A Live-Action Pac-Man Movie Is Coming To Devour Your Pellets And Eat Your Ghosts
That classic "Game Over" sound effect you might be hearing right now isn't poor little Pac-Man getting devoured by a hungry ghost, but the sound of Hollywood officially throwing in the towel and embracing the IP craze at any and all costs.
Okay, it's not quite as dire as all that, especially given the plethora of excellent and thoroughly worthwhile cinematic offerings currently available to widespread audiences (even if some of them deserved a theatrical release). That said, despite the surprisingly accurate maxim that a genuinely good story can come from anywhere, any and all cynical reactions to news like this are probably justified ... though we reserve the right to remain inexplicably excited about Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie.
Anyway, the rumors are true. After years of rumors and false starts, it appears we're closer than ever before to seeing a live-action "Pac-Man" movie — whatever that might ultimately end up looking like — invade a big screen near you in the coming years. Whether that's a promise or a threat is entirely up to you. The news comes courtesy of THR (and likely some shadowy cabal of studio executives and stockholders who are intent on making the lives of everyone on Film Twitter into a living hell), which reports that a live-action film based on the beloved arcade game is now in the works. No word yet on whether Chris Pratt will end up voicing this cartoon as well, but would any of us truly be surprised at this point?
Look on my works, ye mighty...
Pinch yourselves, Pac-man fans! A live-action "Pac-Man" movie is actually happening, whether you like it or not, so you'd better attempt to make your peace with it now. The studio behind the original video game, Bandai Namco Entertainment, is teaming up with the production company Wayfarer Studios to bring to life the story of the 1980 arcade game. To those perhaps too young to remember, that phenomenon swept the globe and would eventually create a legacy which would ultimately result in the game becoming a fixture at every run-down Pizza Hut that was still trying to cling to its former, all-you-can-eat glory from that '90s heyday. It was simpler days back then, folks.
Aside from churning up extremely wistful memories of days gone by, this news of a live-action adaptation is notable for becoming only the latest attempt to turn this character into a source of Content™. Along with the sequel video game "Ms. Pac-Man" (which still feels like an oddly questionable title, since "Pac-Woman" was right there, but I digress), the property also was turned into two separate television shows: a Saturday morning cartoon that aired on ABC in 1982 and was simply titled "Pac-Man," and an animated Disney XD series that originally aired from 2013 to 2015.
THR describes this new venture as "based on an original idea" by producer Chuck Williams ("Sonic the Hedgehog"). Stay tuned for more details as they come in.