There are tons of superhero films and sequels to original hit movies that can expect the audiences at the theater, but one can’t never expect the success at the box office would be video games or arcade games that turned into the movies. And now, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Wayfarer Studios are teaming up to bring a popular arcade game franchise, “Pac-Man,” to the big screen.
Released by the Japanese video game company Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. (formerly Namco) back in 1980, Pac-Man has a player controlling the yellow orb of the same name, as he winds through a maze in an effort to chomp up dots, while being chased around by four differently colored ghosts. The game became wildly successful in the ’80s in the U.S. and swept the nation with “Pac-Man Fever,” eventually releasing follow-up games such as “Ms. Pac-Man” and endless different merchandising, branding, TV series and songs, such as a 1980s animated TV series of the same name that ran on ABC and a 2013 cartoon show “Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures” that played on Disney XD in the United States.
While the plot details are currently under wraps, the film will be based on an original idea by Chuck Williams, an associate producer on “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Justin Baldoni, Manu Gargi and Andrew Calof will produce on behalf of Wayfarer Studios, and Williams and Tim Kwok will produce on behalf of Lightbeam.
A subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings, which launched following Namco’s 2005 merger with the toy manufacturer and distributor Bandai, Bandai Namco is home to such iconic games as Pac-Man, Tekken, Gundam and Taiko no Tatsujin among numerous others. Recently announcing a $125M investment to boost further strategic growth, Wayfarer Studios is best known for producing the 2020 Disney+ original film Clouds directed by Baldoni, which was the global platform’s first-ever narrative acquisition.
