This is less news than an inevitability that happens to have occurred now, but the LA Times reports that Warner Bros. is in negotiations to buy the feature rights to the classic videogame, Space Invaders.
It’s yet another case of Hollywood buying something not because there’s a story or idea that’s unique and worth pursuing, but just because the name is iconic. It certainly leaves plenty of room open for a film adaptation, as you could pretty much take any alien invasion story and tack the videogame’s name onto it. That said, if they can work aliens going left to right and getting faster as the approach the ground into the movie, I’d be pretty impressed.
This is just the latest in a wave of Hollywood buying up rights to old computer games, with Missile Command set up at Fox and Astreroids being handled by Universal. I’ll leave you to decide whether this is because the people with power in Hollywood were kids when these titles came out and it’s a sort of nostalgia, or if this is another sign that Tinsel Town is now scraping the bottom of the barrel to find anything with a name people will recognise.