Atari has entered into a massive movie deal with Universal Studios in partnership with Entertainment 360 for the rights to 10 of its iconic video gaming franchises. The deal gives Universal Studios the right to convert these gaming titles into movies.

Universal Studios has already started working on the first collaborative effort on an original script based on an Atari IP.

Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe will be in charge of the screenplay, with Entertainment 360's Guymon Casady producing the feature film. The game in question, though, has not yet been revealed.

Atari Chairman and CEO Wadi Rosen explained to Deadline, "For more than five decades, Atari has created games and worlds that have remained part of popular culture long after their original release."

Rosen added, "We are excited to work with Universal and Entertainment 360 to bring the spirit of our iconic brand and games to a new medium."

The deal includes 10 of Atari's most popular gaming IPs - Adventure, Asteroids, Berzerk, Breakout, Centipede, Millipede, Pong, Missile Command, Crystal Castles, and Yars' Revenge.

Of the games mentioned, Missile Command seems rather promising. With humanity's survival being one of the core premises of a lot of movies, the game could easily be adapted into a movie.

And while Adventure may not be as deep as The Lord of the Rings, the game has all the tools to become a mythical success like Dungeons and Dragons, or even an animated adaptation of the storyline.

The movie industry has found great success with adaptations of video games. Franchises such as Uncharted, Sonic, and now Minecraft have been well received, which makes this deal another huge step towards bringing the popular video games to the mainstream audience.

Entertainment 360's Casady talks up potential of Atari IPs

Guymon Casady, who is in charge of producing the first Atari gaming IP feature film for Universal, has opened up about the potential of these video game classics.

Casady also added that he and Matt Reilly, who is taking care of the screenplay, are long-time Atari fans and have been playing their video games since the Atari 2600 era.

Casady said, "The best Atari games dropped you into a world and let your imagination do the rest. Carl and Matt saw an opportunity to take that same spirit and build an original, large-scale adventure around it. From the moment we read the screenplay, we believed there was a great movie here."

This highlights that the hiring choices for the first film have been immaculate so far, especially with people at the helm knowing the potential of these gaming IPs. Hiring an Atari fan like Casady will also ensure the end product does justice to the Atari brand.

Universal has brought in on Atari gaming IPs' potential and is hiring the right people to help them shine.

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Written by

Abhisek Bajaj

Edited by

Yash Kotak