Hollywood is out of ideas. OK, that's not necessarily 100% true, but it is easy to believe when you consider that Universal just won a four-studio bidding war over ... Asteroids, the classic (read: old) black-and-white Atari video game. What's next? Frogger? Pong?
Originally released in 1979 as a stand-up arcade game, the entire goal of Asteroids is to safely maneuver your tiny triangular spacecraft through an asteroid field while shooting the asteroids to reduce them in size and ultimately destroy them all. Unlike many modern video game properties that have a built-in storyline, there's no Asteroids story per se, so Universal has the freedom to craft a story from scratch and hope that name recognition will drive fans to the theater to watch it.
Lorenzo di Bonaventure, producer of the upcoming action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, will also produce Asteroids, with Universal Senior VP of Production Jeff Kirschenbaum overseeing production. Matthew Lopez (Race to Witch Mountain) is writing the script.