It’s the third best-selling PC game of all time in the US, so it’s almost surprising nobody has tried to make Rollercoaster Tycoon into a film before. That said, until recently Hollywood was only interested in buying things with in-built plots, while now they’ve just happy for a name they can trade on.
THR reports that Sony Pictures Animation has now picked up the rights to Atari’s best-selling game, with Harald Zwart (Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther) steering it to the screen. David Ronn and Jay Scherick, who penned the upcoming Kevin James comedy The Zookeeper, as well as Sony Pictures Animation The Smurfs, have been hired to come up with the script for what the studio is hoping will be a major live action/CG hybrid.
There’s no news on the plot, and the game doesn’t really help on that score, as in that you’re tasked with building and managing a simulated theme park, with gameplay being open-ended. However there’s plenty of scope with rollercoasters and amusement parks, so presumably they’ll come up with a plot that can successfully trade on the name. Rollercoaster Tycoon has generated game sales of over $300 million, and Sony is hoping a film can replicate that.