Classic Atari game Asteroids coming to the big screen

Universal has won a bidding war to nab the film rights to the classic Atari video game Asteroids, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Matthew Lopez is attached to pen the script for the adaptation, which will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra).

Asteroids was originally an arcade game released in 1979, involving a player-controlled triangular space ship in an asteroid field. The object was to reduce the floating asteroids down to rubble and finally dust and blast the occasional enemy flying saucer from cyberspace, while avoiding crashing into either.

Unlike today’s complex games, there is no story line or mythology, so the studio will likely invent a plot. Which was probably the reason for the four-studio bidding war in the first place. It gives the opportunity to invent an entirely new sci-fi lexicon, based on an established brand that is essentially a clean slate.

According to the report, Lopez came out of Disney’s writing program and worked on that studios film’s Bedtime Stories and Race to Witch Mountain, and also wrote the most recent draft of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, currently lensing with Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel.