a joke.The game-enthusiast-turned-multimillionaire is getting his own biopic at Paramount (according to THR), from a pitch by Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman. (Hecker wrote and directed the Tribeca charmer Bart Got a Room, while Sherman is a newcomer.) Paramount only bought the project on Friday, but somehow Leonardo DiCaprio has already managed to leech onto it; he's attached to produce and to play Bushnell. If Atari and DiCaprio's planned biopics of Theodore Roosevelt and Ian Fleming all go through, that will narrow the list of celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio has not played to: Mark Knopfler, Johnny Weissmuller, and Charo.
If you're out to make a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-like tale of a nerd who makes it big, it seems to me that the nerd should not look like Leonardo DiCaprio. He should look... well, more like the guy up at the right. But whatever. I do think they should change the title from Atari to Pong, though.
Hooray, More Video Game Movies!
Filed under: Action », Animation », Paramount », Newsstand », Home Entertainment », Movie Marketing », Games and Game Movies »
Mark Ecko, everybody's favorite graffiti artist
turned fashion designer, added video games to his resume in February, when Atari released his Getting Up: Contents
Under Pressure. The game revolves around a character named Trane, who is trying to build a reputation by spreading
his tag all over a fictional city -- that's right, it's a graffiti game. Trane faces various obstacles, including rival
taggers and cops (there's a good review of the game here), and
MTV and Paramount have
decided that's enough of a story to build a movie around. They've hired Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to write the
screenplay; no word yet on a director or cast, or just how high of a priority this is for the studios. One would think,
though, that if they want to tap into the game's popularity, the movie would have to come fairly soon.In other game-related news, the debut of Open Season this fall will be preceded by the released of a game based on the movie, the first of many planned joint ventures by Ubisoft and Sony, who signed a licensing agreement over a year ago. If this approach takes off, just imagine what the future holds -- hands up, who wants a Marie-Antoinette game?
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
Directors We Love: Jim Jarmusch
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Shelf Life: Fight Club_thumbnail.jpg)
Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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