Like it or not, until one of them really flops, movies based on games are what Hollywood’s intent on making at the moment.
As you may recall, the adaptation of Asteroids, a classic Atari game, was mentioned several months back in conjunction with a movie adaption of Space Invaders.
Now reports have surfaced that Evan Spiliotopoulos, writer of the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman, is going to rework the Asteroids script for Warner Brothers, with Lorenzo DiBonaventura (The Matrix) producing.
As both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety report, Spiliotopoulos has also been hired to adapt Moby Dick for Universal.
He already penned a rewrite for another game movie, Oujia (part of the Milton Bradley package that includes Battleship), but Universal hit the brakes, leaving the project “in turn around,” as they say in Hollywood speak.
Apparently Asteroids has an actual story (shock!), and as the Reporter notes, it’s about two estranged brothers who have to come back together and save the world.
Picking the screenwriter of a reinvention of Snow White, and an adaptation of Moby Dick is an interesting choice, although I’m not sure how much depth a video game adaptation requires.
Then again, when studios spend a lot of money, a hot writer is often like hiring an A-list star in that it’s an insurance policy, or at least a placebo of sorts. There’s also rewrite orders on the American Godzilla, which is coming together at Legendary, the same company behind the Dark Knight movies.
David Goyer, screenwriter for the Blade movies and Batman Begins, recently did a pass at the script, and now Max Borenstein’s on board, a young screenwriter who recently wrote a biopic of Jimi Hendrix.
Again, not sure how many big name screenwriters you need for a Godzilla movie, but here’s hoping that unlike the ’98 Godzilla, America won’t sell him short again.
