'Asteroids' heading towards the big screen?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has won an all-out "bidding war" over the film rights to Atari's classic Asteroids video game. We're not entirely sure who all was involved in this "war," but the conflict couldn't possibly be prompted over the universal themes tackled by the story of the plucky little triangular spaceship and the asteroid field it inhabits. As the Reporter, um, reports: "As opposed to today's games, there is no story line or fancy world-building mythology." Michael Bay is rumored to be very interested in directing.

[Via George Ruiz]

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 3:19PM]

I'd pay to see it!

[One Love Posted Jul 2nd 2009 3:30PM]

that's the idea.

[chucky3456 Posted Jul 2nd 2009 3:28PM]

Is Bay making a sequel to Armageddon? Thats what it is looking like right now... How is he going to bring Bruce Willis back though?

[Jorvay Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:11PM]

Ah Armageddon, you taught me so much:

1) Fire in the vacuum of space is perfectly normal.
2) Radio waves carrying voices can't be transmitted through giant rocks...but radio waves carrying signals to detonate nuclear weapons can.
3) You can land shuttles on asteroids that have a shocking amount of gravity.
4) People still like Aerosmith for some inexplicable reason.
5) Just because you name a character "Oscar Choice" (Owen Wilson) doesn't mean you're a shoe-in for best picture.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 3:33PM]

I can't wait until they make a full-length IMAX adventure move about Pengo.

[ash chapman Posted Jul 2nd 2009 3:32PM]

Wow - while movies based off of video games usually suck, this one doesn't even have a fighting chance. While Frogger might have PETA up in arms I think it, or Dig Dug, would be much more entertaining.

[ThreeDee912 Posted Jul 2nd 2009 3:33PM]

Well, they are making a Tron sequel with music by Daft Punk...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR2N

[Zangetsu Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:04PM]

I sure hope there's a video game tie-in.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:10PM]

No no no, you're missing the theme here. it's going to be like "King of Kong" A documentary type, about atari's rise to the top! They can add in a bunch of stupid imaginary 3d visualizations of "The Unix System", it'll be EPIC. and in 3d, Megan Fox's cup size will increase 2 fold as the hot sexy computer programmer, like they all were back in the day.....

Although, not sure how they will fit the whole documentary into that one little black screen with all the actorys scrolling in at odd angles and speeds.

[Zangetsu Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:07PM]

Also, this reminds me of the Minesweeper movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

[Dorf Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:25PM]

Make a Wizard of Wor movie, damnit!!!

[EMaster Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:27PM]

Huh? Are you serious? I thought nothing could beat my disgust for the chun li but this one tops it. Barf.

[Joowan Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:40PM]

This is better : Mine Sweeper the movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

[Maeztro Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:54PM]

Somewhere there is an Asteroids coin-op that hopefully still has my initials SLF as the top score...

[TheAvatar Posted Jul 2nd 2009 5:00PM]

The Last Starfighter needs to be remade ASAP,

[Bladey Posted Jul 2nd 2009 5:56PM]

you sir, read my mind... top of the class for you

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 4th 2009 4:16AM]

Well, they are doing the sequel..

[peepeeland Posted Jul 2nd 2009 5:17PM]

Still waiting for the Pong movie... There's some list out there with rumored planned movies based on video games, and some of them are ridiculous.

[sinigord Posted Jul 2nd 2009 5:20PM]

If they need a big scotsman who can actually play the game, I'm available for a small fee ;-)
Been a big Asteroids fan since the early 80's, could wrap original Asteroids many many times.
Deluxe was much harder.
XBLA Tag - BugEyedMonster

Gotta wonder what on earth they could do with this IP.... Someone needs to distract Uwe Boll before he sees this opportunity!

[Bladey Posted Jul 2nd 2009 5:58PM]

Sound track should be easy to do...

[loocas Posted Jul 2nd 2009 7:42PM]

Yeah... Hans Zimmer will do...

[TheConfuzed1 Posted Jul 2nd 2009 8:39PM]

"No dream is to big," eh?

The grammar nazi in me is foaming at the mouth.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 6:22PM]

Shouldnt it be, no dream is too big?

[Picklesworth Posted Jul 2nd 2009 6:37PM]

Definitely not The Onion.

*Checks calendar*

...Nope, 8 months until April.

...WTF?!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 6:40PM]

FUCK MICHAEL BAY, UNREPENTANTLY AND RUDELY.

ahem.

[Shunnabunich Posted Jul 2nd 2009 6:52PM]

I think I'd actually rather see Descent made into a movie than Asteroids, if only for the nostalgia.

[loocas Posted Jul 2nd 2009 7:41PM]

Asteroids in IMAX will be a mind-blowing and stomach-upsetting experience!

[Marbles Posted Jul 2nd 2009 7:45PM]

This will totally kill my Pong screenplay.

[ecloud Posted Jul 2nd 2009 8:30PM]

But there is a misspelling, so I doubt that poster is real. Either that or the sentence got truncated, as in "no dream is to big, as a photon is to little" or something like that. (There is no dream that is so big as a photon is little. In other words, photons are pretty darn small. The better to shoot asteroids with large quantities of, in the form of frickin' laser beams...)

[ackthbbft Posted Jul 3rd 2009 12:03AM]

What's next? "Pac-Man: Directed by Uwe Boll"?

[hoits2000 Posted Jul 3rd 2009 12:07AM]

F. Michael Bay. So what, he makes movies that are 95 percent computer special effects, freaking whoopty do. The story line was garbage in Trans 2. Horrible directing. He's garbage. Hanging all over blu-rays nuts.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 3rd 2009 10:40AM]

A brother dies. A hero is born. Get in line for adventure.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 4th 2009 4:25AM]

If you're getting movie ideas from ancient coin-ops, then clearly there is only one logical choice:

Burgertime.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 4th 2009 4:30AM]

There is only one logical choice for a truly great film spawned from the arcades:

Burgertime.