©Courtesy of Taito 

Screenwriters Ben Zazove and Evan Turner are being tapped by New Line to create a Space Invaders movie based on the Taito arcade game that was released in 1979. Created by Tomohiro Nishikado, Space invaders became one of the most iconic games that depicted Earth being attacked by alien invaders. The success of the game helped propel the gaming industry in the 1980s and spawned sequels and remakes for arcades as well as home consoles.

The upcoming project is being produced by Akiva Goldsman of Weed Road Pictures along with Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell of Safehouse Pictures. Overseeing things will be Greg Lessabs abd Rachel Wizenberg for Weed Road and Matt Schwartz for Safehouse.

Zazove and Turner are also involved in the development of Officer Exchange, an action comedy by Amazon MGM Studios. They’d previously worked on The Out-Laws, another action comedy starring Adam Devine, Pierce Brosnan, and Ellen Barkin that debuted at #1 when it was released on Netflix.

 

Space Invaders is following the trend of classic arcade games being adapted for the big screen, joining such recent successes as The Super Mario Bros. Movie (a billion-dollar winner), Sonic the Hedgehog, and Uncharted. It’s now been more than a decade since Warner Bros secured the rights to develop the game. At one point, screenwriters Greg Russo and Dan Kunka were attached to the project, but nothing was ever made.

As Chris Agar wrote in comicbook.com: “The trick, of course, will be finding a way to make Space Invaders stand out so it doesn’t come across as an Independence Day clone. Cynical moviegoers may deem this an impossible task as New Line tries to lean on brand recognition to make a quick buck, but films like The LEGO Movie and Barbie have shown that it’s possible to use classic IP as a springboard for a heartfelt, entertaining, and thought-compelling story.”

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