Have you seen the viral short film Pixels: Retro Gamers by Patrick Jean? If not, you really ought to (it’s embedded below), as it’s a great idea and extremely well executed. It features an attack on NYC by old style 1980s videogame characters, such as Pacman and Donkey Kong, who destroy the metropolis and then the world by firing beams that turn everything into pixels.
It became a massive viral hit and as a result it’s not surprising that someone in Hollywood has come along and bought the feature film rights. Patrick Jean has teamed up with Adam Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison, and is in talks with Sony Pictures to try and take the concept of the short film and turn it into a feature.
Although things are at an early stage, THR reports that the current idea is to make it a Ghostbusters style adventure, in which videogame characters come out of the virtual world into the real one and wreak havoc. However while the short film makes use of everything from Space Invaders to Frogger, it’s unlikely they’d be able to use as many recognisable characters in a movie version, not least because the rights to numerous old videogames are now spread around Hollywood.
However, whether Pixels becomes a film or not, it’s certainly got Patrick Jean’s foot in Hollywood’s door, so expect to hear more from him soon. And before that, watch his great short film below.