Universal has acquired the rights to develop ten classic Atari properties for film and has already bought the first project under the deal.
Atari is partnering with Entertainment 360 on the arrangement, with Guymon Casady producing the initial feature from a screenplay by Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe, who are also producing
The ten titles cover most of the arcade canon and include Asteroids (1979), Adventure (1980), Berzerk (1980), Breakout (1976), Centipede (1981), Crystal Castles (1983), Millipede (1982), Missile Command (1980), Pong (1972), and Yars’ Revenge (1982). The plan is centered on large-scale action-adventure.
The deal started with a spec script by Reilly, who spent years as a studio executive at Universal before moving into writing and producing, and Hampe, who produced Hellboy (2019) and worked on Jungle Cruise (2021).
Adapting games with almost no story attached is a peculiar assignment. Pong offers two paddles and a ball; Breakout, a wall of bricks, so whatever ends up on screen will probably largely depend on invention.
For players who grew up with Atari, that may be part of the appeal. The Atari 2600, for instance, originally released in 1977 as the Atari VCS, helped usher in the cartridge-based home-console era and went on to sell about 30 million units over three decades.
That history means these films are likely to be judged not only on whether they work as blockbuster concepts, but on whether they capture the spirit of the games that helped shape an early generation of home players.
Sources: Atari History, Britannica, Atari Investor Relations, National Museum of Play, Deadline