Missile Command The Movie

Ancient Atari arcade game to become a film. The noise you can hear is the bottom of a barrel being scraped

There seems to be a bizarre competition going on in Hollywood at the moment to see which production company can snap up the most unlikely licence to turn into a movie. The less actual plot involved in that licence, the better. Currently in development we have Battleships (based on the board game, although surely we all used to play it with pen and paper?) and Ouiji (based on that old after dinner practice of contacting the dead), while the whole Pirates Of The Caribbean saga is based on a theme park ride. And now, according to Variety , we can add Missile Command to that list.

Yes, Missile Command . That ancient Atari arcade game where you had to protect cities at the bottom of the screen from air attack, that just went on, and on, and on. With no story, and no ending. Which, unless you’re an independent, avant garde , Swedish director, doesn’t sound like much of the basis for a film.

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Peter Chernin will produce for 20th Century Fox with Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama ( Dracula Year Zero ) signed on to provide the screenplay.

But where will it stop? What other plotless archaic cultural phenomena can Hollywood pilfer, and spin into a movie? Tetris ? The Test Card? Top Trumps? The Rubik's Cube? Swing Ball? EastEnders ? Etch-A-Sketch? Green Shield Stamps? Matey bubble bath? Any suggestions?

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.