It seems the in thing right now is for companies to look at their back catalogue for titles that were once famous but have now been consigned to the dustbin and see what they can sell to Hollywood for a movie version. Whether it’s old toys, board games, comics or pretty much anything else, there’s been a clamour to sell the screen rights to anything and everything as Tinsel Town increasingly looks to make movie which come with at least a little name recognition.
The LA Times reports that videogames company Atari has been scouring its properties and decided the vintage title Missile Command is ripe for a 21st Century film update. The 1980 game wasn’t exactly sophiticated by today’s standards, and largely involved players trying to stop squiggly lines with a cursor, which represents missiles and an anti-missile system.
While it may seem odd that such a comparatively simple game could ignite Hollywood interest, a bidding war erupted last year over another Atari game, Asteroids, so it’s little wonder the company is wondering what other old titles they can sell off. However with the game having little storyline – although technically it was meant to be a sort of sci-fi thing with aliens attacking one another – it really is just the title that’s valuable, as it could be moulded by Hollywood into just about anything.
However name recognition is all Hollywood demands nowadays, even if it is for a game that’s 30 years old, and so Missile Command is now expected to get a deal at Fox.