Earlier this year, Patrick Jean’s short film Pixels made a bit of a splash when it arrived on the web, with its fun idea of 1980s video game characters attacking New York and turning everything into pixels. The short was soon picked up by Adam Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison, and now the actor has picked Tim Herlihy to write the script.
This isn’t too much of a surprise as Herlihy was a writer on SNL during Sandler’s tenure on the show, and afterwards formed a close working relationship with the comedian, writing the screenplays for Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Bedtime Stories and the upcoming Just Go With It. Indeed without Herlihy, it’s uncertain whether Sandler would have had the massive success he’s had.
The idea for Pixels, according to THR, is to ‘make a Ghostbusters-style action comedy in which characters come out of a video game to wreak havoc in the real world’, presumably with a group of humans charged with putting them back in their proper place. Take a look at the short below and see if you reckon there’s mileage for a complete movie.